Sonam Kapoor: ‘Dress for yourself. And raise kinder boys’

Sonam Kapoor changed the fashion conversation in Bollywood years before French luxury brand Louis Vuitton appointed Deepika Padukone as their global brand ambassador and Gucci did the same with Alia Bhatt. An early adopter of international designers, she championed avant-garde silhouettes, vintage couture, dramatic capes, and experimental Indian designers on global platforms. Now at 40, as she readies to welcome her second child, the actor has been busy promoting a selection of brands. Chopard is one of them, and closer home, it’s Zoya. The brand ambassador of India’s homegrown luxury jewellery brand from the Tata Group, speaks to The Hindu about her favourite My Embrace pieces from Zoya’s Autograph Collection. “I wear it on repeat — I stack it, style it, live in it. It feels intimate, comforting, and is a beautiful reminder of being me,” says Kapoor, also insisting that she is not “exhibitionist” but that she dresses for herself. More from her on fashion and parenting:

“Be yourself”

Kapoor says she never dresses for other people. Being comfortable in her own skin is a priority. “Be yourself,” she says, “and wear things that enhance you.”

Her thumb rule on the red-carpet, especially at international events such as the Cannes Film Festival, is that “jewellery and clothes should not wear you; you should wear them. Nothing should stand out except for you”.

Less is not more

“I love stacking My Embrace jewellery,” Kapoor reiterates. The rose and yellow gold mixed-metal kada from the My Embrace collection is a personal favourite, she adds. As the daughters of Anil Kapoor and fashion and jewellery designer Sunita Kapoor, this actor and her celebrity stylist sister are pros at creating maximum impact with jewellery. “I don’t ever feel less is more…,” she says. “Wear more jewellery, it works for us [Indians].”

Dressed in an Amit Agarwal structured yet fluid gown for the Zoya shoot, Kapoor says he enjoys showing off India’s beautiful clothes and jewellery. When asked about foregrounding Indian artisans as a fashion icon on global platforms, she says, “India as a country is known for its beautiful crafts and kaarigars (craftspeople), who do the most incredible job with garments and jewellery”.

On motherhood and raising boys in India

Kapoor confesses that she truly embraced herself as her firstborn Vayu’s mother. To her parenting is to be very involved in the process, “making my son aware that his mother goes to work…he knows that Mumma’s shooting whenever I am out for work, and I think that’s a very cool thing for him to know,” she says. “At the same time, I’d like to bring a child up who’s kind, polite and respectful.” This is paramount in a country like India, where it is an uneven road to gender parity. With a parity score of just 64.1%, India is among the lowest-ranked countries in South Asia, according to the Global Gender Gap Index report released in June last year. It is often said that “a woman should understand her worth but bringing up boys who understand the value of a woman is equally important,” Kapoor adds.

Demanding a clean India

Like all parents, Kapoor is concerned about raising her children in an increasingly polluted world. Observing that sustainability is inherent in Indian culture, she says it is for the citizens to be mindful of “not using single-use plastics”. She has often been outspoken about the rise in pollution both in India and globally. “We don’t have any civic sense, we don’t take care of things around us… Look at Bombay (Mumbai), it’s deteriorating day by day, the pollution is so bad and our rivers are drying up; they are filthy, our roads are filthy, there’s construction [happening] everywhere, and it is for the citizens to stand up and ask the questions,” she concludes.