Fashion

THE JOURNEY FROM ‘POKER STRAIGHT HAIR’ TO THE EMERGENCE OF A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR ‘WILDLY CURLY HAIR’ INDUSTRY

Published

5 years ago

February 2, 2021

By the Urban Love Team

60% of the world’s population has curly and / or wavy hair, however, the ideal standards of Indian beauty have always been silky straight hair and that has manifested itself into our societal beliefs and perceptions. The Bollywood industry, that plays a huge part in influencing young minds, portrayed curly-haired women as rebellious, wild, quirky and undisciplined. This irrational obsession was fueled by the advancement of technological availability of salon-quality hair tools.

A majority of people around the world believe that Indian women are born with naturally silky, smooth and straight hair. These people cannot be blamed as the Bollywood industry has already set the standards, with straight hair that blows across the screen in slow motion. Watching these women on the screen might have persuaded you into buying a few hair extensions, straightening tools, or even those newly famous Sugarbear hair gummies trending on Instagram and other social platforms. Let’s break it to you; South Asian women are known to have naturally wavy and curly hair.

It is an enthralling time within the world of entertainment. Inclusivity has become more apparent in the fashion and beauty industries, however, Bollywood – well let us give it some credit for at least trying. From an ‘Oh haseena zulfein wali jaane jaha’ to Badshah rapping ‘Zulfein hain zalim’, to Diya Mirza’s ‘khuli latein’ in Zara Zara, Bollywood has always glorified long luscious silky-smooth hair to the point where it is has been romanticized and even sexualized.

The Bollywood industry has now started representing real women on big screens. Actresses are demanding to showcase their actual selves, instead of the surface-level divas their roles claim them to be. Inclusivity in terms of body types, skin color, and facial structures have become ever so prominent in today’s world.

Taapsee Pannu was given absolute freedom to keep her hair natural in Badla. Katrina transformed her hair into soft curls for Bharat. Mithila Palmar has been seen in one of the famous Netflix shows, Chopsticks, where she has left her voluminous bouncy curls as natural as possible. The real women of India have imperfectly perfect curly and wavy hair, and it is time we see that on the big screens as well.

The Indian hair care market has forecasted to reach USD 4.89 billion by 2025 growing at a CAGR of 6.58%. With 60% of the global population having curls, coils and waves, amongst which two-thirds of women with textured hair use four or more hair care products each month. 90% of Indian hair is curly, wavy or textured, and now with the onset of acceptance of curly hair, 1.2 lakh monthly online searches by Indian users on managing curly hair have been noticed on various e-commerce websites.

Gone are the days when women would put hours and hours of effort into straightening their hair and making it look sleek and poker straight. Now, an increasing number of women are embracing naturally curly hair with the ever so popular ‘curly girl method’ (CGM).

Whether your hair is bouncy, big, tousled, or tight, textured hair, it is paving its way in style. Whether you have been tightly combing it down with oil or lathering it up with gel to tame it down, it is finally time to pull out that mane and strut the street as naturally as you can.

If you are thinking about embracing your textured hair, but do not know where to begin, do not worry yourself, because The Urban Love is here to your rescue with its unique blend of all-natural herbal hair care products.

You must use clean products without any harsh chemicals, sulfates, parabens, and silicone that are typically found in shampoos, and a lot of curly hair products. These products eventually lead to damaged hair and will strip the natural oils from your curls, leading to dry frizzy and dull hair. Aside from stripping away the natural texture of your hair these chemicals are also linked to more severe conditions, such as breast cancer.

As you start discovering the beauty in your curls you will find yourself appreciating a lot more things that you might have resented over time. Just like the natural curves of your body, it is important to embrace the natural curls of your hair as well. Let it bounce and come to life, let the Diva in you Shine through with The Urban Love hair products.

It’s time we liberate ourselves from the predefined notions of beauty set by our society and embrace the glory of our uniquely diverse hair that has been passed down from generations while exploring the potential within us to the fullest.

Fashion

Sound to Silhouette: A History of Mutual Influence

Published

1 week ago

June 2, 2026

Jiya Jaitly

Fashion and music have never existed as isolated cultural forms; they are parallel languages of identity. One clothes the body while the other clothes the atmosphere, emotion, and ideology. A musical movement without a recognisable visual code rarely survives beyond sound. Their interrelation rests in a shared capacity to signal rebellion, status, class mobility, seduction, politics, spirituality, and generational dissent without explicit explanation. This confluence explains why every significant cultural movement inevitably develops a distinct silhouette, colour palette, grooming code, and behavioural aesthetic.

