All posts by : AyFa Collections

Alia Bhatt arrived for Sabyasachi’s quarter-century celebrations clad in the designer’s signature silhouette—the sari, restricting his quintessential maximalism to her bejewelled blouse. No less than a culture-defining regalia, the burgeoning designer’s 25th anniversary held at the Jio World Convention Centre, witnessed over 100 models, and 600 guests, encompassing decor as well as Deepika Padukone and Christy Turlington walking together for the show’s close.

The line-up witnessed an array of an expected yet astounding dose of maximalism rendered to everyday staples such as trenches, short skirts, wide-legged trousers, and even high-neck knits. Surprisingly, the more ethnic silhouettes were kept minimal, allowing the billowing fabrics to do the majority of the heavy lifting.

Alia Bhatt’s ensemble, also plucked from the show’s collection, played around with one of Sabya’s signature and original design codes: the plunging neckline blouse often countered with its full-sleeved more modest sister. Styled by Ami Patel, Bhatt’s pure-silk sari was a perfect example of what Sabya mentions about craft in his conversation with fashion authority, Suzy Menkes. “The living culture of craft is supported by women because they’re the biggest consumers of craft. Whether it’s jewellery or clothing, women love their maximalism and traditional clothing. Women in India wear traditional clothing more than the men do and have been the true propagators and supporters of craft,” the visionary designer shares with Menkes.

This week’s best beauty looks featured minimal makeup, muted nude lips and open, wavy tresses. Dressed in a green tissue saree, Manushi Chhillar opted for a second-skin-like base with subtle contouring that defined her features. The actor played up her eyes with golden-brown smoky eyes and defined brows. Highlighter on her cheekbones and collarbones added a luminous finish and a semi-matte nude lip tied the look together. Manushi Chhillar accessorised with a gold-green choker necklace and silver studs. She styled her hair in relaxed, side-swept curls that fell effortlessly over her shoulders.

Tara Sutaria also chose a muted nude lip and soft brown eyeshadow. Her makeup featured a dewy base with soft contouring and highlighter to the high points of her face. She completed her look with a sleek, wet hairdo. Khushi Kapoor also took to the gram to show off her luminous complexion. The actor paired a rose-gold shimmery eyeshadow with classic winged eyeliner and soft nude. Kapoor wore a floral Torani corset and accessorised with a polki diamond necklace and ruby earrings. She wore her hair down, in soft curls cascading over her shoulders.

In contrast, Malaika Arora embraced full glam makeup with nude matte lips. For her eyes, she went for a cut crease with brown and golden eyeshadow, winged eyeliner and coats of mascara with fluttery faux lashes. Arora also styled her hair in soft curls. Diana Penty upped the intensity with kohl-rimmed eyes and well-defined eyebrows. Her look comprised radiant skin and a sweep of rose pink blush on the apples of her cheeks. She wore a peachy brown matte lipstick and a small micro black bindi to complete her Indian ensemble. Meanwhile, Ananya Panday opted for a clean girl makeup. Her makeup featured a luminous base and dewy skin. The actor wore her strands straight and finished the look with glossy hot pink lips.

Across the globe, Dua Lipa and Millie Bobby Brown embraced clean girl beauty with nude lips and rosy cheeks. Dua Lipa showed off bronzed skin, brushed-up brows and a glossy nude brown shade on her lips made up her look. Meanwhile, Brown opted for a pastel pink blush, strong brows and nude lipstick with her hair tied in a bun with loose face-framing strands falling over her face.

Michelle Williams, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Elizabeth Olsen in Tory Burch pierced mules at Tory Burch’s spring 2025 show

Jeff Schear/Getty Images

That doesn’t mean it’s a trend solely for outré dressers—it has a place in almost any wardrobe. Tory Burch has added pierced shoes to her repertoire, including the more obvious mule and the subtler slingback. The front row of her spring 2025 show—which pivoted from pierced shoes to pierced bags—saw Jodie Turner-Smith, Elizabeth Olsen, Mindy Kaling, Joey King, Lola Tung, Ella Emhoff, and Kiki Layne all decked out in the shoe.

