INTERVIEW
50
the crown JOURNEY OF miss india 1964 Ms. Meher Castelino
W
ith such an involvement in Fashion and Beauty industry, you have come a long way today. What is your favourite part of your journey, the time, which speaks to you and is the most important to you even today? The most favourite part of my journey has to be when I was selected Miss India 1964 and went on to represent India at the Miss United Nations Contest in Mallorca, Spain and the Miss Universe Contest in Miami Beach Florida, USA. The title of Miss India opened many doors for me, then and even now after over five decades; the title has brought me a lot of attention and love. What is your take on the influence of Bollywood industry over Fashion industry? When it comes to fashion, beauty and glamour they walk together with the film industry all over the world. Even in Hollywood when a brand from any of these categories wants to attract attention, it is the film world that is one of the easiest avenues. When a film star or celebrity is connected with a brand or label, it is natural for the consumer to follow, though at times this association can be taken too far and may
not be necessary for other products that are not categorized as glamour. You have been in the industry for such a long time, and are still a prominent gem of Fashion industry, we would like to know from your perspective, what are the major changes the Industry has gone through in terms of Fashion designers and their practices, consumer perspective of fashion, and the very prestigious pageants. The fashion and beauty industries have gone through a major change since the 60’s when I started. In the beginning, fashion was guided by the textiles mills in the country that set the fashion trends. Fashion shows were held all over the country to promote the latest textile collections of top mills like DCM, Hakoba, Calico, Khatau, ICICI Terene, Mafatlal, Morarjee and many more. It was only in 1987 when Ensemble opened with high fashion, foreign trained designers and the fashion designer culture started. The start of NIFT in Delhi by the Government of India, brought trained fashion designers to the forefront. Since then, the fashion industry has snowballed into a massive business in India with fashion institutes mushrooming all over the country and thousands of graduates emerging from them. This in turn brought the start of Fashion Weeks in India, which have turned, into a new avenue of business. The beauty pageants also took off after 1964, in an Annual manner. But after the dual win of Sushmita Sen and Aishwari-
ya Rai in 1994, the beauty pageants became another form of promoting the beauty brands in India, which for many of the Companies, is a very big and important market. Fashion is being commercialised. While most artists and designers regard it as a form of self-expression, what is your perspective on the commercialisation of this art form? Fashion has to reach the masses from the classes if designers have to succeed in the business. So the ready-to-wear market is very important and considering it as an art form, is not going to make good commercial sense. Fashion trends change and that is what keeps the business of fashion moving, otherwise designers will be in trouble. Fashion is also an indication of the social and economic evolution of a country, so one can check the financial state of the world from the way people dress. The different decades have a distinct fashion story to tell which has been not only fascinating but also inspiring for the designers of the modern era. Fashion is evolving at a fast pace. What are the trends/practices in the fashion industry, including journalism, would you like to bring back to today? And what are the trends/practices you absolutely love which are eminent today in the industry? The evolution of fashion is important for the industry to progress and flourish. Trends are cyclical and they come and go all the time. But the practices in the fashion industry that need to be looked at closely are the retail and price structures. NOVEMBER 2020
