In order to become a Chanel model, one must undergo an extensive, competitive process that includes meeting physical requirements, presenting exceptional runway and posing skills, being represented by a modeling agency, building a compelling portfolio, and last but not least, auditioning for the spot. And while the process is extensive, if you are really lucky and have unique features, like Bhavitha Mandava, you may get to skip the whole thing. Mandava’s luck was so strong that it allowed her to make fashion history by being the first Indian model to star in a Chanel fashion show.
Mandava grew up in India, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in architecture. After graduating, she moved to New York to get her Master’s in interactive design and media at NYU. Like any average New Yorker, Mandava often used the subway as her mode of transportation, but little did she know it would change her life. On an ordinary Tuesday evening, two weeks before the spring/summer 2025 shows (late 2024), standing on the Subway platform, the graduate student caught the eye of a fellow passenger who happened to be Matthieu Blazy, the creative director of Bottega Veneta at the time. At first, Mandava was not interested in becoming a model, but knowing that the opportunity would help her pay off student debt, she accepted it. As a result, the NYU student appeared to strut down the runway at the Bottega Veneta 2025 Spring show in a youthful, yet fanciful look from their collection, marking her official debut as a model. Her immediate success led her to be cast for Dior and Courreges’s shows.
As soon as Blazy was selected as the creative director at Chanel, he made sure to bring Mandava along with him, not only to walk his debut spring 2026 show, but also to have her open Chanel’s 2025 Metiers d’art show. The show was held in an inoperative Bowery subway station containing the J/Z trains, in inspiration of Blazy and Mandava’s first encounter. This was a significant moment for her and the fashion industry, as she became the first Indian model to be featured in a Chanel show. The graduate student expressed absolute glee, writing in an Instagram post after the show, “Can’t put into words how much this means to me,” according to Vogue. Her parents openly expressed their pride for her as Mandava posted their reactions watching the show on Instagram.
Chanel’s infamous Métiers d’Art Show featured Mandava in her own niche, as she walked in a subway station and wore an outfit similar to the one she was wearing when she met Blazy, according to Vogue. With her long, liberated black hair and natural makeup, she wore a look that represents the show’s casual style: a white T-shirt, blue denim pants, a half-zip sweater, a suede bag, and a jacket hanging from her arm. With her confidence, polished face, alluring smile, and “magnetic gaze” that she vividly expressed in her strut, it is said that she will be a much-desired model in the future.
Interesting how that very Tuesday evening of taking the subway changed Mandava’s life forever and created historical significance in the fashion industry. Her story proves to each of us how unexpected our path in life can be and the importance of letting life take us along for the journey, not the other way around, as one never knows what might happen.