Next time you’re feeling the impulse to drive a needle through your ear, face, or elsewhere, consider testing the waters with a piece of pierced clothing instead. Think of all the money you’ll save on saline solution.

Rabanne spring 2025

Vogue Runway

Tory Burch spring 2025

Vogue Runway

This article first appeared on vogue.com

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“Taking space, however that looks for you, lets you reflect on and accept the end of your romantic relationship,” Sharoni explains. “That way, you can approach a potential friendship with a clear mind and avoid dragging unresolved feelings into your new dynamic.” Of course, you’ll have to follow your gut on this one, but a telltale way to know when you’re ready, per Sharoni, is when you view the breakup in a more neutral way. Speaking of…

3. Do you still feel hurt, resentment or nostalgia about the breakup?

“The way your past relationship ended can also be a significant factor in whether you can stay friends,” Sharoni says—regardless of how much time has passed. It’s more likely to work, for instance, if the breakup was mutual or driven by external situations (perhaps both of you wanted to focus on your careers and couldn’t commit to a serious relationship).

Suppose one of you cheated, though, or was otherwise blindsided and bitter about never getting closure. In these cases, Sharoni says it’s hard to genuinely be friends when potential emotional baggage (in the form of anger, hurt, bitterness, or heartbreak) is still weighing you down.

4. Is this decision mutual?

Maybe only one of you genuinely wants to remain pals—while the other is agreeing to avoid awkwardness. It doesn’t matter who’s in which situation, Dr. Shaw says: A friendship can’t thrive when there isn’t mutual interest and effort.

“You have to ask yourself not just, ‘What feelings do I have?’ but also, ‘What feelings might they have?’” Dr. Shaw says. Having a straightforward conversation (“I just want to make sure we’re both on the same page about keeping things strictly platonic”) can save you both from mixed signals and unrealistic expectations. “Because even if you’re fine being cordial and have zero attraction left, your former partner may not be in the same place,” she adds.

5. Do we have enough in common to be friends?

While dating, lots of things can make your bond feel special—emotional vulnerability, electrifying chemistry, even great sex. But when those affectionate elements are gone, there may not be much holding this friendship together.

“If you’re struggling to find conversation—or only revolving it around your past, then this dynamic may not be friendship material,” Dr. Shaw says—in which case, going your separate ways could be a better move. But if you have lots of shared interests and hobbies (a mutual love for playing tennis or an appreciation for A24 films), then there’s a foundation for meaningful companionship.

6. Do I have other friends, or will they be my only support?

Even if they used to be your go-to person for everything, your ex can’t keep playing that role. Otherwise, it becomes much easier to blur the lines between friendship and something more, Sharoni says—which is why it’s important to rely on more than one person for validation, emotional security and advice.

It’s hard to pinpoint why I find women screaming at each other on TV so relaxing. I wonder whether it’s just a dopamine thing—it’s pure entertainment, which in itself is de-stressing. It’s also just low-stakes TV—you don’t need to be keeping up with the plot points at all times, this isn’t Succession—so you can sort of dip in and out of their fights like you might an episode of EastEnders, except with botox-ed 50-something hotel owners rather than pub landlords wearing leopard print. It’s also familiar—they go to a party, they fight, you pick a side—making it more like watching a sitcom or WWE than the sort of real, cortisol-spiking argument you might encounter elsewhere.

I’m obviously not the only one who feels this way about women screaming at each other on-screen. TikTok users post about it all the time. “Nothing like unwinding to the soothing sounds of women arguing on TV,” posted one user. “Relaxing morning routine as a Bravo fan,” posted another, while serenely eating cereal to the sound of unhinged screams. “My relaxing skincare routine as a Bravo fan” said another, dabbing cleanser on her face while Angie K delivers the aforementioned zinger. Clearly, the Bravo effect is widespread. Women and gay men especially—and it is exclusively women and gay men who post about this—are unwinding en masse to these spectacular, glass-shattering rows.

