Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, for the last couple of years, has given bizarre fashion outings on the Cannes red carpet. And, this year was no different. First came the electric blue Amit Aggarwal gown that felt pulled out of a 2018 awards-show archive. Then the white Cheney Chan tuxedo with its dramatic feather boa, which looked like a leftover costume rack from a mid-2000s Vegas cabaret.
That being said, one has to admit that this annual discourse around Aishwarya’s Cannes wardrobe has never really been about fashion alone. They are just an entry point. Behind the memes and the unsolicited styling advice lies a far more uncomfortable truth: people are unsettled by the fact that Aishwarya no longer fits Bollywood’s narrow beauty template.For years, Aishwarya has been mocked for gaining weight, for covering up, for wearing layered silhouettes, oversized sleeves, dramatic capes, or what I would call ‘Mogambo outfits.’ This was definitely a departure from the body-hugging Gucci gowns and delicate sarees she wore during the peak of the early 2000s era. But the truth is that the industry doesn’t know how to treat a woman’s changing body.
Being a plus-size woman is exhausting, and being a plus-size celebrity woman is an extreme sport.If Aishwarya wears structured outfits that conceal her body, she is accused of dressing like a curtain. If she wears something fitted, social media will suddenly become the Moral Science teacher. Imagine if she walked the Cannes carpet in a cut-out gown or a plunging neckline. The same people currently mocking her oversized silhouettes would immediately begin lecturing her about grace, class, and dressing according ‘to her age’.Women, as actor America Ferrera said in her monologue in Barbie, are expected to perform an impossible balancing act. They have to look thin but not desperate, glamorous but not vulgar, youthful but not trying too hard. Indian women, especially, have a constant pressure of hitting the ‘perfect spot’ of being sexy but sanskaari. Weight gain is not always a failure
