Press & Reviews
Reviews, features, interviews, excerpts and conversations about the work of Shefalee Vasudev, journalist, author and narrative therapist, and her books Stories We Wear: Status, Spectacle and The Politics of Appearance (Westland, 2025) and Powder Room: The Untold Story of Indian Fashion (Random House, 2012). Each entry links to the original publication.
Reviews · Features & Interviews · Excerpts · Video & Podcasts · Columns · Endorsements · Press Kit
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Reviews
India Today
What Lies Beneath
India Today on the book’s idea of clothes as tools of appearance rather than simply fashion.
Business Standard
Do Appearances, Outfits Carry Texture, History and Politics?
A review that reads each chapter as peeling back a different social mask.
DMDumani Mail
Reading India Through What It Wears
Bhaskar Parichha reads the book as a study of clothing as a social language through which Indians negotiate identity, visibility and power.
India Fashion Icon
India’s Hidden Fashion Narratives
On how the book reframes the conversation about clothing in India beyond trends and social-media aesthetics.
Amar Ujala
Behind the Garments
A Hindi-language review focusing on how India’s political class builds its public image through dress.
Asian Review of Books
Status, Spectacle and The Politics of Appearance
On the contradictions behind image and appearance in a vast and diverse India.
The Tribune
What We Wear and Why
Prasad Bidappa on a book that asks readers to reflect on what self-presentation costs, reveals and conceals.
Scroll
The Indian Look Carries Burdens of Gender, Caste and Is Impossible to Categorise
On the desire to stand out, and the social cost of keeping up appearances, across every rung of Indian society.
The Telegraph
The Gaze Decoded
On the book’s definition of appearance as “the way reality announces itself” and its wide range of subjects.
Deccan Chronicle
Lifestyle Journalism Becomes Political
Places the book in a tradition of quiet cultural criticism, fused with memoir and philosophical reflection.
Deccan Herald
Tailored Truths
A review on why clothes, and the questions we ask about them, are worth taking seriously.
The Book Review
A Look Beyond the Look
The Book Review (India) on the arguments that sit beneath the surface of appearance.
Geeta’s List
Powder Room: The Untold Story of Indian Fashion
Geeta Rao on a well-written and meticulously researched map of the Indian fashion industry.
India Today
Powder Room: The Untold Story of Indian Fashion
Anuja Chauhan on a book that cuts through the clichés of Indian fashion.
Naina.co
Powder Room
A review of the former Marie Claire editor’s account of the Indian fashion industry.
The Hindu
‘I’m a Chronicler, Not a Groupie’
Sheila Kumar on an honest look at the gloss and the dross of fashion, and why the author lifted the lid.
Hindustan Times
Review: Powder Room
Yashica Dutt on the respect the book brings to fashion writing in India.
The Telegraph
Catwalk Queens and Wannabe Stars
The Telegraph on the book’s portraits of models and the power they hold.
Outlook
The Ramp and Its Outskirts
Outlook reviews Powder Room alongside another book on Indian fashion.
Jaya Bhattacharji Rose
Powder Room, Shefalee Vasudev
A publishing consultant’s review of the book.
Features and Interviews
The Indian Express
Why Politicians Refuse to Talk About What They Wear
A feature drawing on the book’s research into the deliberate, unspoken dress codes of Indian politics.
Vogue India
Is Clothing Our Most Constant Performance?
Vogue India on clothing as everyday performance, through the lens of the book.
Grazia India
Shefalee Vasudev’s New Book Unpacks Clothing in India
An introduction to the book and the stories of class, status and identity it uncovers.
UNI
“Our Politicians’ Dress Is Full of Sartorial Clichés”
A news-agency interview on why Indian political dress lacks individuality.
The Voice of Fashion
A Biased Postscript of Stories We Wear
Shefalee’s own reflection on writing the book, and how it reshaped her instincts as a reporter and editor.