When I reached out to other reality TV fans, I was surprised by the sheer number of people who said that watching women go HAM was more than relaxing—it was cathartic. “There’s something about being a woman and being angry that’s quite hush hush,” said Phoebe, 21. “Yet these women, no matter the issue, scream and yell.” Sophie, 26, agreed: “Women are mostly socialised to be polite and deferential, so it’s satisfying seeing them express unlimited emotion.” “It’s refreshing to see women respond in a way that is emotion-driven and actually being praised and more successful because of it,” added Annabelle, 29.

If your mind immediately went to the Von Trapps after hearing the word ‘Edelweiss,’ you’re not alone. But before you break into the tune from The Sound Of Music, the cinematic fame isn’t all that the wildflower is known for. Today, its uses extend to skin care, where its extract is known for soothing redness, calming irritation, and deeply hydrating the skin. Its rich anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties are what make it so effective in calming redness and irritation. Additionally, edelweiss extract is also an excellent hydrator that helps maintain and nourish the skin’s protective barrier, leaving it soft and supple. It’s an underrated ingredient for dry and sensitive skin. Here’s why it deserves more recognition.

What is edelweiss extract?

“Edelweiss extract is derived from the edelweiss flower, a resilient plant that grows in high altitudes of the Swiss Alps,” says Dr Chytra V Anand, founder of Kosmoderma Clinics and SkinQ. “The extract of the flower is what’s rich in antioxidants—flavonoids and tannins, and is harvested through environmentally sustainable methods to preserve its active properties.” Grown in the rugged alpine regions, the flower has evolved to withstand harsh environmental conditions. According to Dr Trupti Agarwal, consultant dermatologist at Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital, its extract is obtained through a gentle process, where the leaves and flowers are harvested and processed to preserve their potent compounds. “These compounds—flavonoids, phenolic acids, terpenoids—work together to provide skin robust protection from environmental stressors, making edelweiss a staple in many skincare products.”

Benefits of edelweiss extract

Hydration: A humectant in nature, edelweiss extract draws moisture from the environment and locks it into the layers of your skin. It is an excellent moisturiser for dry skin and can even help balance and control sebum levels for oily skin.

Anti-ageing: Thanks to its antioxidant properties, this skincare ingredient helps protect the skin from free radical damage and aids in reducing the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines.

Soothing: The anti-inflammatory properties present in edelweiss extract aid in reducing any sort of redness or inflammation, which also makes it a perfect fit for sensitive and irritated skin.

Anti-bacterial: Did you know that other than skincare, edelweiss extract can also be found in oral hygiene products? Its antibacterial properties help protect your skin and mouth from harmful bacteria, keeping any sort of infections at bay.

For world-leading gemstone producer Gemfields, an association with Los Angeles-based goldsmith and jewellery designer Rachel Quinn resets imaginations in more ways than one. It’s not the usual deployment of Zambian emeralds or Mozambican rubies to craft an expected set of tennis bracelets, studs, or an array of dainty rings. The collection, Crazy Love, forays into tackling and expressing the most intangible abstractions of a universal emotion— love, in its most raw, authentic, and bittersweet forms.

The ‘Lover’s Eye Brooch’ and the ‘Radiant Heart Pinky Ring’ from the Rachel Quinn + Gemfields Crazy Love collection

A “temporary insanity”, is how Quinn describes the collection. Her pieces often vacillate between the dainty and the chunky, apt for making a statement while passing as modern heirlooms laced with stories—an externality seamlessly designed to express the internal. For this venture, Quinn explored a certain liminality found within love, tapping into its nerve-wracking qualities, sans roses and rainbows. “I knew I wanted a narrative, an overarching concept of sorts as a pillar to bring to life love’s multi-faceted journey. My focus was never a limited definition of the emotion.”

Quinn’s reimagined romanticism is refreshing in a world that forces to be as concise or transactional in our strivings. However, her precision as a designer peaks through the assortment of playfully poignant offerings, each distinct in its design and sentiment. Some of Quinn’s favourites include the ‘Kiss perfume bottle’, a small vial suitable to carry your lover’s scent, as well as the ‘Lover’s eye brooch’—a memory-inducing totem—one of the first things that Quinn sketched while ideating for this collaboration.

