ELLE Digital Cover Star: Masoom Minawala Doesn’t Need The Spotlight — She Curates It

There’s a certain kind of digital fame that feeds on noise — and then there’s Masoom Minawala. A decade into a career that predates hashtags and outlasts algorithms, she remains one of the few Indian content creators who has made infrastructure, not virality, her personal metric of success.

She’s walked the runway at Milan Fashion Week for Vaishali S, appeared at Cannes year after year wearing Indian labels by choice, and interviewed a slew of powerhouses on her global talk show. But it’s never been about the flash. It’s about format. And discipline. And intention. "I've always been very inclined towards art, towards creativity,” she says. “Fashion is a voice I chose." It’s that voice — methodical, measured, often underhyped — that’s brought her here. Minawala doesn’t flood your feed. She’s in the rooms that matter, building a narrative around Indian fashion that’s subtle in tone but serious in strategy.

That’s the image most people see: the spotless reels, the three-deep team, the choreography of glam. But I’ve seen her without all of it. In Paris last year, we spent a few days together working and walking and waiting out the chaos. And when someone in our group mentioned they weren’t feeling well, Minawala didn’t blink. She reached into her handbag, pulled out a strip of Pudin Hara, and handed it over with the kind of quiet efficiency only Type A women carry like muscle memory. She followed up hours later to check if they were okay.

That’s when I realised: the thing with Minawala isn’t charm or charisma. It’s care. And a deeply Virgo sense of competence that doesn’t need to be broadcast to be real. She isn’t chaotic. She isn’t loud. But she gets things done. And in 2025, in an industry full of aesthetic churn and collapsing algorithms, that might be the most magnetic thing of all. 

Red Carpet, Rooted

For someone who’s become a fixture on international carpets, Minawala’s approach to dressing isn’t performative. It’s editorial. "The process is first internal and then external,” she says. “What am I looking to represent? Am I going to a global event? Do I want to take an Indian craft to the global event? Or do I want to tell the story of a global brand and bring that to an Indian audience?”

That question defines not just her style but her signature. Whether in structured separates or sculptural silhouettes, there’s always intention stitched into the seams. “There’s always something Indian in what I wear. Whether it's a silhouette, a textile, or a handcrafted detail, it’s my way of telling a story of where I come from and how I carry that culture into every room I walk into.” Even on this cover shoot, she bypassed flashier international options in favour of homegrown pieces that felt considered. She gravitated towards what felt earned, not borrowed.

Craft, With A Capital C

Minawala’s loyalty to Indian fashion isn’t aesthetic. It’s structural. “Awareness is step one. Celebration is step two,” she says. “Only if there's enough awareness around a certain item can we really see the popularity of it growing. And the popularity of an Indian craft growing means that there is real benefit that goes down to the grassroots level, to the tribes, to the artisans that are actually putting in the work and carrying it forward.”

She doesn’t over-intellectualise it, but the strategy is clear. Through social series, styling choices, and red carpet placements, she has become a cultural amplifier. Less a fashion influencer, more a quiet force making the traditional contemporary and the local aspirational.

Her most memorable fashion moment wasn’t her first Cannes appearance, but walking the Milan runway for Vaishali S. “It brings both my worlds together in such a beautiful way. Her technique is inherently connected to Indian craft, and she celebrates that so beautifully on a global stage, which has always been kind of where I lie, being that bridge between Indian fashion and the global industry.”

The Virgo In The Wings

Minawala may be in the frame, but she’s rarely the flake. There’s a project manager’s soul under all that silk. “As a complete Type A Virgo personality, I get bored with things very easily,” she says. “But I've somehow built a life for myself where I'm never bored for any second. Sometimes the hats are ugly and sometimes they're beautiful, but you just wear them and kind of live life anyway.”

Her team describes her as exacting but efficient. She checks in before every look. She’ll redo a video if the emotion isn’t landing right. She likes knowing the schedule. But in between all the structure, there’s something softer. Not everything is engineered. Some of it is just well-held.

The Talk Show As A Trojan Horse

Her latest pivot, The Masoom Minawala Show, isn’t just a content experiment. It’s a statement of phase. She’s moving from presence to platform, from styling to storytelling. “Being able to sit down with the kind of visionaries that I've had the opportunity to sit down with has changed the trajectory of my life,” she says. “They’ve changed the way I think, feel, believe, and live.”

Her most memorable guests so far include Anita Dongre and Falguni Nayar. “Something I took away from both of them is that you can lead with grace and humility. And there is a thing, something known as a quiet power.” It’s a phrase that describes her just as well. There’s no rush. No obsession with being first. Just an ongoing calibration of what matters and how best to show it.

Style, But Make It Strategic

Minawala doesn’t follow fashion rules. She rewrites them mid-season. “One fashion rule that I always follow is, I call it ‘the check-in rule.’ Am I really doing this because it makes me happy, makes me feel a certain way? Or am I just playing into a trend?” And her favourite rule to break? “Unlearning every single rule that I know about fashion.”

Her style icon is Zendaya. “She’s a chameleon. I’m a big fan of the kind of range she brings to the table.” If she had to wear one label for a week? “Lovebirds Studio. Comfortable, versatile. I could spend the entire day in it and still do different things.”

The System That Looks Effortless

Minawala doesn’t dress for attention. She dresses for impact. She doesn’t shoot for likes. She builds for longevity. That calm, calculated energy might not make for a viral reel, but it makes for a career that doesn’t slip when the spotlight moves.

This isn’t just someone who scaled with the creator economy. This is someone who quietly built a company inside it. And like all systems built to last, hers doesn’t beg to be seen. It just keeps working, even when no one’s watching.

Editorial Director: Ainee Nizami Ahmedi; Photographer: Victoria Krundysheva; Fashion Editor: Shaeroy Chinoy; Asst. Art Director: Alekha Chugani; Makeup: Alyssa Mendonsa; Hair: Kunj Sharma; Jr. Bookings Editor: Anushka Patil; Words by: Kannagi Desai; Assisted by: Tejashree Raul, Ridhima Shetty (styling), Sneh Lad (bookings); Production: CutLoose Productions