Bengaluru/Chennai, February, 2018: Mustache Under My Nose-Ring – A gender neutral fashion, design and beauty initiative by Bengaluru based non-binary filmmaker Shailaja Padindala & Chennai fashion design Purushu Arie.
MUSTACHE UNDER MY NOSE-RING
Mustache under my nose ring is an attempt to create an inclusive gender neutral community of fashion, design and beauty. The crux of this initiative is to break stereotypes about how beauty is defined and expectations are set for women and men. The absence of body hair for women (especially facial and armpit hair) and the presence of the very same to be a man (moustache as a sign of manliness) are cultural boundaries that aim to constrict the idea of gender and beauty.
Clothes, skin tone and even mannerisms are other aritificial boundaries perpetuated and habituated as dogmatic socio-cultural norms. Mustache under my nose-ring is a movement to address the evolving form of feminine and masculine beauty and how it meets the eye of the beholder.
Mustache under my nose-ring portrays often overlooked alternative realities that are often too raw for the society where we are building walls and wearing masks – A society that finds it uneasy to acknowledge that there’s no masculinity without femininity and the other way around. It’s never just this or that, it’s always a bit of this and that.
Model: Shailaja Padindala
Photography: Vishnu Dev
Costume & Styling: Purushu Arie
About Purushu Arie
Purushu Arie founded India’s most read men’s fashion blog in 2009 while studying fashion design in New Delhi. At the age of 19, he was invited by Fashion Design Council to review shows at India Fashion Week, New Delhi. Ever since, Purushu has collaborated with more than 60 retail and luxury brand and is rated among best fashion bloggers in India. Following a stint as menswear designer at Lee Cooper Mumbai, he relocated to Chennai in 2013 where he presently resides. The 26yr old NIFT New Delhi alumnus launched India’s first exclusive gender neutral fashion label in 2017.