Role Model Bhumika Arora's Global Takeover

A new generation of Indian models is taking over global fashion and cover girl Bhumika Arora has quietly and passionately led the way

- Nishat Fatima

In international fashion, the biggest story right now is not the clothes or the game of musical chairs being played by designers of leading houses. It’s the new models in town: girls of all shades, hair types and personalities, from every corner of the world. And for the first time, there’s more than one model from ours.

India is no newbie to having models in the big league. In the early ’70s, Anjali Mendes became muse to Pierre Cardin and later in the same decade, Kirat Young started to work with Yves Saint Laurent. There was Ujjwala Raut in 2003 burning up the runways for Gucci, Roberto Cavalli and Michael Kors, and appearing in campaigns for YSL Beauty and Dolce & Gabbana. Half-a-dozen years later, Lakshmi Menon put India on the map as the face of Hermès and Givenchy, with editorials in every major fashion magazine and appearances on the catwalks of all four fashion capitals. But three models, all super at the same time? Plus, more waiting in the wings? Not until now.

Bhumika Arora was the model who set this ball rolling. In 2014, she burst on to the Paris catwalks with a debut show at Dries Van Noten, and then walked for Viktor & Rolf and Maxime Simoëns. In three short years, she’s racked up appearances at Chanel, Balmain, Fendi, Armani Prive, Bottega Veneta, Marc Jacobs and Alexander Wang, appeared in almost every international fashion magazine that matters—including on the cover of ELLE UK—and is fresh off a campaign for Bobbi Brown.

When I speak with Arora, she is just back in New York after a week in Paris. She was there for fashion week, where she walked for Balmain’s army and then stayed on to meet friends. Her hair is pulled back, and she’s got a pair of cat-eyed spectacles perched on her nose and that slept-in-but-jetlagged look about her. We’re Face Timing, which she seems unused to.