Similarly, the large onyx heart stands as an emblem of a broken heart. “I wanted to evoke the feeling of trepidation, doubt, yearning, and being lovesick. The onyx heart was my playful take on a heart that’s shattered, especially with the little spots. And yet, that brokenness holds a lot of space for healing and growth, as on some days you’re on cloud nine while on others you’re constantly yearning. So love isn’t this one succinct emotion. It’s always in motion and ever-evolving,” Quinn tells Vogue India.

How did you define your approach to “Louvre Couture”?

It was very precise. The Louvre doesn’t have fashion collections and never will, those collections belong to other institutions like the MAD (Museum of Decorative Arts) next door and the Galliera. But we do have 32,000 art objects, among them 300 works left to the Louvre by Madame Carven, pieces that belonged to Jacques Doucet and a beautiful diamond box that belonged to Yves Saint Laurent.

When you look at that, and the birth of haute couture, and how collecting allowed all these designers to consolidate their social status, there are deep cultural, societal, sociological reasons for us to do this. So our question was: how did designers look at the works in the Louvre, draw inspiration from them, reinterpret them? When you take a step back, fashion is everywhere you look—in Antiquity, in Babylon, in Athens, in Venetian painting and French sculpture, absolutely everywhere.

From left to right: Wool crepe suit with handmade brass bust, from the “Inferno” haute couture collection by Schiaparelli, spring 2023. “Cathedral” dress in copper-plated 3D-printed polyamide (Selective Laser Sintering), Iris van Herpen, spring 2012. Minidress in stretch silk knit with mesh overlay in horn and lambskin, Hermes spring 2021. Blue cotton top with copper wings by Jonathan Anderson for Loewe, fall 2023.

Photo: Musée du Louvre / Nicolas Bousser

Could you highlight a few examples for those who aren’t in Paris right now?

The idea was really to follow the chronological order of the collections by blocks, from Byzantine to the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the 17th and 18th centuries, the Empire, the Second Empire, etc. That way, we could show that, in his final couture collection, Karl Lagerfeld was inspired by an 18th-century blue and white lacquered commode. Sometimes, the interpretations are freer, as with Versace, but you can see that designers are interested in moments in the history of objects. More broadly, it’s interesting to observe how the decorative arts influence them personally: we all know the photos of the interior decor in Lagerfeld’s, Dior’s and Saint Laurent’s homes; with young talents like Blazy or Pieter Mulier, design and photography is always very present.

With the men’s collections in full swing and Couture right around the corner, the Louvre Museum today will unveil Louvre Couture, the first major exhibition to place masterworks of modern fashion—and their inspiration—within the broader context of French history and decorative arts.

Keeping company with tapestries, armour, jewels, enamel, goldsmithing, bronzes, cabinetry, porcelains and other ornamentations that embody the glory of French craftsmanship are looks by 45 houses and designers, among them Balenciaga by both Cristobal and Demna, Hubert de Givenchy, Christian Dior by John Galliano and Maria Grazia Chiuri, Schiaparelli by Daniel Roseberry, Nicolas Ghesquière for Louis Vuitton, and pieces from final collections—by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel and by Gianni Versace—as well as leading indies like Marine Serre, Erdem, Undercover, Thom Browne and Iris van Herpen.

In all, about 100 pieces of couture, ready-to-wear, and accessories dating from 1949 to the present day are sprinkled throughout the Decorative Objects department on the first floor of the Richelieu wing. “Louvre Couture” will be fêted in grand style on March 4 with the first annual Grand Diner du Louvre, an event sponsored by Visa Infinite. At press time, organisers announced that 30 tables had already been auctioned off, meeting the fundraising goal of 1 million euros.

Star fashion curator Olivier Gabet, the new director of the decorative arts department, spoke with Vogue about the making of the exhibition and what the world’s most famous museum brings to fashion—and vice versa.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

From the Louis Vuitton spring 2018 collection by Nicolas Ghesquière, a sporty, urban riff on 18th century French style, one of several pieces by the designer included in this show.

Photo: Musée du Louvre / Nicolas Bousser