Ask fashion entrepreneur and dancer Pernia Qureshi—one of the most stylish women in the country—where she gets her sartorial flair from, and ‘I got it from my mamma’ could easily sum up her response. Style is embedded in her being, and she has spent a lifetime honing her impeccable aesthetic, without even having to try. “My mother has an incredibly superior sense of style. She’s so chic on a daily basis. I really wish she had a career in fashion because she is so talented,” says the co-founder of pre-loved shopping destination, Saritoria. As a five-year-old growing up in Rampur, Pernia would spend hours in her mother, Nasreen Qureshi’s, dressing room that was laden with mirrors and fitted with “a red fuzzy carpet,” she recalls. “I would stay up all night trying on her clothes. Coincidentally, my daughter Sophia too loves spending time in my mother’s closet and rummaging through her drawers now!”
The apple does't fall far from the tree
“Two peas in a pod,” is how Pernia sums up her fashion equation with her mother. In fact, when Pernia was studying in New York, she’d often return home to find that she and her mother had unknowingly picked up the same pieces in different parts of the world. “We walk into a room and have the same sense of space and aesthetic. We are the same size, so we’ve always shared everything. You can say we bond a lot over fashion,” she says. Nasreen agrees: “Fashion is very much a focal point in my life, it is something that gives me joy and indulges my creativity. Pernia has embraced this world of mine since she’s been born, and although my younger daughter is simple, she also enjoys fashion in her own way.”
In fact, fashion has served as a glue for other female bonds in Pernia’s life too. She thinks back to her nani’s love for fashion. “She was from Lucknow and moved to Pakistan after she got married. She’d casually wear cotton farshi ghararas at home. She stitched my mother’s wedding gharara herself, and even passed on many beautiful fabrics to her.”
It’s an interest the entrepreneur has in common with her sister-in-law, stylist Saanchi Gilani, to whom she has passed on a lot of her pieces. She has been her younger sister, wedding planner Sylvia Moin’s style SOS call since they were little girls. “Our mother had us doing our own shopping since we were six, and I was always helping my sister out,” she admits. Is it a gene she hopes her daughter has inherited from her too? “That would be amazing, because I have so many beautiful vintage pieces I’d love to pass on to her,” she laughs. “But I can only introduce her to the world, and then let her find her own way. Just like my mother did with me."
An evolution of taste
Today, Pernia describes her sensibility as one that is equally steeped in comfort and elegance. “If you’re not comfortable, you can never look good.” In her 20s however, comfort was the last thing on her mind. “I was a mess back in college. I’d buy heels in smaller sizes if they didn’t have mine. It was all about looking good and wearing what was trendy,” she reminisces. She has traded those too-tight, too-high heels for flats of all kinds — Oxfords, ballerinas, boots — these days. “I am so jealous of all the young girls going clubbing in sneakers now,” she admits. Nasreen has had a similar trajectory too. “My style has changed with time and age. When I was in my 20s, I was very focused on trends. In my 30s, I became very classic. And now at 60, I do a bit of both,” she tells us.
While Pernia’s off-duty looks consist of lounge sets and cotton salwars, she can just easily pull off extravagant couture and vintage finds. Her pregnancy style was as fun as it gets — crop tops, fitted dresses, minis, co-ord sets and kaftans in a burst of colours. “Both my sister and sister-in-law got married when I was pregnant. So, I had to get creative with my clothes,” she reveals. For the latter’s sangeet, she wore a Faraz Manan bustier, cape and cropped trouser set that was originally made for her mother, but was a few sizes too big for her. “We planned ahead and saved it for Saanchi’s sangeet, where I was seven months pregnant. Now, my mother plans to alter it and wear it herself. And then keep for Sophia!”
Before she signs off, Pernia muses about how Indian women are inherently stylish. It’s a trait that runs through generations of every family. “Indian women can wear colours so easily and carry off dupattas on the daily with so much elegance and ease. Shringar is so deeply embedded in every culture. It’s a lineage we all share.”