At 6pm on an unusually rainy Sunday in October, model Winnie Harlow is in search of biryani. She’s en route to the airport to fly back to Brooklyn, New York, after two action-packed days in Maximum City. Harlow, who was in town to be honoured at Vogue India third annual Women of the Year Awards, has just wrapped up her first cover shoot for the magazine (“Everything lined up perfectly. I love when a photographer knows exactly what he wants, it makes everyone’s day so much easier,” she tells me), and she’s looking forward to some well-deserved sleep on her red-eye. But first, she wants a heaped plate of biryani and her surprising favourite childhood treat—piping hot jalebis. As she digs in, she reflects on growing up in a large family, the beauty questions she hates and what continues to motivate her.
Priyanka Khanna: I have to ask—jalebis? I never imagined they were a favourite.
Winnie Harlow: I’m Jamaican, so I’m used to strong flavours and fragrant foods. And I grew up in Toronto, which is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. We had a lot of Indian children in school and there was a tuck shop we would all go to that sold food from different countries, like doubles from Trinidad and samosas and jalebis from India, all of which had such flavour.
PK: Tell us about your childhood.
This story is from the March 2020 edition of VOGUE India.
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This story is from the March 2020 edition of VOGUE India.
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