For a younger trend journalist rising up in a genuinely “new India” like I did, worldwide trend weeks have been par for the course. Thanks to the genius of economist Manmohan Singh, the economic system had been open for a decade, and international manufacturers and luxurious labels had their grasping eye on India’s one-billion-and-growing numbers. I all the time had a Schengen visa prepared, in order that when Louis Vuitton or Christian Dior’s India representatives referred to as me over to a trend capital for a gathering the subsequent day, all I needed to do was pack a small bag and go away.
We have been invited to at the least two trend weeks a yr, and operating into any one of many holy trinity of trend editors — Anna Wintour, Suzy Menkes or Hilary Alexander — was a serious stan second. I met Hilary at Paris Fashion Week for the primary time. It was in 2006 and Rajesh Pratap Singh was exhibiting a motorcycle-racing impressed assortment at an artwork gallery. As quickly because the present was carried out, I hopped over and launched myself. We all needed to put in writing like her and Menkes, wield that a lot authority with our pens. But we additionally adopted every little thing they wrote as a result of they taught us amateurs and formed our opinions a lot.
A Kiwi in London
Hilary Alexander, who died on her birthday on February 5, 2023, was the epitome of trend’s Fleet Street. Ever-smiling, a cigarette in a single hand, itsy glasses sitting loosely on her nostril, she was the image of a buzzing trend trade. Like a great outdated newspaper hack, she hailed from New Zealand and have become a reporter in Hong Kong earlier than transferring to the UK to be trend director at The Daily Telegraph. She liked ‘breaking’ a narrative, and even coined the phrase ‘supermodel’. She was mates with Gianni Versace, Zandhra Rhodes, and Alexander McQueen.
In Paris in 2006, Hilary (she insisted I not name her Ms Alexander) was all smiles and a strolling stick due to a foot damage. She wore a printed maxi costume with boots, and a silver necklace. “Is it from India?” I enquired. “No, it’s Mayan,” she shocked me. I used to be too younger to know that the world was past geographical boundaries the place handcrafted traditions have been involved. That chunky silver jewelry traversed Kutch, Egypt, Morocco and South America. And these thick geometrical weaves of the loin loom tie in Northeast India with Thailand, Mexico and Guatemala. Hilary was the queen of ‘exotic’ artisanal crafts, due to her Kiwi roots, I assumed. We met a couple of instances thereafter, she all the time mentioned good day or clinked her champagne flute with mine.
It was at Lahore Fashion Week in 2013 that we actually spent a while collectively. She was 66 then, however so alert, astute and curious, I used to be blown away by her professionalism. It was new for us in India, the place trend writers have been spoilt by the labels and their PR groups that wooed them. I feel my tribe was among the many first to partake of ‘fashion criticism’ as we all know it now.
I keep in mind returning and writing about her for The Indian Express the place I labored then. “At 66, she has the energy of a teenager on a chemical substance,” I had mentioned. She was obsessive about Twitter then, and had 2,50,000 followers on it. At the time, she had retired from her put up at The Daily Telegraph. She nonetheless wrote for them commonly, was a trustee of the Graduate Fashion Week, and hosted at the least two tv exhibits. She was additionally engaged on a e-book, she mentioned (Hilary would launch Leopard: Fashion’s Most Powerful Print in 2018). And had simply been appointed as advisor at Marks & Spencer.
Jugaad and wine from plastic bottles
When Hilary died earlier this week, Wintour acknowledged, “Hilary was irrepressible in everything she did. She lived life to the fullest and her reporting on fashion was just as committed. I threw a party for her in Paris when she retired… except she never retired! Hilary could never quite leave an industry that she loved so much.”
Hilary was pleasant to spend time with, a riot as a front-row companion (she guffawed loudly at boutique proprietor Pradeep Hirani’s one-liners), she absorbed every little thing. She by no means spoke about herself or her glory (she can be bestowed with the Order of the British Empire later that yr); she solely listened to what you needed to say. Like me, she wished John Galliano had continued at Dior, and was amazed at how open and politically opinionated Pakistani society was. Her room was subsequent to mine, and she or he would slip me a notice below the door reminding me to be prepared on time. She was all the time 5 minutes early.
We have been plied with presents, however she was decided to pay for her purchases. I had missed designer Sania Maskatiya’s trend present, so Hilary dragged me to the designer’s boutique the subsequent day to see how superb the garments have been. She helped me decide a digi-printed kurta.
We drank wine from plastic Pepsi bottles between the exhibits. Like the Lahoris, she liked a late-night occasion. She was glad she was allowed to smoke indoors in Pakistan.
I taught her the Indian phrase ‘ jugaad’, and that it meant ‘getting things done anyhow’. When we needed to flag down a passing BMW to the airport when our journey broke down, she texted me from her airplane seat: “It’s jugaad. XOXO”. And we laughed.
Source: www.thehindu.com