Nachiket Barve’s ‘Ephemera’ at Lakme Fashion Week in partnership with FDCI, in Mumbai last month, packed in “celebration wear”, high on shimmer and shine. Huma Qureshi was his showstopper in a floral lehnga. Post-show, we caught up with Nachiket and Huma on the collection, body positivity and more.
Nachiket, the collection covers a whole gamut...
Nachiket: After two years of Covid when everybody was in track pants, letting themselves go, it was the idea to come back to a sense of celebration, celebrating life and the special moments through fashion and marking them with that. You always say, a wedding sari or a reception or a graduation gown. Clothes are associated with your fondest memories. It was helping people mindfully enjoy and mark their special moments in the clothes.
Would you call Huma’s outfit bridal?
Nachiket: I look at it more as an exuberant outfit than a bridal outfit...
Huma: I will get married in shorts, which you’ll have to make (laughs).
Nachiket: Done! For me, it’s about celebrating her resplendence and individuality and making her feel and look good.
Huma, how has the meaning of celebrations changed for you given what the world has gone through in the last two years?
Huma: I think gratitude... for moments and days. Now if I am stuck in a traffic jam, I don’t get as angry because imagine, there was nothing on the road and nobody on the road. Touchwood, things are back to normal and people are working and they have jobs and they have enough now that they can celebrate. I think it’s such an important part of a human being’s life because we are such communal beings. We like going to each other’s homes and sharing a meal and celebrating. I am feeling blessed that things are back to normal.
Glimpses from Nachiket Barve’s ‘Ephemera’ at Lakme Fashion Week in partnership with FDCI, in Mumbai. Pictures: LFW X FDCI
What else, apart from Nachiket’s whites, are you crushing on this season, in terms of festive wear?
Huma: I think all festive-wear, man... the reds, the pinks, the blues....
Nachiket: I also feel, with her, she wears the clothes. The clothes don’t wear her... which is how fashion should be enjoyed. It cannot be a giant plate with a little morsel. It has to be a fair balance where you are enjoying a wholesome meal.
Huma, you have been yourself, which is difficult in showbiz...
Huma: Actually, it’s not really. The point is, we are always told ‘fit in, fit in, fit in’. As a performer and a creative person, the more you fit in, you’ll be replaceable. The idea is to stand out and be unafraid to stand out and because stand out, you have some individuality. Otherwise everybody is so cookie-cutter...
Nachiket: They are boring...
Huma: And vanilla, and who wants to be vanilla when you can be chocolate?!
But how do you convince women of this?
Huma: I can’t... it’s not about women. See, we can’t place the blame on the person who is at the receiving end of it...
Nachiket: I am going to answer on her behalf here. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. So rather than doing a random campaign, to put her money, might and talent into a movie like Double XL (starring Huma and Sonakshi Sinha)... I think movies have become such a great vehicle to shape culture. Cultures are not rigid but fluid... we form culture... putting her in an outfit like this and on the big screen like that is culture.
Huma: Thank you for saying that and I do believe that. Also, I believe that change doesn’t come from a conversation or writing an article or making a documentary. It comes from popular culture, like kids watching popular culture, the songs, the music, the clothes and this is what we have to constantly keep doing and celebrating, normalising it in how we talk about it. Why does it have to stand out? Why do you have to put it in a box again?
Huma, who is your favourite woman of all time?
Huma: My mother... I know it’s a safe answer, but she is... she has given me my strength and vulnerability and sassiness. I am not even half the woman she is, but one day, Inshallah, I will be.
Sonakshi Sinha and Huma Qureshi in Double XL