Commenter Angie points us to Sandy Dalal née Sanjiv Agashiwala, a competitive fencer from Penn who got turned on to fashion at his mom’s import-export business and ended up a menswear designer in Manhattan. 
He’s also qui’ fi’, as the Brits might say, and his light-colored peepers made People’s beauty list in ’98.
Bronx-born Sandy Dalal has followed in the footsteps of other famous northern-borough fashion designers Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren to become one of the hottest men’s wear designers around. Dalal won the 1998 CFDA’s Perry Ellis Award for Menswear while still attending the University of Pennsylvania. [Link]He was also named as one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” in the same year. Sandy Dalal’s clothing can be found in prominent stores like Barney’s, Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue… [Link]
Bjork, Beck, Wyclef Jean and members of Duran Duran, Foo Fighters and Third Eye Blind wear his clothing during performances. [Link]
Once brown, always brown:
He is known for using beautiful and luxurious fabrics and for mixing patterns — unusual in a men’s wear line. [Link]
The double standard between male beauty and female — male models and ‘manhunts‘ are not taken seriously:
How does it feel to know you’re known for your face as much as for your clothes?
Dalal: Right now it’s a cool gig where I can feed off the clothes and the clothes can feed off me, and rightfully so…It seems like you don’t take yourself too seriously, despite the awards and fame. How come?
Dalal: How seriously can you take it? Clothes don’t talk back to you. [Link]
Hear, hear for menswear, which in the U.S. is insufficiently sexy for our bodacious sepia bods 
Born and brought up in America, this grey-eyed Gujarati comes to India at least once a year… [W]hy did he take up designing menswear? “… I think it’s more intriguing in terms of construction… before I came onto the scene, everybody was offering pretty much the same thing, and men’s wear was really boring.” [Link]Dalal’s love affair with fabric and style began when he first saw the perfect suits of his father and grandfather, made by Saville Row-trained tailors in India…. “I realized the importance of why you use real horn buttons and beautiful linens with $200 a yard cashmere. The suit deserves it. The tailors deserve it. The guy who buys it deserves it…” [Link]
Zara is paradise for sexy men’s clothing… It’s one of the vanishingly scarce stores in America which do fall colors and deep jewel tones, like Indian formalwear, instead of those sickly pastels which look terrible on desis. Its fabrics are beautifully textured, like sherwanis, so subtle details appear upon closer inspection. It does dramatic tapered cuts rather than the shapeless American box cut; it’s the only non-designer store where I can get any semblance of a V-shape and waist… [Link]
for us non-brits or just plain out of the loop people, what’s qui fi mean? sorry i know it’s not the point of the post lol
Sandy (or Sanjiv) is a really good designer. I’ve closely examined his garments and they are top notch! I haven’t seen them in a couple of years, but then again, being a girl, I haven’t actively sought them out….. I have bought a couple of shirts and pants as gifts, and needless to say these threads were LOVED.
What’s even more inspiring is that he dared to defy his parents and succeeded. It’s funny how desi parents come around once you’ve proved yourself. (Disclaimer: Though it may take a few years before they talk to you again!!!)
Anyways, we need more success stories like this to encourage the mums and pops out there to embrace diversity in career choice.
Qui’ fi’ = ‘quite fit‘ in a Cockney accent.
i wonder if being beautiful ( because that he certainly is), a fashion designer and male might all equate to be gay. are all male fashion designers gay? am stretching myself to think of somebody that isn’t……also…why would anybody choose the name Dalal….it reminds me too much of a money lender and indeed Tarla ‘Dhokla Queen’ Dalal! anyways, name and sexual orientation apart…….this man is SO gorgeous…n’est ce pas
hubba
Quite fit is London slang for sexy
Fit = Sexy
It might be the name of someone else in his family, e.g. his mom’s maiden name. It’s easier for non-desis to pronounce than ‘Agashiwala.’
i remember him from years ago when he won some contest.. he is hot… hot… hot..
Sepia Mutiny is suddenly very fashion-conscious!
Question for the Brits and Brit-ophiles:
Does the “fi” in “Qui Fi” sound more like “High” or more like “ih” (as in ‘win’)?
(When I first saw that I thought it might be a queer version of Wi Fi: 802.11Q)
oooooohhh. yes. quite fit…
Ee is starin’ like that just at me, roight? Sha ap! Ee IS!!