Fashion and music influencing culture and style

The earliest traceable entanglement between fashion and music reaches back to ancient civilisations.

· In Egypt, court musicians wore garments that signified sacred or elite status, while dancers and performers used adornment to amplify theatrical presence.

· In Greece, musical performances during religious festivals unfolded alongside carefully structured drapery and ornamentation that reflected philosophical ideals of harmony and proportion.

· In early India, classical musical traditions and courtly attire evolved in tandem: ragas, dance, jewellery, textiles, and performance aesthetics formed an integrated cultural expression rather than discrete disciplines.

In medieval and Renaissance Europe, music and fashion functioned as instruments of aristocratic distinction. Court musicians did not merely perform; they embodied prestige through embroidered fabrics, powdered wigs, structured tailoring, and elaborate ornament. Opera later refined this fusion, transforming costume into emotional architecture and using fabric, silhouette, and visual symbolism to externalize psychological and social tensions long before cinema emerged. The jazz age carried fluid tailoring and liberated femininity; punk arrived ripped, confrontational, and anti-establishment; hip-hop transformed streetwear into global luxury language; grunge made deliberate dishevelment an aesthetic weapon against polished consumerism.

The postwar decades accelerated this fusion into a cultural machine. Rock and roll in the 1950s weaponized youth style against the conservative social order: leather jackets, slicked hair, and slim silhouettes became emblems of defiance. The 1960s fractured into competing aesthetic ideologies: psychedelic maximalism, mod minimalism, and bohemian romanticism, each carrying its own musical identity. By the 1970s, glam rock turned gender presentation into a theatrical experiment, while punk repudiated luxury with torn fabrics, safety pins, and anti-fashion rhetoric; ironically, the industry eventually commodified even that rebellion.

Hip-hop’s emergence in the late twentieth century fundamentally altered the power dynamic between fashion and music. Where earlier eras often saw fashion houses shaping performers, hip-hop reversed the vector: street culture began dictating luxury. Sneakers, oversized tailoring, gold jewellery, and sportswear migrated from expressions of survival and neighbourhood identity to symbols of global aspiration.

This phenomenon was strikingly visible with the rise of The Beatles. Before them, mainstream male fashion remained restrained, conservative, and tethered to postwar uniformity. The Beatles introduced something deceptively simple yet revolutionary: youth styling as mass identity. Their slim-cut suits, Chelsea boots, and mop-top haircuts, then later, psychedelic experimentation reoriented a generation’s look. Early Beatles fashion projected polished accessibility; their later phase embraced flamboyant military jackets, Indian-inspired garments, tinted glasses, and bohemian layering.

Soon after, David Bowie dissolved the notion of a fixed identity through glam rock. His Ziggy Stardust persona fused theatrical makeup, metallic fabrics, platform boots, asymmetrical silhouettes, and androgynous styling into a cultural detonation. He unsettled rigid constructs of masculinity long before mainstream discourse possessed the vocabulary to discuss gender fluidity. Elvis Presley’s influence is equally central: in the 1950s, he translated rebellious sensuality into a visual lexicon: high collars, slicked hair, dramatic tailoring, jewellery, and overt physical charisma laid the blueprint for the modern pop star. Kiss Band converted face paint and exaggerated stage costumes into a commercial spectacle, anticipating branding strategies that would later be amplified by influencers. Meanwhile, Black Sabbath helped anchor darker visual codes that matured into gothic and metal aesthetics.

The 1980s produced perhaps the most complete fusion of fashion and musical mythology in Michael Jackson. He wielded visual symbolism with near-military precision: the single white glove, military-inspired jackets, loafers with cropped trousers, aviators, sequined stagewear, and sharply structured performance garments became instantly recognizable emblems.

Madonna treated fashion as a machinery of reinvention. Lace gloves, corsetry, crucifixes, lingerie-as-outerwear, platinum hair, and mutable personae repeatedly destabilized expectations around femininity and sexuality. Artists such as Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, and later Kanye West translated streetwear into a language of luxury oversized silhouettes, sneakers, sports jerseys, chains, varsity aesthetics, and designer collaborations rose from urban identity and economic aspiration. More recently, Harry Styles has mainstreamed softer, gender-fluid menswear for younger audiences, signalling another shift in how pop figures mediate sartorial norms.

These two have been connected to each other since the creation of both, as they work as Yin-Yang of art form, and they will keep evolving together and shaping our society, as Art is a place where humans find resonance.

