Picture this: you step onto the world’s most fashionable red carpet, surrounded by people in surreal, sculptural couture. Every look is bold, experimental, and designed to astonish. You are at the Met Gala, where nearly every outfit is a custom creation from the most powerful fashion houses in the world. And then there is you. Dressed in jeans (well, almost) and a zippered top.
Sounds underwhelming, right? That’s what French luxury fashion house Chanel did to Bhavitha Mandava at the fashion world’s biggest event.
Was it a blunder or a clear case of racism? The internet certainly has thoughts. More on that below. But Chanel clearly messed this up, and they should’ve anticipated the backlash.
With their entire contingent dressed in high-glamour looks, singling out one woman for a couture take on jeans and a top felt deeply questionable.
Mandava’s Chanel counterparts, including names like Jennie, Margot Robbie, Nicole Kidman, Lily-Rose Depp, Awar Odhiang and Gracie Abrams, attended the Met Gala in luxurious evening gowns and dresses.
We get it that Mandava’s outfit wasn’t basic denim. In a story posted on Instagram amid all the noise, Mandava shared that her outfit was couture. Crafted from silk engineered to resemble denim, it was meant to reference the outfit she wore when she was discovered in a New York subway station. The full-circle narrative is clear.
But the Met Gala is not the place for restraint. It is not the place for quiet callbacks. It is fashion at its most excessive, most theatrical, most unapologetic. So, why this look here?
Moreover, Chanel had already told this story. Mandava opened the brand’s Pre-Fall show in a recreation of that same outfit, staged on a subway platform no less. The reference had landed. Repeating it on the Met carpet just diluted her moment.
Would Chanel send another global ambassador onto that carpet in something that reads this understated? Would Margot Robbie or Jennie be dressed down for the sake of a concept? Even the internet is asking this question.
Words like “tokenism,” “microaggression,” and “racist” are being used not casually, but insistently.
“Making so much of how she was discovered is what screams racism to me. ‘Wow this Indian girl got discovered in a train station. Wild. Isn’t she so lucky?’ Like, we get it. Make her the model she is now,” an Instagram user commented on a post discussing Chanel’s move to dress Mandava in this simplistic outfit.
To be clear, this isn’t about whether the outfit was technically impressive. And it’s not about whether fashion can be minimal. Of course it can be.
It’s about context. And scale. About who gets to fully take up space on fashion’s biggest stage, and who is expected to hold back.
In the photos Chanel posted on its Instagram, the ones showing their guests at the Met Gala, the contrast is impossible to ignore. Mandava looks noticeably underdressed. No wonder the comments section of the post is full of fuming remarks.
Mandava’s rise has been nothing short of meteoric. From being discovered in a subway to opening major shows, leading campaigns, and becoming Chanel’s house ambassador. This kind of journey matters and deserves to be celebrated.
That’s exactly why this moment felt important. And also why it feels off and mishandled.
– Ends
