Almost six feet tall, Bhumika Arora is quietly taking big strides. At the Fall/Winter 2015-16 shows she walked for Alexander Wang and Marc Jacobs in New York, Gareth Pugh in London, Bottega Veneta and Salvatore Ferragamo in Milan and Stella McCartney and Balmain in Paris. Not only is she driving up the diversity on international runways but also giving us a behind-the-scenes peek at the proceedings and keeping in touch with her Indian roots via Instagram.
Here are five things you need to know about her:
She grew up in a small town in Haryana.
Growing up, she was a tall, skinny girl who thought she was really ugly, and never considered being a model, because where she came from, “nice girls weren’t models,” she told the WSJ in an exclusive interview.
She was discovered on Instagram.
She posted pictures of herself with her friends on Instagram that landed in an Indian fashion magazine where a photographer saw them and reached out to her to shoot her portfolio for free.
She’s backed by the same agency as Kendall Jenner.
The 27-year-old’s New York-based agency, The Society Management, has been working for months towards getting her noticed by influential casting directors, fashion stylists, and industry bigwigs.
She’d be an HR manager if she wasn’t a model.
Arora dropped out of her MBA at DAV College in Chandigarh where she was studying business to move to New Delhi to pursue life as a model.
She was featured in ELLE India’s anniversary issue.
The acid-bright fashion editorial that appeared in our December 2014 edition, was styled by designer Manish Arora, and was shot in his Paris home.
Photographs: Instagram/Bhumika Arora
