Kolhapuris, silver stacks, chunky rings, and vibrant cottons – Aparajita Toor’s sartorial choices are anything but generic. One glance at her Instagram profile and you know you are in for a visual treat. Her bohemian soul finds its expression through her well-worn collection of metal jewellery and a lot of unconventional layering.
Be it block prints, gamchha checks, plain linens or just denims with a white shirt, Toor makes sure to elevate every outfit with her thick kadas, anghootis and long chains. In a world that romanticises minimalism, Toor displays a kind of brazen maximalism that’s rooted in Indian craftsmanship. “Textiles, for me, arrive before words. They feel like memories, especially those of my nani, always wrapped in the finest weaves without ever naming them. Choosing one region or weave over another feels wrong, almost unkind to me. I’m instinctively drawn towards handloom – Jamdani from Bengal, Tangaliya from Gujarat, Kunabi Weave from Goa; anything that still remembers the hands that made it. I don’t look for perfection; I look for soul. When I wear these textiles, it feels like carrying something forward.”
Her social media brims with colours, either via stones or textiles. There’s no sight of grey tanks and faded crop tops that has almost become the undeclared uniform of today’s generation. Rather, gota patti, mirror work and lots of embroidery are the main components of her looks. The result? A truly bohemian moodboard that blends contemporary sensibilities with cultural awareness.
“I truly believe that life itself is an art piece, and we are constantly responding to it – through moments, conversations, silences. Clothing, for me, is just another medium. What I wear today is an accumulation of experiences, not a decision made in front of a mirror.”
Repeating pieces of jewellery is not an alien concept to Toor who swears by her collectibles, including the intricate wrist charms, anklets and oxidised rings that are common factors in most of her looks. However, the term that the West has coined as bohemian owes its roots to the tribes of rural India. The Lambadi and Rabadi tribes of Rajasthan did stacking decades before it was a social media trend. The use of heavy metal jewellery, lac, ivory and glass bangles as well as multiple ear piercings (seen mostly in the Koli tribes of Maharashtra), all tell a deep seated truth about how global fashion takes cues from the very crevices of Indian culture.
“People often ask me about my boho style, and I smile, wondering if rural Indian women even recognise that word, yet they embody it fully. My understanding of bohemian style comes from my roots; from women who layer without apology, who choose jewellery with memory, who dress with history rather than rules. Intentional bohemia is not chaos. It’s knowing exactly where you come from and dressing accordingly,” expresses the designer.
Fashion choices today have become so restricted to fast fashion brands that offer myriad versions of the same silhouettes that style such as Toor’s serve as ocular indulgence. When asked about her favourite go-to ensemble, she proudly says, “I don’t believe in choosing favourites. But I often return to traditional pieces like a chintz skirt with white blouse, a gamchha or sooti saree layered with a blazer.”
If there has been one takeaway for me from the Bohemian Maharani (as she addresses her alter ego through her other Instagram handle), it is that personal style is less about understanding how the world is dressing, and more about how and what the people around us have been wearing for generations. From handwoven fabrics to handmade jewellery, her choices reflect years of tradition that come from a sense of freedom – from judgement, from the understanding of “what’s trending”, and from the desperate need to chase likes and shares. Perhaps, it’s this tension, rooted in the present yet unmistakably futuristic that defines an iconic individual style vocabulary like hers.