STYLE WALK

Between her Armani Prive gowns (and some Sabyasachi saris),our Lady of Cool,Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has retained her red carpet persona for good or bad. She is our decade old Cannes reference point. She may wear a gown or a sari,we will say the same old things about her. On the other hand,Freida Pinto,who wafted from being a model to an accidental celebrity,wears her Dior and Louis Vuitton well. She has never been seen on a red carpet in an Indian design. It’s anybody’s guess that our Lady with a Global Eye will not wear Indian. Mallika Sherawat will follow suit. No one will remember what what our Lady With Maximum Exposure wore,though everyone will remember how she wore it,with or without Victoria’s open Secret. So who will bring the style trophy back home? Sonam Kapoor,our original Glamourina may not only give competition to Pinto and Rai-Bachchan (more than Deepika Padukone in her white and red Rohit Bal sari last year) but may give other celebs a run for their Elie Saabs. “Sonam has model-like proportions,attitude,genuine knowledge and interest in fashion. I am looking forward to seeing her,” says celebrity fashion photographer Atul Kasbekar. “Cannes and Oscars are also a fantastic opportunity to display Indian fashion but I don’t know how much of it is really being seen there,” he adds.

That is exactly designer Ritu Kumar’s emphasis. “Each of these girls have a different dress sense,but because they pick assorted pieces from designers abroad,there is always the risk of looking like a clone. An indigenous sense of dress with character is what we need to make a global statement,” she says. Sonam’s style score though is already soaring. Few here have worked with Frieda Pinto and no one really wants to comment about Mallika Sherawat,even avant garde designer Gaurav Gupta plays diplomatic. “Frieda has already made red carpet statements and this being Sonam’s first international appearance,she should be the most fun to watch.”