Pooja Mor in the perfect black dress
Our autumn muse Pooja Mor models this season’s best investment: a dress you can wear wherever, whenever and forever.
THE MUSE
Pooja Mor is learning how to fly.
”I’m doing a course, with this pilot teaching us. I just flew from JFK to Connecticut and back. I was pretty nervous, at first I was like ‘oh my gosh, oh my gosh’. But when you’re up there and you see the sky, you feel like you’re on top of the world. It’s so beautiful, the sun and the clouds… Everything just stops.”
Pooja Mor smiles her characteristic smile: gentle and fiery at the same time. She’s right in the middle of the hectic whirlwind that is fashion month, still talking to her feels like an oasis of serenity.
”I learned this Chinese meditation which I do every day. Even
if I just do 20 minutes, it really helps me relax. It’s so important
to calm yourself, to think about things before you head into them.”
WHAT’S THE NEXT ADVENTURE YOU’LL BE HEADING INTO?
”I didn’t
really know I had this adventurous side in me before I moved to New
York! I want to complete this [flying] thing and be pro at it – we’ll
see what comes next. Maybe jumping off some mountains?”
For me, fashion must be comfortable.
POOJA MOR
A model and amateur adventurer was not the career Pooja Mor’s mother
had in mind for her beautiful and brainy daughter. Pooja was studying
computer engineering to hopefully become an entrepreneur, when she
‘accidentally’ won a modelling contest (she was originally there to
help organise it.) The rest is, as they say, model history in the
making.
Dreaming of our five muses for this season’s Premium
Essentials line – a capsule collection of wardrobe must-haves
designed to last a lifetime – Pooja Mor’s simple elegance immediately
came to mind. (She credits years of training the classical Indian
kathak dance for her elegant movements.) More precisely, Pooja Mor
seemed like the perfect woman to model a dress we believe will be our
wardrobe hero for years to come. A simple, long-sleeved black dress
that is equally stylish and comfortable. An evening dress for the
day-time adventurer, if you like.
”For me, fashion must be comfortable,” Pooja Mor says promptly.
TELL US YOUR BEAUTY SECRETS.
”My mother is super traditional.
She always tells me to remove my makeup with coconut oil and to use
natural and organic products. I even wash my face with milk! Just
normal whole milk, like my mother did for me when I was a kid.”
Wear it with this season’s best boots – mid-high, in luxe leather.
DESIGNER CHATARINA FORSETH
THE DRESS
”I feel this dress is autumn’s equivalent of
summer’s kaftans,” says designer Chatarina Forseth. She and her team
wanted to create an elegant dress, comfortable enough to wear anytime
and anywhere.
”It’s a timeless piece. Still, the straight silhouette, the draped detail and the grosgrain belt makes it cool and on-trend this season.” Wear it with this season’s best boots – mid-high, in luxe leather – or even with your favourite pair of trousers.
”It is really a versatile piece,” says Chatarina Forseth.
In a series on this season’s Premium Essentials – wardrobe must-haves meant to last a lifetime – we have photographed five women who all are our muse of the season, each of them wearing an essential piece we can’t live without in AW17. Click here to see actress and screenwriter Coco Baudelle in this season’s dream coat, here to see Camille Roche in the most perfect white shirt, and here to see Eliana Gil Rodriguez in autumn’s most coveted suit.
The dress and boots Pooja is wearing will launch exclusively
online on 5 October.
THE TEAM
PHOTOGRAPHER: Alexandra Nataf | Bridge Artists
STYLIST: Ilona Hamer | Bridge Artists
HAIR: Conrad Dornan | Bridge Artists
MAKEUP: Chiho Omae | Frank Reps
MODEL: Pooja Mor | Elite Models