@zinniakumar has walked runways, fronted global magazine covers and addressed world leaders, although her most ambitious work is unfolding now. “I have always felt like I do not really belong anywhere,” she says. “So I thought, why not make a space where everyone can belong?”
She is proud to be seen as a South Asian model and a survivor, although she is equally intent on loosening the grip of those labels. “Labels try to explain inequality by isolating the individual, rather than recognising the community around them,” she tells @ariellekatos in our December digital cover story. “I choose to anchor myself in the passions that guide me, in the parts of life that sit beyond cultural hierarchy and judgment.” Read the full cover story at the link in bio.
@zinniakumar wears @vancleefarpels Alhambra Secret Pendant watch 18K white gold, Diamond, Pietersite. @vancleefarpels Perlée diamonds ring, 5 rows 18K white gold, Diamond.
Words @ariellekatos
Photography: @danielgoodephoto
Video director: @ribalhosn
Fashion director: @jessicasteuarthoyler
Fashion assistant: @kaileeewaller
Digi op: Jon Calvert
Ist assistant: @remy_mitchelljames
Assistant: @orsonheidrich
BTS video: @jasperkarolewski
Hair: @darenborthwick
Makeup: @nishavanberkelmakeup
Production director: @rebeccamooreproductions
Art director: @lpl.creative
NGV Gala. An evening shaped by the radical architectures of Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo — two designers who reimagined form, silhouette and the politics of presence. Their work has always felt less like fashion and more like a reorientation of how the body occupies space.
The night unfolded in dialogue with these ideas: structure, stillness, and the quiet force of design. Grateful to Vogue Australia for the invitation, and to the team who crafted a look that held both precision and poetry.
A moment of reflection in the galleries led me to Dora Maar’s Fashion Study — a reminder that fashion is not only worn, but witnessed, archived and continually reinterpreted through the eyes of women who dared to see differently.