(amardeep: fashion conscious and more sexy men! I show up, standards go down :P)
I just browsed through most of the links, looking for his designs. None of that East-meets-West crap. He never says it, and none of the designs have that forced, cheap artificiality we’ve noticed in previous fashion posts. Very interested to see what he’d do for a women’s line.
and Manish, I had no idea you’d waxed so rhapsodically about Zara 🙂 I agree entirely about pastels, jewel-tones, and textured fabrics….but I never found any of that at Zara. Last time I went, all the women’s stuff was either black, white, ice-cream pink, or taupe. And the cuts? Moving my right arm meant the sleeve on my left would ride up. I have noticed desi men shopping there happily, so it just might be that the women’s line isn’t so desi-friendly. Or maybe just no cicatrix-friendly 🙁
too pretty to be straight 🙂
School Lesson of the day, Sweathogs: Accusing a guy of being gay when he’s good looking only makes your insecurity transparent.
I hope you’re joking Razib!
Cicatrix, the men’s section and women’s section at Zara are entirely different propositions. I outfit my husband in the men’s section, but don’t care to wear a thing from the women’s.
Quit hatin’ on the boy! Maybe he’ll make the ladies, who supposedley know what all brown boys are like (see post about desi men that goes on and on and on about how evil desi men are) think twice about dating desi dudes.
Thus, comments speculating on his sexual orientation aren’t working for ya.
Keep the posts with such fabulous speciments coming!
Whether queer is neither here nor there, but qui-fi is an open access standard with promiscuous handshaking 😉
Not to be confused with qui-gon, which relies on midi-clorians, a topknot and bad intonations.
Razib, I agree with you. Mr.Dalal is also very thin.
802.11Q is the protocol that gaydar uses.
Amardeep
In cockney the ‘quite fit’ is said with silent T’s – and fi’ is pronounced like win
All the women who were playa hating brown boys on the thread below come out now as soon as a fit desi man comes on the scene!
How fickle are these playa haterz!
He is definitely fit – even I can say that and I am as straight as a Roman road. Because I am secure in my sexuality and can admit it – he is fit.
So there.
yeah.. i thought he looked a little effeminate to be straight as well… 😉
1) yeah, he’s good looking
2) but my first thought was, “that model [female] looks a bit mannish” (not manish, mannish).
In the original colour photo at the top, he looks a bit like Tom Welling who plays Clark Kent in Smallville.
Guys — this gay insinuation is crazy. You can’t tell someone’s gay (or even effeminate) just from their physical appearance — Dino Moreo’s a bit of a pretty boy yet we all know about his past history with Bipasha Basu.
Quit playa hatin’, as a couple of people have alread said.
Congrats to him for doing so well for himself, anyway.
Arey vah, kevo fine chokro che…rrrrr…
Cicatrix, I found the same with Zara 🙁
Their clothes hang off me at odd angles. I don’t think they are designed for Guju bootays like mine.
I don’t have a bootay, Neha, (or much of anything else, for that matter), so that’s not it either 🙁
I want desi-body/complexion friendly affordable clothes!! (waahhh!)
I have a hellish time finding tops, since the wide-boxy cut thing Manish mentioned in the post is all too true for me at most stores.
And finding a business suit was sheer hell. I look like a midget linebacker in all of ’em, since even the smallest sizes have shoulderpads that extend past my shoulders by a good two inches. How broad are normal shoulders supposed to be, dammit?!
Try looking for clothes that are more cut on the bias. That eliminates the boxy problem every time.
Shoulder pads need to burn in purgatory.
I’ve been gifted a couple of Zara dress shirts and they have a crazy cut. Using the same ginormous shoulder measurements that you describe, Cicatrix, but without the shoulder pads. They angle down then back out in straight lines. There is no gradual curve resembling an hourglass. My bootay refuses to feel flattered in such lines.
Aside from the boot, the waist-to-hip is quite different for the desi body, no? Less straight, more curvy. Where do we fit in? Why is there nothing (affordable) between Zara and Baby Phat? Cicatrix, I think you should do some design/besign of your own, I’ll wear it!
This is like a whole new language you ladies are talking. I just put on my jeans and t-shirt and go. Its so much easier to dress when you are a dude. And my bootay looks fantastic whatever I wear.
I think similar “fit” issues exist for male shoppers at Zara. I have two shirts from there (I’m a slow learner). Literally, it’s like the small size, which I usually wear, was made for 300 pound midgets.
Zara’s men’s shirts run small:
I was hyped to attend my first fashion week event in 2000 with real invites this time. None of this pretending to be a journalist to get in, or any of my usual nonsense. I sit down in the tent (as we say in the biz) in the anticiaption of seeing Sandy Dalal’s anorexic coke-whores…and much to my suprise I find out Sandy Dalal is a brown boy and a MENSwear designer. Whawhawhat? Sharp clothes but sub-par after-party. But full open-bar and in the end is there anything more important?
PB launches his “cold lothario” persona
You go, PB!
Wow that dude is Smokin, I’d would definately wanna play with him for a little bit. He sures knows how to rock an outfit man. Gives me the chills