A name that has rung fashion bells for the twenty five years she has been on the runway and while she prefers staying out of the limelight, it is the spotlight that has loved her.
Sharp as a whip and incredibly dedicated to a career that has managed to carve to her personal tastes, she has remained a reader, is a mother, explorer and a person who has grown her own knowledge base incredibly. ‘I would use fashion as a sort of a vehicle, a tool to educate myself. When you’re doing hair and makeup and doing shows, you spend a lot of time backstage, literally twiddling your thumbs though I always made it a point that I was reading and just enriching myself because I had the time. And to meet people in this business from different walks of life, different places, to hear their stories, I mean, all of this is a great learning. I just made sure that I kind of kept myself open. I don’t know if it was conscious, I think it was sort of like a subconscious thing in me. I was an introvert therefore I needed to step out of my shell in order to make the most of my profession.’
It is her introverted-ness that is really the most unique draw, in a place where she needs to ‘put herself out there’, she has retained the comfort level she desires with having used the requirement of being outgoing, to her advantage. In fact, her clear and intrinsic deciphering of exactly how she would like social media to play a role in her life, comes very much from the clarity she has around the concept of social media itself. ‘Social media, as a tool, has helped greatly as there is a lot of exposure, at times good at times bad, it entirely depends how you want to interact with it, so if you are interacting with it, from an educational point of view, it will obviously be a boon. And if you’re going to use it for trolling and being vicious online, then it’s an absolute negative.’ She sees the online representations of people as somewhat of a boost, since when she started, ‘there were very few women of colour. Now, I see a lot more representation’. For diversity to be the name of the game, social media has certainly added a lot of froth to the bubble of multiplicity, putting more ‘real’ people as a centre of focus.
“It’s one thing to be doing everything all the time, but one has to realise that if you’re going to be doing everything over a period of time, people are going to get bored of you. It’s sort of like a delicate dance, you know? Now you see me, now you don’t.”
Her philosophy about work revolves around clarity and conversations. ‘Communication is the key. Every job we do is a collaborative process and I like to know what we are creating. I look at the mood board, speak to the photographer or the hair and makeup to get a general idea of what is going to transpire. You take on a role, right. You take on a different persona. You take on a character and you do something around that. You create your own sort of little fable. The work place has to be a place of joy. So, I’m always walking there with a smile, being friendly with everybody, talking to everyone, including the assistants and, you know, just getting to know everyone as we are in a profession that’s collaborative and in order to have a seamless experience, one has to be in tandem with the team and communicate’.
In fact, the various teachings she has picked up as she goes along, illustrates her razor sharp understanding, not just about a profession that keeps one under the microscope but to add a humanising aspect to stop her journey from having become clinical. ‘It took time for me to sort of like come into my own. And I think for me that’s been my real journey in fashion, to form my viewpoints and to see the world through my eyes and through the eyes of others, to learn empathy. These are things that you learn as you turn forty. I don’t have any desire to go back to being twenty or thirty or any of it.’
She has the disarming charm of a person who has concentrated intentionally on her life, bringing herself joy and the remarkable cliché of women coming into their own in their forties, rings true in her case. As she has grown and developed, both in her personal life and profession, which interestingly, are not so far apart, we see her really live her own understanding of life as it should be, simple, clear and clarified. ‘The sum total of all my experiences has led me to where I am today and I feel great. Twenties was a sheltered life. I lived with my parents. It was a decade of discovery. Travelling, moving, seeing, meeting, learning, you do all of that. And thirties, is spent finding yourself through all that you have experienced in your twenties. And forties, I feel like I’ve arrived. You know, I think I know exactly where I’m at. I know what I want. I know what works for me, what doesn’t work for me. My boundaries are clear. These are the things that matter and that’s how you move forward.’
We complete the circle with her understanding of priorities and the eternal question that is posed to women who are carers and life affirmers - the balance between work and home, art and commerce. It is her agent, who has also been a fortifying force in her life, a relationship with whom Lakshmi has been careful to cultivate and continue watering with respect, ‘We decide together how much commercial work needs to be done because that’s important as that’s what puts the food on the table. And then you have the other work, you know, the editorials, which is more creative maybe doesn’t pay that much or at all but it’s a great creative exercise. I choose my work well and since I have a baby, my time is limited in terms of how much I can dedicate to work as it involves travel. I have a great agent. I think we work really well and understand how does one expose oneself? It’s one thing to be doing everything but one has to realise that if you’re going to be doing everything over a period of time, people are going to get bored of you. It’s sort of like a delicate dance, you know? Now you see me, now you don’t’.
Words Pallavi Narain
Photography Avani Rai
Styling Shilpa Chavan
Hair & Makeup Mitesh Rajani
Clothes Gaurav Gupta
Date 26.07.2025