Look at me, I’m flying!

With Coronavirus cases under control, the celebrity airport look is back. How did dressing up for a flight become a thing?

Some amble, some bolt, some dodge. Some actors never fail to sparkle and shine. These are celebrities being papped at the airport. Malaika Arora recently flew in from the Maldives wearing a Gucci blazer casually thrown over an athleisure sports bustier; beau Arjun Kapoor in an all-black ensemble complete with a Prada backpack. Sara Ali Khan breezes in and out more often than not in roomy kurta-salwars, while Shraddha Kapoor struts—quite like the boss—in boots and cropped jackets. It’s a post-pandemic fashion moment: a win-win all over again for brand placements and stylists.

As cases remain under control and air travel opens up, celebrity airport style spotting is refinding its mojo. Through 20 months of the pandemic, airports sat bare, celebs cooped up in their homes, stylists out of work.

Carefully coordinated in red and ivory silk, Padukone and Ranveer Singh arrived in Mumbai from their Italian destination wedding indulging in the antics that photographers live to capture

Viral Bhayani, founder of a photo agency called Bollywood Pap, has tracked the famous over a two-decade-long career. “I’m not star-struck,” he says matter-of-factly. “Capturing celebs at the airport is work, it’s our dal-roti. I have to support my own family and those of my staff. Everyone has responsibilities, EMIs to pay.”

The airport is not exactly a glossy ramp, it lacks the glow of a red carpet event. So, how and when did the arrival and departure gates begin to rival coveted runways? “Marilyn Monroe was one of the first glamorous jetsetters; she taught us that air travel was nothing if not a photo opportunity. I remember this image of her leaning against a United Airline aircraft in stilettos,” says designer Narendra Kumar. “Air travel was not always affordable, so, it was celebrities who became icons of glamour and travel,” he adds.

Priyanka Chopra, according to Bhayani, was one of the first Bollywood stars to leverage the opportunity that an airport photo presented. Pic/Viral Bhayani

That was then. The idea of travel fashion truly began to firm up when mass travel took off in the late 1990s. But it wasn’t until the mid-noughties (a decade from 2000 to 2009) that airports became a crucible for celebrity content. The Indian editions of People and Vogue, and celebrity chatter blogging sites like High Heel Confidential (HHC) and Miss Malini had launched. Entertainment-photographers flocked to this promised land. Bhayani was there too.  

This was a big change from earlier when he had had no reason to wait hours at the airport, “unless Michael Jackson was scheduled to show up in India”. And then, Priyanka Chopra took charge.  “She leveraged the star power of celebrities by starting the airport look trend in India,” Bhayani thinks. “She was also the first to get a styling team in order; sometimes, it was they in fact, who tipped us off about her arrival and departure details. Dum hai bhai, she is an astute strategist.”
Soon, Chopra’s celebrity colleagues followed.

Aastha Sharma, Narendra Kumar and Viral Bhayani

“Blogs like HHC and other digital publications watched and dissected celebrity airport looks, their clothes, bags, shoes… it became a competition. It opened up an untapped market for stylists, reps, brands… sab ki dukaan chalu ho gayi,” Bhayani explains.

Around this time, actors also began frequently travelling overseas for awards, events and shoots. “And the presence of the paparazzi made them conscious about their public image, they could no longer get away with wearing what they liked,” says Aastha Sharma, a celebrity stylist and founder of Wardrobist and The Wedding Style Project.

Then, Instagram arrived. Introduced in October 2010, the photo-sharing mobile app effectively rewired celebrity culture for the better, and in some cases, for much, much worse. The layout of the social media platform, a steady stream of same-size images, turned into an equaliser of sorts—your holiday selfie found the same grid space that Sonam Kapoor’s did. With speedy reach and the like and comment option, it marked the rise of Instagram influencers, birthing terms like “trending” while also giving more power to trolls. “The platform upped the stakes of the airport look. Some celebrities went crazy with OTT dressing; thankfully, everyone has calmed down in the pandemic,” laughs Sharma.

The core Instagram demographic is the first generation of millennials and Generation Z for whom being online is a default option rather than something they actively do. This, Kumar believes, pushed the focus from reel to real; loosening up fashion and kicking off athleisure wear in a historic way. The not-so-famous were now also taking a selfie at the airport, self-styled in a trench coat and booties with jogger pants, and posting it on their social media handles, #airportlook announcing their arrival.

Kumar says while the naive believe that it’s the stars that pull out what they wear on flight, it’s usually a team of stylists who put together the “full look” basically tailored for in-flight purposes. Sharma, a stylist for Aishwarya Rai, Kajol, Disha Patni and Neha Dhupia, says that a stylist’s job is not only to dress the stars for special occasions, but also take care of their overall image.

And it is designers who have much to gain. Indian athleisure labels like Kumar’s FKNS compete with younger names like Kanika Goyal; her ’80s and ’90s-groomed denim outfits regularly endorsed by Deepika Padukone. “Where else can you get this kind of reach and publicity?” Kumar asks.

While technology allowed celebrities to rewrite their codes to correspond with their own ambitions, it also peeled away the lustre of exclusivity, slowly moving focus off of the paparazzi. “It’s not the same. Stars now prefer hiring a team of photographers and makeup artists to shoot their airport appearances. These images are often heavily stylised and corrected. Where is the spontaneity?”

That Instagram is thrusting short videos or Reels is yet another buzz kill. Bhayani, a self-confessed “social media keeda”, though, is in no mood to crib. He serves his celebrity airport looks in bite-size videos with music. “It’s content, it’s entertainment,” he reasons. Which explains why he is now thinking laterally in the language of TRPs. “Unless you don’t get trolled, there is no engagement. People come to Instagram to be entertained while watching stars at the airport. Who wants to be at a fashion week anymore?”   

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