A very polite and suave young man complimented Meher Castellino on her skirt, and sought permission to shoot our picture. No, he was not a photographer, not really, he was a blogger, and the pics would be up on the blog 'The Devil Wore'. "Do look it up Ma'm." Charmed! "Can we have your card?" I asked. "Nooo, I don't have a card, I am only 18," he complained. Wow! For one so young, he had tremendous style, confidence and loads of attitude. I researched his blog in detail. Here was someone who knew his Elbaz from a Rei. Santu's was a different style of a fashion blog, with interviews of photographers, models, more words, opinions. He is a writer, with wit and passions in his expressions. He heralds and shreds, and minces no words, in giving his opinions with confidence, and I honestly felt that I could agree with him on most counts. Santu Mishra is a fashion design student at Pearl Academy of Fashion, so that officially qualifies him to have a deeper insight into this realm. His reason for blogging, he said, was the quick acknowledgement. And true enough, the first person to comment on his blog and compliment him hugely was Anaita Shroff Adajania, Fashion Director of Vogue India, who invited him to become a Vogue blogger.
Santu started his blog in 2009, when he arrived in Delhi. Over the two years, there is a shift in his blogging style. More mature? Definitely, and also more arty. He is evolving, and his creative streak is exploring avenues. His experiment with photography is terrific. "Fashion hungry from the start?" I ask. No, in high school years in Guwahati, he was fascinated by snakes and thought to study them as a scientist. And though he started out as a fashion blogger, and is a fashion design student, he has moved on. His blog is an indicator. Santu is intrinsically a very creative person, who is yet exploring the perfect avenue to manifest this trait. In fact blogging has helped him evolve faster, and he already sees the shift, even as he is half way through his fashion design course. He wants to become a writer, design spreads, get into publishing and become the editor of Vogue India, by the time he reaches the ripe old age of thirty! Vogue? Why not, by the time he is ready, Vogue too could have outgrown its gender bias of only female editors. Anything is possible.By Neelima Mishra Agrawal
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