Women’s Web
Author’s Corner: With Shefalee Vasudev
An author interview on writing about the Indian fashion industry.
Book Excerpts
Mint Lounge
A Doctor Who Gives New Lives to Burn Victims
An excerpt on plastic surgery, identity and the work of rebuilding faces.
The Nod
Fashion as a Form of Resistance
An excerpt on dress as a tool of protest and self-assertion.
Scroll
Why Attempts to Stylise Khadi for Youth Appeal Have Fallen Short
An excerpt on khadi’s identity crisis and the limits of making it fashionable.
Mid-day
Fashion Is Political
A look inside the book through an extract on the politics of what we wear.
HRThe Hollywood Reporter India
Fashion Takes Flight
An excerpt published in print (PDF copy).
Random House India (Issuu)
Powder Room: Sample Chapter
The publisher’s preview of the book.
Video and Podcasts
OCOrange City Literature Festival
How Fashion Becomes Memory, Power and Mental Health
A festival session on fashion, memory, power and mental health.
Asian Review of Books
Podcast with Shefalee Vasudev
A long-form podcast conversation about the book.
New Books Network
Stories We Wear: Status, Spectacle and the Politics of Appearance
An author interview for the New Books Network podcast series.
AAAutHer Awards
Jaya Bhattacharji Rose in Conversation with Shefalee Vasudev
A conversation about the book for the AutHer Awards, presented by JK Paper.
AAadyam
Conversations with Aadyam: Stories We Wear
A conversation on craft, clothing and the ideas behind the book.
PBPrasad Bidappa
Prasad Bidappa in Conversation with Shefalee Vasudev
A conversation with the fashion consultant on the book and Indian fashion.
Columns and Contributed Writing
ThePrint
LFW’s 25th Anniversary Was All About Theatrical Couture
Column on Lakmé Fashion Week at 25.
ThePrint
Men Get All the Credit for Bandhani. Zakiya Khatri Is on a Mission to Change That
Column on women’s labour in Kutch’s bandhani craft.
ThePrint
Delhi Has Brought a New Chapter in Saree Politics
Column on political dress and the saree.
ThePrint
Chamar Studio Founder Wants Attention Beyond His Caste
Column on caste, design and recognition.
ThePrint
Sabyasachi Is Telling Us: If I Can Do This as a Poor Bengali Boy, Imagine What India Can Do
Column on Sabyasachi and Indian aspiration.
ThePrint
Dear Rahul Gandhi, White Is Privilege
Column on the politics of the white kurta.
The Voice of Fashion
Columns, Editor’s Letters and Interviews
Her archive of writing for The Voice of Fashion.
Endorsements and Back-Cover Blurbs
From the back cover of Stories We Wear (Westland, 2025).
“Creating desire through strategy is probably the highest form of creativity.”
SMSabyasachi Mukherjee
“Long after you have finished it, this chapter will remind you of the reporter’s personal pathos, her muted compassion and the exquisitely tender portrayal of threads that bind a daughter to her father.”
MPMrinal Pande
“Shefalee’s chapter places a prism against death.”
DSDr Shekhar Seshadri
“In politics, clothes are less personal expression than carefully managed performance.”
DADavid Abraham
“Shefalee has brought us face to face with the very palpable identity crisis the world of khadi faces today.”
PRPurnima Rai
Press Kit
Short bio. Shefalee Vasudev is a journalist, author, cultural commentator and narrative therapist. She co-founded The Voice of Fashion, India’s first digital magazine on fashion, culture and design, held senior editorial roles at India Today, The Indian Express and Mint Lounge, and was the launch editor of Marie Claire India. She is the author of Stories We Wear: Status, Spectacle and The Politics of Appearance (Westland, 2025) and Powder Room: The Untold Story of Indian Fashion (Random House, 2012).
Downloads. Headshot · Stories We Wear cover · Powder Room cover
Press, interviews and speaking enquiries: shefatwork@gmail.com
More: About Shefalee · Stories We Wear · Powder Room