Table of contents for January 2026 in Harper's Bazaar India

New year. New us? Not quite. I have never believed the turn of the calendar demands reinvention. Instead, a new year feels like a fresh chapter added to an ever-unfolding story, one we’re already deeply immersed in. For us at Harper’s Bazaar India, 2025 was a milestone. Looking back, it feels like a beautiful whirlwind, one that hasn’t quite slowed as we step into 2026 with anticipation and quiet excitement. Your love and unwavering support over the past year have moved us in ways we’re deeply grateful for. It’s what encouraged us to increase our print run. An exhilarating decision, paired with a little nervousness, but driven entirely by you. This issue, in particular, holds a special place for us. Art has always been a cornerstone of Bazaar, something we…

…VISIT AN ART SHOW Let’s kick-start the year by visiting a combined showcase of four solo exhibitions, organised by Art Centrix Space at Bikaner House, New Delhi. The four solo presentations by Siri Devi Khandavilli, Thomas Henriot, Rahul Jain and Gunjan Arora, and Bhargav Barla offer a layered encounter with contemporary practices, where material, memory, and movement intersect. The showcase is on view till January 18. …CREATE A VISION BOARD FOR 2026 Hang your own version of an art installation right at the beginning of the year—a vision board for 2026. Swap written resolutions for a visual narrative that brings your hopes, goals, and intentions to life through inspiring images, textures, and colours. Think of it as a living collage, one that gently nudges you towards where you want to…

Raw Mango joins Kolkata’s quintessential adda (a place where conversations begin) with its first flagship in the city, housed in an early 20th-century Art Deco building. The city’s intellectual spirit and artistic legacy find a natural extension in the brand’s ethos, rooted in textile, culture, and craft explorations. The store interior echoes Kolkata’s layered histories, intimate and inviting at the same time. High ceilings, warm red flooring, and the thoughtful interplay of light create a lived-in experience, much like the rhythm of the city. Antiques and curios line up corners alongside glass almirahs for clothes. While some of the sculptures were collected by Sanjay Garg, the founder of the brand, over time, a series of pieces was specially created in collaboration with an artisan known for crafting Durga Puja installations.…

ACE ACCESSORIES Lauded for his presence in the Indian and global fashion landscape, couturier Manish Malhotra steps into the spotlight yet again. This time, he extends his legacy of couture into accessories with the launch of his first-ever handbag collection. Designed to cater to any occasion and evening wear, the collection includes clutches, top handle bags, and embellished pieces, all curated with immense attention to details, similar to his couture collections. ICONIC LOOKBOOK Schiaparelli begins the year with a bang. This time with an exhibition that promises to be nothing short of a feast for the eyes. The V&A Museum in London will host Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art from March 28 to November 1, 2026, marking the first UK exhibition dedicated to the surrealist couturier. Bringing together over 200 works,…

Why do you picture a clock when I say the word, time? Or days trapped in calendar squares like insects under glass. Why think of time as something that merely measures or marks. Why not as a medium? I think of this with my feet pressed into the Fort Kochi sand, certain the shore has packed its belongings and moved three meters left since my last visit, quietly as a cat changing perches. In the sixth edition of Kochi Muziris Biennale featuring 66 artists and collectives, time is an artist, an architect, a gardener, invited to walk into the gallery. Perhaps all this talk about time makes more sense when you step into Monica de Miranda’s Earthship (2025), an S-shaped outdoor installation at Aspinwall House. Her work begins with the…

Walk into almost any room of high-achieving women and ask, “Who here has ever felt like a fraud?”, and you’ll see a sea of hands. In fact, in KPMG’s 2020 study of 700 senior women, 75 per cent reported experiencing impostor syndrome at some point in their career. You can be at the top of your field, leading teams, closing deals or running board meetings, and still hear that quiet inner voice whisper, “I’m not good enough.” Impostor syndrome was first identified in the late ’70s by psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, yet almost half a century later it feels more relevant than ever. Released last year, a survey by global consulting firm Korn Ferry of 10,000 professionals found that 71 per cent of US CEOs experience symptoms of…

Reading labels, counting calories, steering clear of all things processed—we have become far more meticulous about what goes inside our bodies. The mantra is simple: in with the good, out with the junk. Yet that same scrutiny selectively extends to what goes on our skin. And while not all chemicals are harmful, beneath the gloss of daily beauty rituals and soothing self-care regimes may lie ingredients that can quietly creep in and disrupt the endocrine system, leading to serious health implications that go beyond what meets the eye. The endocrine system is responsible for producing and releasing hormones into the bloodstream. Hormones act as the body’s messengers, directing how we grow, develop, and function. The catch? This system is highly sensitive and can be easily influenced by environmental toxins, including…

