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Hyderabad’s Bhavitha Mandava opens Chanel show in New York, moves her parents to tears; Aditi Rao Hydari drops a heart

Mandava shared an emotional video of her parents watching her walk through Bowery Station and open the Chanel show, her mother calling her name through tears as her father looked on proudly.

3 min readNew DelhiDec 6, 2025 01:05 PM IST

Bhavitha Mandava open Chanel show in NYC

Mandava suddenly found herself in the global spotlight after she opened Chanel’s Métiers d’art 2026 show by Matthieu Blazy in New York

Bhavitha Mandava, a 25-year-old model from Hyderabad, has suddenly found herself in the global spotlight after she opened Chanel’s Métiers d’art 2026 show by Matthieu Blazy in New York. Before the fashion world discovered her, Bhavitha was an architect who moved to the US to study assistive technology at NYU, a completely different path from the runway she now commands.

On December 3, she posted a moving video of her parents watching her big moment. In the clip, they see her walking through Bowery Station, stepping onto the subway, and then leading the Chanel show. Her mother can barely contain her emotions, repeatedly calling out Bhavitha’s name through tears of joy, while her father watches proudly beside her. She captioned the post, “Can’t put into words how much this means to me. Thank you @chanelofficial @matthieu_blazy.”

The text overlay the video reads, “My brown parents’ reaction to me opening the Chanel show.”

Watch the video:

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A post shared by Bhavitha Mandava (@bhavithamandava)

The video has gone viral with over 13 million views and many celebs took to the comments to express their love to the video. Actress Aditi Rao Hydari commented with a heart emoji. Another model commented, “Walk Tall Baby Girl! India is a powerful player in the world economy.”

Another user commented, “Goosebumps every time she says your name. She sees the beautiful little girl she made from scratch.” Another person wrote, ‘I’m getting secondary pride.”

As models.com reports, Bhavitha’s entire career began almost by chance; she was spotted in a New York subway station just two weeks before the Spring/Summer 2025 season. Fashion creator Viren H Shah shared more details in a December 4 Instagram video, explaining that Matthieu Blazy was the first to cast her. She made her runway debut as a Bottega Veneta exclusive, and even appeared in a campaign with him.

“She was discovered in the most ordinary of places, a New York City subway,” Viren said. “And yesterday she just opened the Chanel Métiers d’art show in New York City in a train station.”

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He added that Blazy has played a pivotal role in her rapid rise: “He has changed her life, giving her the opportunities that she’s dreamed of.”

When Blazy moved to Chanel, Bhavitha followed, walking in his debut Spring ’26 collection. And now, in what Viren called a beautifully poetic full-circle moment, she opened his second Chanel collection in the very subway station where her journey began.