The debonair blogger

 Yvan Rodic, the Facehunter guy, Hotel Mariott, Mumbai

He might not be that damn eminent in India but on the international 'street fashion' blogging scenario he is quite a rage. Yvan Rodic has covered more than half the world in search of street style that is simple yet edgy. It was his first time in India and I was extremely excited to meet him but we screwed up a little in the beginning by getting kinda err late. Damn! Can you bloody beat that! We got freaking late. We had been warned about Mumbai's traffic but anyways it was extremely embarrassing and when we reached he was calmly sitting in one corner of the cafeteria in Marriott with our few other colleagues (who were absolutely on time), no signs of annoyance or irritation in his eyes. I did not ever expect him to be so poised and cool. As he introduced himself I realized that I had been pronouncing his name totally wrong all this time. Its E-van and not Van. The first few minutes went by with us talking about our blog, what it's all about and showing him few of our works. I couldn't make out at all if he was impressed with our work but that wasn't what we were there for. I was fervently waiting for the time when I'd get the chance to throw questions at him. So, finally when the time came, I kind of went on and on and on. 

I've always wondered how he ever came up with the idea of capturing street fashion at all. When asked he replied on the spur of the moment (ofcourse he had been asked this question several times and knew exactly what to say) that he had been capturing people for quite a long time but it was only in 2006 that he started putting them up in Myspace and later in his blog and people started appreciating it. Gradually it became his living when his blog became popular and he started getting offers from ad agencies. He even has a website now, www.yvanrodic.com, and is in the process of completing his first book.  

Whoa! I didn’t know about that. When would it be out in stores? "Around early 2013." he replied cheerfully.

Man that’s a long time but writing a book is obviously not a week’s job.

So, after the book what else? “Dunno. I don’t restrict myself from doing things. Like for instance, although professionally I’m not a designer I really wanted to design a pair of shoes and I went ahead and did it. I’m wearing it right now.” He said pointing at his shoes and as we craned our necks to take a look at it he suddenly lifted his leg up so that everybody could see it. Now, that was unexpected. Well, the shoe looked good, minimalistic yet stylish, not great but good.

Now, while I was having a mental dilemma regarding a particular question that I was very keen on putting across, one of my colleagues asked him the reason for his blog being predominantly about women’s fashion, "Women in all parts of the world are more fashionable than man." he admitted. (Good Gracious I totally agree.)

“I did not intentionally do it, it just happened. I don’t blame man for it either. They have lesser options than women after all.”

I finally couldn’t hold back my question. In one of his interviews I recalled him quoting that he didn't like it when accessorizing got overboard like in the FRUiTS magazine. When asked why he cleared the air immediately by saying that he had nothing against FRUiTS and respected their work a lot but it’s just that he didn't favor fashion that was too rebellious and brings out negative connotations. "Fashion should be about happiness and positivity. FRUiTS is good in its own way but what I seek on the streets is not aggressive but simple fashion and it has nothing to do with designer labels. I don't run after people who wear the best of brands. I run after people who wear their own style." 

Now that was bloody impressive! I’ve always had this notion that fashion bloggers in particular are all gaga over tag hags and although what they capture is pretty darn awesome they have nothing much to offer than people flaunting lux labels and now, all of a sudden, here comes this world renowned Swiss blogger who stunned me for a moment by proving my very confident notion absolutely wrong. Well, for the first time in life I was happy to have been proved wrong!

The meeting ended in a while and after clicking a few pictures with him it was time to part ways. This debonair young man did give me a few taken aback moments but thankfully they only upbeated the whole conversation and, at the end of it, definitely made me realize that my perception about all fashion bloggers being materialistic and label freaks was obviously just a prejudice and there were exceptions, one of which, was standing right in front of me.