Seoul is the undisputed epicentre of beauty. It’s the birthplace of cutting-edge ingredients (snail mucin, anyone?), next-level innovations (yes, salmon sperm injections), and formulations that are light years ahead—Korean sunscreens being a prime example. It’s no surprise, then, that millions travel here each year in search of a glow-up. Kim Kardashian famously flew in for Korea’s beauty offering. While that could be worthwhile, my to-do list included walking into every Olive Young within my radius and finding out what K-beauty is really obsessed with right now. What stood out most was K-beauty’s continued obsession with gentle, yet effective, formulas. Soothing ingredients like cica are everywhere, barrier repair is non-negotiable, hydration is king, and PDRN is having a serious moment. However, perusing the aisles of Olive Young can be both intimidating…

ON HIS TAKEAWAY FROM FIVE ART COLLECTORS HIMANSHU DUTTA WRITER “Our support for artists needs to go beyond simply buying their work. We must make time to engage with the thought and rigour of their evolving practices, seek to understand their worlds, and always, always, contextualise.” ON WHAT SHE IS LOOKING FORWARD TO AT IAF 2026 UMAH JACOB WRITER “I am excited to see large-scale installations by women artists, including the culmination of the BMW Future is Born of Art Commission with this year’s winner; Afrah Shafiq, as she takes over the facades of our massive tents. And of course, an exciting, powerful work by the winner of the inaugural Swali Craft Prize, Natasha Preenja.” ON HIS EXPERIENCE OF THE COVER SHOOT XAVI GORDO PHOTOGRAPHER “It was a real pleasure…

I see Ashdeen Lilaowala for the first time through my laptop screen, a modern-day artist in his Mumbai house, dressed in a sakura-pink shirt, his hair neatly brushed back, and his smile ample. Yet, when he speaks there is a nostalgia-laced, almost otherworldly quality to him that is irresistibly beautiful. His earliest memory of the Parsi gara embroidery, he shares, is not anchored in a museum vitrine or a scholarly text, but in the intimacy of family life. Lilaowala recalls the poignant image of his mother wearing a black heirloom sari scattered with pale yellow roses—an image so vivid that even today he wonders whether it is memory or photograph that has fixed itself so clearly in his mind. In many ways for me, this ambiguity mirrors the nature of…

Upon entering Galeries Lafayette in Fort, Mumbai, I was extremely pleased with the interiors—it was a reflection of Indian craftsmanship blended seamlessly with the French heritage. So playful, joyful, and rich, and I said to myself, ‘Patou was meant to be here in India’,” Guillaume Henry, the Creative Director of the French luxury brand, tells me as we catch up on Zoom. Henry’s zest reflects in the brand’s philosophy and aesthetic alike. Founded in 1914 by Jean Patou, the young couturier wanted to free women from the confinement of restrictive clothing. He designed dresses without corsets, chic skirts, and introduced a sports line. A century later, the joy and ease of dressing persists. “When I relaunched the brand with the team, seven years ago, I was clear that nobody was…

Tender Forms Delicate prints and tactile details shape a quieter kind of luxury. Delicate Hours Sheer textures and shadowed tones define the season’s accents.…

Anoushka Shankar was only 13 when she stepped onto a stage with a sitar in hand for the first time. It wasn’t just an instrument, it was history, inheritance, and a whole lot of expectations far too large for someone so young. In the years since, her relationship with music has kept shifting shape, resisting easy definitions, and growing more honest with time. What she carries today is less visible but far more potent: a voice that no longer asks for permission. Change—personal, artistic, geographical—runs like a quiet current through Shankar’s work. She belongs, simultaneously, to India, the UK and the US, a global citizen in the truest sense. “India is where I come from,” she says simply, even as London is where life has settled into a different rhythm…

Continuing his obsession with the magic and measured cruelty of the Sunderban mangroves in the Indo-Gangetic delta, Ghost-Eye marks a return to fiction for Booker-nominated author Amitav Ghosh. In lucid prose peppered with pages of laboriously researched history, the novel follows the story of Varsha Gupta, a three-year-old child from a strictly vegetarian business family in Kolkata of the 1970s, as she wakes up one day, demands to eat fish and begins recalling memories of a past life inside a mud house by the river. Thrown into an immediate crisis, the family calls in psychologist and academic Dr Shoma Bose—a visionary way ahead of her times and one deeply interested in the lores of reincarnation. As the novel unfolds, a quick succession of fateful events draw a close to Shoma’s…

