While doing laundry, the model Bhavitha Mandava realized just how famous she’d become. After moving from Hyderabad, India, to New York City in 2023, she frequented a Brooklyn laundromat run by an elderly woman. “She never cared about me, and I had always wanted to be best friends with her,” Mandava explains. Then, last December, Mandava went viral for opening the Chanel “Métiers d’Art” show, which was held on an abandoned subway platform in downtown New York. When she returned to the laundromat, the elderly woman asked, “Are you that girl?” “I quickly became her favorite customer, if I do say so myself,” Mandava says.
She had moved to the States not to model, but to get a master’s degree in integrated design and media at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering. Her parents raised her to “study well, get a nine-to-five, and climb the career ladder”—so she planned to do exactly that after studying architecture at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University. But Mandava realized she “did not like practicing architecture as much as studying it,” so she enrolled in graduate school. At five feet nine and with a radiant smile, she’d been scouted by many modeling agents, but she’d always declined their offers. “You hear really terrible things about being a model,” she explains. “It sort of scared me.” But in 2024, during the summer while she was still in graduate school, she was approached by Showin Bishop, an agent, on the subway at the Atlantic Avenue station in Brooklyn. At that time, “I felt my plan A was not working at all. No tech companies were hiring,” she says. Struggling to afford student life in New York City, Mandava agreed to try modeling.
One of the first castings she attended was for Bottega Veneta. To prepare, “I walked on the street a bunch of times in heels,” which Mandava didn’t ordinarily wear. She did her first-ever runway walk in front of Matthieu Blazy, then creative director of Bottega Veneta. He was instantly captivated. “He hugged me and was like, ‘We’re going to work together for a long time.’ I thought, Yeah, sure,” she says. Shortly after, Mandava made her runway debut for Bottega Veneta’s spring/summer 2025 show and starred in the brand’s spring campaign.
Celine tunic.
In December 2024, Blazy was named the artistic director of Chanel. Mandava feared she wouldn’t fit the Chanel girl mold and would no longer be a part of his vision, but Blazy stuck to his word. Her agent organized a meeting with the designer. “As I told you, we’re gonna work together for a long time,” Blazy said, once again giving her a big hug. Mandava walked in his debut Chanel presentation, and, for his “Métiers d’Art” collection, she made history as the first Indian model to open a Chanel show. The location worked as a subtle nod to Mandava’s discovery story: Walking down the subway station stairs in a Chanel quarter-zip sweater and jeans, she looked like a particularly chic New Yorker who turns heads on her daily commute. Her parents’ emotional reaction to the runway appearance—her mother cried and yelled “Bhavitha!” at a live stream—garnered millions of views on Instagram.
Prada knit tank, camisole, and skirt; Falke tights (throughout).
Blazy and Mandava’s relationship now transcends work; she has confided in him her fears that modeling careers are short-lived. “I thought, I have probably three years—I need to max this out,” she explains. “But then every time I talk to Matthieu, he’s like, ‘Bhavitha, this is not a sprint; it’s a marathon. You’re not going to lose everything the next day—you can take it easy.’” This past May, they even survived their first kerfuffle together. Mandava made her Met Gala debut as a guest of Chanel and wore a couture version of her “Métiers d’Art” look: The “jeans” were silk muslin printed to appear like denim, while her transparent muslin blouse looked like a dainty quarter-zip. Among the sea of ball gowns, her seemingly casual outfit was met with criticism online. Mandava was entirely unfazed. “I was very excited to be there, and the aftermath also shows that it was truly art,” she explains. “Art always divides people.”
Amid all this, and against all scheduling odds, Mandava also completed her master’s degree in May 2025. “I had to let go of so many jobs to write exams—big jobs where I could have made a lot more money,” she explains. “But I kept going back to the reason why I started modeling, which was to pay the student debt.” Her new career has opened very different scholastic opportunities: Mandava has developed an appreciation for the technical aspect of fashion. “I’ve been meaning to ask Chanel if I can do a small internship. I learned how to do embroidery, but I want to actually go to le19M [Chanel’s hub for multidisciplinary artisans] for a month or two and really indulge in the craft,” she says. “Recently, they acquired Charvet, so maybe I’ll do a Charvet internship.”
Le Monde Béryl x Kim Sion shoes (throughout). Miu Miu coat and dress.
She’s also taking a scholarly approach to her modeling work. In January, for Blazy’s debut Chanel haute couture presentation, Mandava landed the coveted role of the Chanel bride, a slot that is typically reserved for long-established models—Karl Lagerfeld often had Claudia Schiffer or Linda Evangelista do the honors. Prior to the show, Mandava “did not know what couture was,” so she went to the library in Paris. “I looked up fashion books. I saw the past Chanel brides and went on YouTube to see how they were walking and what they were doing. I just wanted to indulge myself in the history of it,” she explains. Mandava walked the runway grinning in a sequined skirt suit, white feathers sprouting from her pulled-back hair. “It was so cute and probably something my parents have been waiting to see—but without a man, which, in my opinion, is even better!”
Tom Ford jacket.
The scope of Mandava’s modeling keeps expanding: In March, she was officially named a Chanel ambassador—joining the ranks of Ines de la Fressange, Caroline de Maigret, and Claudia Schiffer and making history as the brand’s first-ever model ambassador from India. In addition to her collaboration with Blazy, she’s worked with Dior and has appeared on the covers of magazines. “I don’t know what I’m going to do next, but I don’t fear the future as much as I used to,” she says. Her only priority, for now, is to start learning French. “I feel like it’s the least I could do.”
Hair by Syd Hayes for Conair at Art + Commerce; makeup by Thom Walker at Art + Commerce. Model: Bhavitha Mandava at Women Management. Casting by Ashley Brokaw Casting.
Produced by DoBedo Represents; Photo Assistants: Joe Reddy, Abena Appiah; Fashion Assistant: Eli Richards; Hair Assistant: Miles Twist; Makeup Assistant: Kate O’Reilly.
