CHENNAI: Engineer-turned-investment banker, Anu Basarvaraju spent 17 years chasing the American dream, working her way round the corporate juggernaut. On coming back to India briefly in 2013, she found a dearth of grooming options for her daughter, which led to her starting Divas and Dudes, a salon exclusively for kids in Bengaluru.
“While I started this as a business, I realised that this entire exercise was a big learning curve for me in terms of understanding kids better. I also realised that grooming has a lot more to do with personality than just mere appearance,” she says. This is the seed of thought behind International Kids Couture, a platform to build confidence in kids which will make its city debut this Saturday at Phoenix Market City.
As she takes us through her initiative, the entrepreneur stresses on the difference in the definition of grooming over time.
“Back in my day, the maximum grooming we did as kids was to get a haircut to avoid the hassle of maintaining a long mane. Kids nowadays however, are exposed to so many more factors. Their role models and fantasies are very different than ours so it’s important that we provide for them accordingly as well,” she says.
Anu observes the crucial role of the media and a child’s social structures in shaping his/her sense of self-esteem thereby paving way for exercises of this nature. “The media and society place so many categories into which kids are placed – skinny, fat, fair, dark etc. The idea of this initiative is to go beyond that and underline the message that it’s important to be the best you are irrespective of the form you come in,” she avers, underlining the campaign’s tagline, ‘Confidence is beautiful’.
Does the concept of a fashion show trivialise the larger issue of confidence level in children, reducing it merely to its physical aspect? Anu begs to differ saying, “A fashion show is not always about showcasing what best to wear on the ramp. It’s a great platform to celebrate diversity and confidence, irrespective of the attire.”
The show will see close to 60-80 children donning the summer lines of brands like GAP, United Colours of Benetton, Allen Solly, Tommy Hilfiger and The Children’s Place among others. Ask her if there was ever an apprehension of conducting an event like this in Chennai and she dismissed our doubts. “Kids here in Chennai have a lot of flair. Parents are very hands-on and want the best for their children in all spheres.
Besides, Chennai has a literate public and they are open to opinion,” she observes.
She highlights the fact that the show doesn’t select who gets to walk on the ramp and is open to registrations. Meanwhile, two children from Bengaluru-based NGO, Alfaa, which works to provide vocational training to kids with autism, will also be seen walking the ramp on Saturday. Anjana Padmanabhan, winner of the first edition of Indian Idol will be the show-stopper of the event. While Bengaluru has already seen three editions of the event, Anu plans to expand the initiative in PMCs in Mumbai and Pune too besides planning shows in the US as well.
The show will be held on June 24 from 6pm onwards at Phoenix MarketCity.
For details call: 66513007
(The writer is a freelance journalist)