Bhavitha Mandava

Bhavitha Mandava (born 3 February 2000) is an Indian fashion model. She gained global recognition in 2025 after being the first Indian woman to open a show for Chanel at the Métiers d'Art show 2026.

Quotes

• Brown representation in fashion is lacking. At castings I'd be waiting in line with another Brown model and we'd look at each other and know only one of us was getting the job. At Chanel, it was different. Matthieu made space for everybody.
  • "Meet Bhavitha Mandava, the history-making, hobbymaxxing Chanel model". Dazed. 10 December 2025.
  • On becoming the first Indian model to open a Chanel show.

• Opening the Chanel show was deeply personal to me, and then suddenly it became symbolic in a way I didn't expect. In the West, it touched on this question of who gets to be included in the idea of beauty and whether Indian women are even allowed to be seen as traditionally beautiful. In India, colourism is really so deep-rooted. People said I looked like 'any girl on the street' because fair skin has often been treated as the default. I don't think it's really about me, it's culture renegotiating itself.
  • Nnadi, Chioma (11 February 2026). ""Who Could Go Back To A 9 To 5?" Fledgling Super Bhavitha Mandava Is Living A Fashion Fairy Tale". British Vogue.
  • On colourism in India following her historic Chanel appearance.

• For me, opening the Chanel show, open this discourse of who is considered beautiful. The Internet was divided into two where one of them didn’t even realize Indian women are beautiful. And that was the strangest thing I’ve ever heard. Of course, there are a lot of racist comments, and I knew that would come, but them being like, Oh, shit, Indian women are actually beautiful. It’s not the compliment that they think it is.
  • Chowdhury, Shubhangi (13 February 2026). "'Cannot accept dusky skin tone': Chanel star Bhavitha Mandava on India's colorism". The American Bazaar.