Events

The Riviera Rewritten: Cannes 2026’s Most Arresting Fashion Moments

Published

3 weeks ago

May 25, 2026

Anushka Thapliyal

CROISETTE CHRONICLES — PART II

“Sun, Silk & Studied Chaos”

If the first week of Cannes 2026 whispered, the second week grabbed you by the collar.

A blush-pink strapless column gown arrived on the Croisette with the kind of quiet ferocity only a seasoned red carpet can absorb. Pearl-scattered at the bust, its satin surface caught every camera flash. It was paired with a voluminous silver-grey cocoon coat draped off both shoulders — not worn, deployed. Chandelier diamonds framed the ears, stacked rings adorned both hands, and sleekly pulled-back hair revealed a razor-sharp jawline. This was old Hollywood reconstructed by someone who found the original too polite.

Then came the moment that stopped the Croisette mid-scroll: a chartreuse pleated one-shoulder gown, its fabric engineered into deep diagonal ridges sweeping from a sculpted shoulder down to a dramatic thigh-high slit. Photographed against palm trees and Mediterranean light, it looked less like an outfit and more like a natural phenomenon — moss-coloured, elemental, inevitable. A single emerald pendant rested at the throat. Loose waves, barely tamed, completed the look. The overall effect? A woman who dressed for the landscape, not the photographers — and somehow captivated both.

Beside the sea, another story unfolded. A dark sequinned gown — midnight black fading into deep magenta — was worn against the backdrop of open water. Hair loosened by the wind, a glance thrown back over one bare shoulder. Delicate crystal chains descended the open back like jewellery transformed into architecture. No carpet, no crowd. Just Riviera light and the confidence to command it entirely.

Then came the cultural statement that deserved its own paragraph: a halter-neck anarkali of extraordinary intricacy. Silver and blush floral embroidery spread across ivory silk, while a heavily diamond-encrusted halter neckline functioned as both collar and jewel. A maang tikka and oversized jhumkas completed a look worthy of museum display. A blush dupatta trailed behind with quiet drama. This was Indian couture presented not as a translation for a Western audience, but entirely on its own terms — unapologetic, uncompromising, and self-assured.

Finally, there was the fashion commentator who became the story. A multicoloured embroidered bandhgala blazer — alive with iridescent threadwork in mauve, teal, and gold — was paired with plum trousers and a galaxy of statement rings. Frameless glasses added restraint to the visual richness, while the smile carried a different message altogether: I dressed for myself first. At Cannes, where everyone performs for someone, that may be the most radical statement of all.

“The Riviera didn’t dress them. They dressed the Riviera.”

Events

Fashion Designer Amit GT and Le Marquise Jewellery by Jasmine Gulati Jain and Sambhav Jain Showcase Excellence Under the Golden Lumière Awards at the 79th Festival de Cannes 2026 Show Directed by Liza Varma

Published

3 weeks ago

May 25, 2026

Neha Tyagi

As part of India’s multi-platform presence at the 79th Festival de Cannes 2026, internationally renowned Show Director Liza Varma from India led a delegation of Indian designers and jewellery labels at the Fashion TV Presentation held on 18th May 2026 at the Majestic Hotel, Cannes, at 9:30 PM (CEST).

The showcase featured celebrated Indian designer Amit GT along with Le Marquise Jewellery by Jasmine Gulati Jain and Sambhav Jain, presenting a curated display of fashion and jewellery that reflected contemporary Indian design sensibilities on an international platform. Amit GT’s showcase was presented under the prestigious Golden Lumière Awards Cannes 2026, hosted at the Majestic Hotel Beach, Cannes.

The Golden Lumière Awards show is hosted at the Majestic Hotel Beach, Cannes2026, where cinema meets luxury, celebrating outstanding personalities from international cinema along with visionary business leaders supporting art, culture, cinema, and the future generation of creators. The grand evening was attended by international personality Farhana Bodi and actress Urvashi Rautela, while actress Pooja Batra. The event was produced by Anna Neneman from ENW Showroom.

Speaking about the showcase, Liza Varma said, “My focus is to create opportunities for Indian designers and talent to present their work in international environments. Cannes provides an important global platform to showcase the strength of Indian fashion, craftsmanship, and creative talent before an international audience.”

Held alongside the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival 2026, the presentation formed part of a larger initiative led by Liza Varma to create global visibility for Indian designers, jewellery labels, and creative talent through curated showcases and international collaborations at Cannes.