Step aside, everyone—there’s a new queen in town. The biggest wave by an Indian in Cannes is not being made by an actor in an unpronounceable designer outfit, but by a 23-year-old from Baranwa, Uttar Pradesh. Content creator Nancy Tyagi stole the limelight with a strapless baby pink gown with ruffles—designed and stitched by her from scratch. Her red carpet debut has become instantly iconic, with the Indian internet comparing her to Aishwarya Rai—who had a spectacularly bad run this year. It’s another sign that the definition of a celebrity is changing in the age of the internet.
And what’s more, Tyagi answered in Hindi, completely at ease (and with no accent), when asked how it felt to be on the red carpet—“this was not even something I could dream about”. Her sincerity won over even the most hardcore critics of content creators on red carpets. She’s a shining example of how the internet can turn someone’s life around.
Tyagi stepped up her game for her second outfit—a fusion saree in a beaded lavender net fabric with a backless blouse and a hood. Her reel showing the process behind the creation—from fabric-sourcing trips in Delhi to the final event—has garnered 8.6 million views in four hours. Her saree could easily give Sabyasachi’s Met Gala creation a run for his money. Alia Bhatt’s ‘Garden of Time’ saree was a product of 163 artisans, Tyagi is a one-woman show.
The reel she posted of her first outfit, against the scenic waters at the French Riviera, has 14.5 million views in one day.
Tyagi was part of the Brut India squad at the festival, with other creators like Ayush Mehra, Ankush Bahuguna, Namita Thapar and Viraj Ghelani. But only Tyagi made waves and captured the audience’s attention like no other.
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An icon in the making
Tyagi is her own stylist and designer. With no fashion design background, she is self-taught. She has been creating outfits with a sewing machine and posting them on Instagram since last year, taking care of every minute detail of the process.
Tyagi showed everyone that her place on the red carpet is well and truly deserved, even as social media is abuzz with the annual question of why influencers are invited to film festivals?’
A thousand metres of fabric, and a month of hard work and determination—that’s what it took for Tygai to make a memorable global fashion debut. And now no one can get enough of the former UPSC aspirant who started out “influencing” to combat financial difficulties. The internet has been quick to compare her debut to that of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. For her first time on the French carpet in 2002, Rai wore a mustard yellow saree, which is often seen as an iconic moment for Indian representation at Cannes. Tyagi’s look this year may have just knocked that moment off the top spot. Commenting on Rai is so last decade.
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Talent is enough
Tyagi first rose to fame with her creative videos recreating celebrity outfits. In her series titled ‘100 Days of Outfits from Scratch’, Tyagi visits wholesale fabric markets and recreates outfits like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s lavender lehenga from Chand Chupa Badal Mein, Deepika Padukone’s Louis Vuitton gown from Oscars 2023 and Alia Bhatt’s grey puff-sleeved gown by Korean designer Miss Sohee from the Red Sea International Film Festival.
They were near-perfect replicas, made on a shoestring budget. Each reel had requests for more recreations.
Tyagi’s reels have millions of views, and her fans range from director-producer and stylist Rhea Kapoor to fellow content creator Komal Pandey. And she did it all without the aesthetic background and English-speaking skills—Tyagi shows that talent is enough.
With a wide smile, and her hand raised to wave to the photographers, Tyagi is soaking it all in. Her pose is a pop culture moment that won’t be topped for a long time.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)