FOR THAT CHAMPAGNE GLOW What if your body oil could double up as a glow filter? Homegrown brand Skinvest has launched Molten Gold Shimmer Drops, a body oil formulated to deliver a soft champagne sheen with long-lasting hydration. Made for all skin tones, the lightweight formula claims to be absorbed quickly and leaves a touch dry, transfer-resistant finish. The formula includes botanical oils including jojoba, sweet almond, and wheat germ, that will keep you hydrated all day. PILLOWY POUT Step into the year with confidence and halo lips. Popularised by make-up artist Katie Jane Hughes—who is known for her work with Dua Lipa and Hailey Bieber—the technique creates a soft dimension by illuminating the centre of the lips and subtly deepening the edges. The result is a natural-looking fullness, a…

Warm Front Trace the Parsi gara’s journey with Ashdeen Lilaowala; Guillaume Henry on Patou’s history, heritage, and the way forward; the dichotomy of personal and performative style in fashion; and the season’s top picks. Revered Emblem Louis Vuitton celebrates 130 years of its iconic Monogram, created by Georges Vuitton in 1896 as a tribute to his father, Louis, the visionary founder of the House. It’s more than a motif today; a symbol of heritage, culture, and innovation. The true heritage masterpieces from the exclusive capsule collection, The Monogram Origine—Speedy, Alma, and Noé bags—are a collective testament to artistry and identity. Track Meets Tartan Classic pattern reimagined with athletic ease. Soft Serve Celine has reinvented the classic dance shoe, heeled bootie, and boxer with supple, malleable leather that’ll add a spring…

How does a city reveal itself? The most global cities of the world do so through their streets, and, by extension, the people on those streets. We observe the cut of an overcoat, how someone styles it with a chequered scarf, the way a street’s sartorial homogeneity breaks when a man decked in gleaming leather, studs and suspenders tiptoes on the cobblestones, wearing graffitied headphones. A city is the cradle of civilisation, its very zenith. It’s a place where human ingenuity finds its best and worst forms. Paris, some say, is so fashionable. Amsterdam too, but only in the nights, when its sex clubs roar with techno and house music. How about Rome? What should people wear in the imposing, intimidating shadows of a glorious civilisation? How can you beat…

A quick glance at Gucci’s collection, La Famiglia, reminds us of the Italian House’s heritage pieces—from the 1947 Gucci Bamboo bag to the little red coat of 1960s. However, a closer look reveals how the collection takes an unapologetically sexy, extravagant and daring approach, revealing wardrobes that mark the genesis of a new Gucci era by Demna Gvasalia. First unveiled in September 2025, the collection reflects Gvasalia’s ongoing research into the House’s archival and visual codes across multiple eras while building his vision for Gucci. Photographer Catherine Opie reimagines the lookbook as a deliberately offbeat family album. It unfolds through a spectrum of characters whose wardrobes reinterpret these signature codes with new sensuality, spontaneity, and Italian attitude. Incazzata appears in her vivid ’60s-style “little red coat” that reflects her fiery…

What does it mean to be an“art collector”? This was the fundamental query that guided my conversations with five young collectors from across the country. Over several hours spent on Zoom meetings and phone calls, my rudimentary assumptions about what often appears to be an extravagant pursuit were quietly dismantled, revealing an informed and intentional engagement with art and artists through personal patronage, institutional support, and the primordial impulse to surround oneself with beauty. The collectors express a critical negotiation of the acquisitory epithet, adding layers of nuance and depth to the act of collecting. There’s an overwhelming sense of “why” that defines our exchange, and it is here that the power of these stories lie. As South Asia positions itself as one of the leading talent pools and global…

For decades, Vivienne Westwood treated fashion as a canvas—provocative and rich with meaning. Her rippedT-shirts and bondage trousers (1976) embodied punk rebellion in its rawest form while the Portrait corset (1990) printed with an 18th-century François Boucher painting transformed clothing into a living artwork and a potent metaphor for female liberation. Blurring the boundary between fashion and art, Westwood proved that a garment could be far more than style—it could function as a manifesto, critique, and cultural artefact, all at once. Bazaar India has long championed this convergence of fashion and art, celebrating designers who challenge convention, rethink beauty, and embrace audacity. Much like Westwood, whose silhouettes fused provocation with intellect, we continue to foreground visionaries who transform imagination into enduring cultural impact.…