Next StoryPrevious Story✕ 20.11.13

Bright in mumbai

Pictures by James Chardon

INDIAN SUMMER IN THE MIDDLE OF NOVEMBER?And our super duper puper cool adventure in Mumbai goes on as I am really happy to share with you all the pictures of our second day in India! I have to say, our trip was definitely way too short (we stayed only 3 full days in the city, which is clearly not enough knowing AAALL the amazing things to do there, unfortunately we couldn’t extend our stay since a new trip is following up right away and we still needed to hop on a couple of meetings in Geneva) and there were still so many places we wanted to go to and especially… So many foods I wanted to try! Unfortunately I didn’t even had time to buy a proper sari but I managed to get some local beauty products like some organic body oil and soap that I felt so happy to bring back home. Now, from some of your comments I wanted to make my approach to this trip perfectly clear. James and I came to India without knowing what to expect if only listen to what other people could say, what documentaries, press and movies spoke about. So we had already a preconceived image of what was waiting for us at our arrival. In fact, we wanted to take another road that the one we’ve heard of and instead of that, bring emotion and sensibility to the content by showing you all the gorgeous things the country has to offer, the colours, the life, the beauty and above all the impactfull and oh so extraordinary human energy which is so special in Mumbai and hard to find in other big cities… I found India so rich, and I am not talking about the money that people have in their pockets, I am talking in terms of culture, in terms of heritage and especially in their values. I’ve rarely seen such humility yet generosity at the same time. Not to mention that their art and craftmanship is quite insane if you want to know my opinion! So yes, I am approaching this adventure in a super positive way, and instead of talking with you about the economical crisis going on, the social gaps and other issues that already so many people manage to document and point out so clearly, I want to show the beauty in the most simple moments that we had the huge chance to live in India and how much it affected both James and myself even if it was for a couple of days. No matter what, I still wanted to dress up, wear colours, enjoy the city while wearing some Cavalli sunnies as well, just because that’s how I am (I am a fashion blogger afterall) and I point out that Indian woman have some serious style!! I am super sensible to these kind of things and definitely payed attention to local fashion influences and clothing habits. 

At first, I was quite surprised to see how many women wore saris as an everyday look. I always thought that it would be their local traditional outfit for weddings, special ceremonies and thing like that. But I never considered that it could be as present in city life. And I found it actually so special and impressiv to see how close they stick to their roots and traditions, truly fascinating! Of course, when we went to shops and cafés, we also saw some girls wearing jeans and tops but still this mix of traditional wear and modern clothing was so surprising and interesting. Some of you said that it wasn’t appropriate for me to wear designer garments while in Mumbai. Well I can tell you one thing, as I was walking in the streets (and of course we didn’t have time to go as far as the real slums but we exlpored quite a bit of the sounth of Mumbai as well as the center) I didn’t feel at all stared at, or being “disrespectfull” with my little fluo purse. The thing is that, sometimes I hate to dress up when I am in Switzerland because I know how conservative people can get even thought it’s a super wealthy country. In India, I saw all these colours in the streets, women wearing tons of jewerly, khol on their eyes, who had super long braids or simply curles. They looked amazing!!! And I got some absolutely adorable comments from some of them regarding my outfit (that htey loooved) which made me smile like a real happy clam!

I won’t hide it to you and say that I wasn’t affected by the poverty in the streets, that it didn’t strike me and that it didn’t make me think… It most definitely did. I mean, how can this be fair? But I stopped for a second and thought : I am tired of hearing all these pitiful speeches about how terrible things are and so on. I think we’ve hear enough of all this. And I am not saying that we should just close our eyes on all the issues. No. What I truly deeply think, is that a positive approach on things can change everything. Really everything. From how you’ll perceive your journey to how you affect people on your path. And even though yes, I had the opportunity to stay in a nice and clean hotel, I didn’t close my eyes on what was going on next door. Because it is like that in Mumbai, you’ll be in a 5 star hotel and a couple of metres away you’ll have children sleeping in the floor and their mother begging for money. And so far that’s how things go and it would be so great to see it all change for the best and solve this problem. As far as my journey went on, my goal was to explore all things beautiful and get inspired while inspiring you guys as well through all these pictes we brought back! As you know, we were in the city with Love Gold. Thanks to their awesome team we spend the day meeting talented jewerly designers and I got to see some fantastic high carat golden jewels that I was completely mesmerized by. After discovering Amrapali, Azva 7 Vows, I had the opportunity to try some pieces from Gehna and Tanishq. The pieces were all so crazy beautiful and I must say that I kind of wanted to bring them all back with me in my suitcase! I love the extravagance of certain pieces and how in India, when you ask them to show you some of their jewerly, they won’t just give you a ring, one necklace and two tiny bracelets. They’ll give you 10 of each! It is all about abundance (something I’ve noticed in their food as well,  gosh all these yummy currys!!). A gigantic thanks to Love Gold again for allowing us to live such a unique experience!!

OUTFIT OF THE DAY
BAG : Tory Burch
SHOES : Even & Odd
BRACELETS : Vita Fede
NECKLACE : Lionette
SUNNIES : Roberto Cavalli

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