Stylemaker Spotlight

Indian heritage inspires Dallas Stylemaker finalist's fashion-forward looks

Rida Mandavia pairs a traditional Indian sari with a casual, contemporary look.

Photo by Hoyoung Lee

Editor's note: We're shining a spotlight on the six finalists in the 2017 CultureMap Stylemaker Awards, continuing with finalist Rida Mandavia. Voting for the readers' choice winner continues through October 24 at 11:59 pm. The winners will be named at our Reveal Party on October 26 at Tootsies in The Plaza.

Rida Mandavia has diagnosed herself as “a little bipolar when it comes to fashion.”

The 27-year-old behavioral therapist is just as comfortable draping a traditional Indian sari over colorful separates as she is throwing a jean jacket over a graphic tee.

The unifying detail? She looks confident in her clothes because she feels confident in her own skin.

Mandavia, a Dallas native whose parents hail from India, pulls inspiration from her heritage into her everyday looks. Drawing on her family's culture has been part of a gradual style evolution, she says.

She also serves as chief editor of Dallas[Intuitive] and founder of Rida's Pop-Up Shop, a South Asian thrift boutique. "It's through style that I have been able to connect my work in clinical psychology, fashion, and digital media marketing — three very distinct industries — to inspire myself and others," she says.

Mandavia shared more about her personal style evolution and the inspiration she gets from family, including her grandma in Bombay.

CultureMap: Tell us about the sari you're wearing.

Rida Mandavia: "The sari is a very traditional garment worn by, usually, married women in India. It symbolizes elegance, timelessness, and a kind of demureness for the Indian woman. I like that a lot of those values reflect in how I visualize my style, so I like to pull inspiration from a lot of my culture and my background.”

CM: How has your personal style moved in that direction?

RM: “I've gotten a lot more in touch with my Indian side and have learned to embrace that. Being a first-generation Indian-American, born and raised in Dallas, it was always kind of difficult to navigate your identity, so I found that style really helped me celebrate my culture and appreciate it for what it is … and really give people a visual of what it means to be an Indian-American."

CM: But there’s a whole other side to your fashion choices, right?

RM: “I feel like I have kind of multiple personalities when it comes to my style. I have this really vibrant Indian side, but I also love a lot of street style, grunge wear, athleisure ... so I’m a little bipolar when it comes to fashion.”

CM: Who are your biggest style influences?

RM: “My mom is the most sophisticated, elegant woman I know. She’s always taught us to take care of ourselves and to make sure we look good and feel good. She inspired me to take on the sari, as well. She wears it and drapes it in like 5 minutes, and I’m over here, like, ‘What do I do with all this fabric?’ She and my grandma both are very elegant, very classic, and very timeless in the way they dress, so a lot of that materializes in my style, as well.”

CM: What is it like shopping with them?

RM: “My grandma is in Bombay, and we were there twice last year. When I go shopping with my mom and my grandma, it’s the craziest thing because my grandma is so traditional in the way she thinks sometimes, but then she’ll come out of nowhere and pick out something really skimpy and I’m like, ‘What are you doing?’ We all have similar tastes — we all gravitate toward really bold colors and patterns. But at the same time ... I’m a lot more eclectic and wild in my fashion sense, and my mom and grandma are a little more traditional.”

CM: What is something people would be surprised to learn about you?

RM: “I’m a total psych nerd, which, if you know what my do as my day job, you know that about me. I read a lot of psychological journals on therapy, hypnosis, and all sorts of weird stuff. So I’m kind of a nerd like that.”

CM: How did you react when you found out you were nominated for a CultureMap Stylemaker Award?

RM: “I was really excited because I felt like finally there’s a platform that’s looking at diversity, looking at inclusion, and really celebrating style in this broad spectrum that it is. So I was really excited to take on that role and help my followers see that you can be cultural and stylish and pull influences from a lot of different places, and have it materialize in a really great way.”

stylemakers

Coffee News

Black Sheep Coffee from the U.K. comes to U.S. with debut in Dallas

Black Sheep Coffee

Black Sheep Coffee, coming from the U.K.

A coffee shop from the U.K. with celebrity ties is opening its first U.S. location in Dallas. Called Black Sheep Coffee, it's a growing chain based in London with a renegade stance: to champion the robusta coffee bean, one overlooked by most coffee snobs.

Black Sheep was founded in London in 2013 by friends Gabriel Shohet and Eirik Holth, who loved coffee and wanted to start their own business. They've built it into a chain with 60-plus locations including cafés and take-out shops across England, Scotland, Wales, France, and the Philippines.

The Dallas shop will open at 6240 E. Mockingbird Ln., in a shopping center in the Lakewood neighborhood. Shohet says it'll open in late spring.

Dallas came onto their radar after they formed a partnership for the U.S. expansion with Kristaps Porzingis, a professional basketball player who was playing for the Dallas Mavericks. He's since been traded to the Washington Wizards, but Shohet says Dallas still seemed like the perfect place to launch.

"I love Texas, it's a great state and a lot of people are moving there," Shohet says. "There's so much growth and Dallas has a good vibe. Kristaps became a good friend and ended up investing. He moved to Washington but we'd gotten this great location on Mockingbird and we're building a local team."

They'll make Dallas their headquarters, with a plan to open another half dozen locations, plus franchise opportunities as well (email franchising@leavetheherdbehind.com).

One of the non-coffee drinks at Black Sheep Coffee is a peanut-butter hot chocolate.Black Sheep Coffee

Shohet and Holth built the company brick by brick, starting out doing pop-ups before moving into brick-and-mortar locations. Their goal is to break the wall between specialty coffee and the mass market.

"We've always been about the coffee," he says. "We source the beans from plantations in southern India, Papua New Guinea, Brazil. We get the best beans in the world: specialty-grade, shade-grown, and hand-picked."

"But our premise was also, How can we bring great quality coffee to the mass market, by providing the best coffee but not making people feel like they're disturbing the coffee sacks?" he says. "Our baristas know their coffee, but if you just want to get your drink quickly and want caramel syrup, then go for it. We make it inclusive."

Their most radical act is their use exclusively of the robusta bean, whose stronger, less delicate flavor profile has seen it relegated to uses such as instant coffee and pre-ground cans, while arabica has been the bean favored by the discerning coffee crowd. But some roasters have begun to reject the narrative that robusta is inferior to arabica.

"We're the only coffee company in the world to focus 100 percent on specialty robusta," he says. "Everybody is always touting arabica, but if you can find a great robusta that’s not commercial grade, you have a cool product."

Robusta has twice the amount of caffeine, and he says the growers they work with are more enviro-friendly, requiring less water with more cherries per bush.

"Robusta is thicker and richer, and has an amazing crema when you brew it as espresso," he says. "It's also less acidic, so it's easier to digest on an empty stomach and has more body. It might have less flavor notes than arabica, but that extra body punches through the milk. Robusta is a great bean for drinks made with milk. It's unfair that it has a bad reputation."

Their championing of a bean that others forsake goes with their entire ethos. They also eschew plastic.

"When everybody’s doing something, we do something different," he says. "That’s what our slogan is about: 'Leave the herd behind.'"

In addition to coffee, their shops have exotic lattes, smoothies, and a signature peanut-butter hot chocolate. They do a small selection of food including bagels, "toasties," and Norwegian waffles, a signature.

"But we don't want to be a restaurant — we'll offer the pastries and items that go with coffee, but we just want to focus on making the best coffee."

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