Leadership “Style”

Now for something completely different … some of India’s leading fashion designers reflect on how Jawaharlal Nehru set the trend even in the sartorial realm:

According to designer Ritu Kumar, achkans are knee-length or longer coats of heavy brocade that were worn by the royalty in Lucknow. “Nehru started wearing them in khadi, with a white churidaar and always knee-length, and made them his trademark,” she says.

n this context, one of us recalls a decades-old discussion with a handsome uncle on why he never wore a moustache. The suggestion that this had to do with American film heroes like Gregory Peck was summarily dismissed. It turned out that the uncle’s role model for the clean shaven look was none other than Pandit Nehru!