Ragini is a fashion blogger who lives in India. When I started reading her blog, A Curious Fancy, I was immediately thrown into her world which is full of lovely colors and inspiration. More specifically, I adore her style! The blog always makes me realize it’s important to be unique and focus on what you like. Her energy that comes through the blog is warm, creative, and encouraging. If you believe something is stopping you from making the most of your life, her blog is the right place to visit.
Please enjoy Ragini’s live your color including featuring our , Clear Star Socks and Wool Blend Cable Over the Knee Socks.
-Anthour: Sachi
December 22, 2017
1. Where did you grow-up and how did it shape who you are today?
I grew up in Calcutta, India. Back in the late 80s and 90s, Calcutta was a kind of dystopian concrete jungle but I was lucky to live in the suburbs where I spent my early years climbing trees, exploring meadows and going on long walks along the paddy fields with my father and grandfather. There’d always be cows grazing beneath the kitchen window and every Sunday someone would bring over ponies to graze as well! I think the contrast between the greenery I was surrounded by and the smoky, dilapidated city I commuted to everyday for school left me with a lifelong love for nature. My own little flat is filled with plants, and I look for greenery wherever I go. It soothes my heart!
2. Why did you decide to start your own blog?
I started blogging at a time when plus size fashion blogging was in its infancy. Social media had just come into being and the concept of fashion blogs alone had taken off barely a few years ago. This took place in 2009. Back then, if you wanted to create your own space on the internet for talking about things you were interested in, you got yourself a LiveJournal, or a blog. So after spending a year posting stories to the LiveJournal Fashionista community, I started a blog! Which I eventually named “A Curious Fancy”.
3. What’s the most important thing about creating your blog articles?
When I post something on my blog, I want it to be visually striking. I started my blog wanting to create fashion imagery in the sort of moody, dreamy aesthetic which would rarely feature people who looked like me. These days there’s so much more variety in the world of plus size fashion blogging, but as a fat Indian woman, I want to spread the message that being fat and brown doesn’t mean having to develop a bold and sexy aesthetic as is expected of us. Using the images that I create, I want the world and especially women who look like me to see that fat and brown can also be soft and ethereal.
4. What do you like to do for recreation?
I read a lot, I watch a lot of awful sci-fi, I bake and tend to my plants, and sometimes I try my hand at DIY projects which aren’t always successful but when they are, they make me very proud :)
5. What is your favorite season?
Monsoon, absolutely. Nothing compares to the feeling of the first rainstorm after a long, dry summer. Monsoon is just pure romance.
6. Could you tell us about the location you chose for the photo shoot and why it holds a special place in your heart?
We used a few different locations for the photos. The first set was shot in my living room which I’ve turned into a cozy, bohemian nook. My flat is my sanctuary. When I moved here, I very deliberately set out to make it as homey and cozy as possible. I’ve moved around a lot the past several years in order to find the right location, because it’s really important for me to have these snug, cozy spaces where I can feel at home. We shot another set up on the terrace of my apartment building, and for the third set we went to this coffee shop called Third Wave Coffee Roasters which has a very warm and relaxed vibe that I love.
7. What is your favorite cultural event/holiday in India?
I think Diwali would come the closest if it weren’t so loud! Back in my hometown of Calcutta, the traditional winter fairs in January were always my favorite. We have fairs at different times of the year but the winter fairs are the biggest and they always feel wonderfully festive at what is a pretty dreary time of the season. They have the food, the fairground rides, the rows upon rows of stalls selling all kinds of knickknacks, home goods, books, plants, cheap jewelry, clothes, rummage sales of secondhand clothes (which is where a lot of stuff donated to charity ends up, incidentally!) ...the list is endless! When I was a kid the circus would come to town along with the fair too, but that’s mostly been phased out these days thankfully for the animals!
8. What would you recommend if we visit your country?
India is such a massive country, it’s difficult to recommend just one thing or place to visit! And there are so many places I haven’t been to either! Amongst where I have been, I’d pick the rainforests of southern India, they’re just magical.
9. What is your favorite quote to live by?
“Turn on, tune in, drop out.” I spent most of my teens obsessing over 60’s counterculture, and that quote stuck with me. I used to dream of living in a commune back then. For me, these words represent the kind of life I eventually want to have, which is a self-sustaining homesteader on our own little farm, where I get to grow my own vegetables, sew my own clothes and make butter and cheese by hand! It may sound like a farfetched dream, but that’s what we (my fiancé and I) plan to do in the next 10 years!
10. What does "#LiveYourColor" mean to you?
I love colour: Especially Jewel tones, autumn shades, bright berry red, and golden mustard. Speaking as a fashion blogger, I love using bold, eye catching colour amidst a world of beiges and greys. Speaking as a woman of colour, living my colour means bearing my heritage proudly while remaining true to the individual I am. However this could be a contradiction of which is caught between the opposing tides of two very different cultures (mine, and my fiancé’s), but also has a unique and recognizable voice. Nurturing and shaping that voice which is quintessentially my own is what living my colour is all about.
All images by Ragini of A Curious Fancy, follow her on Instagram!
Shop Ragini’s look at Tabbisocks!