The Powder Room: The Untold Story of Indian Fashion

by Shefalee Vasudev

Ever been intrigued by the Indian Fashion Industry—its stereotypes of drugged models, gay designers, and fascinating but unaffordable clothes?Join Shefalee Vasudev, former editor of Marie Claire and an acclaimed fashion journalist, on a deep‑sea dive into the gagging depths of Indian fashion. In Powder Room, she offers an insider’s view of people who make the industry what it is—from a lower middle class girl who sells global luxury for a living to a designer who fights the inner demons of child sexual abuse yet manages to survive and thrive in the business of fashion, or a Ludhiana housewife on a perpetual fashion high. Besides candid interviews of known names in Indian fashion, Shefalee provides a commentary on new social behaviour, urban culture, generational differences, and the compulsions behind conspicuous consumption in a country splitting at the seams with inequalities of opportunity and wealth. From Nagaland to Patan, Mumbai, Delhi, and Punjab, Powder Room mirrors how and why India ‘does’ fashion.

322 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 26, 2012

About the author

Shefalee Vasudev has been a journalist for the past fifteen years, writing on popular culture, social trends, and fashion. She was the first editor of Marie Claire in India and currently works with The Indian Express as Associate Editor. Powder Room: the Untold Story of Indian Fashion is her debut book.