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In our Indo Western fashion community, we celebrate bold and inspiring individuals. That is why, in our Let’s Talk Indo Western interviews, we speak with them about Indo Western fashion, personal growth, and their fashion journeys. Our goal is to meet and connect with exciting new people, find inspiration, and grow together as a community.
We spoke with community member Saumya Gopal — a model, dancer, actor, writer, and content creator who inspires over 38,000 people on Instagram (@saumyagopal) with content about lifestyle, fashion, dance, and cultural empowerment. In our interview, Saumya reveals why more and more of her friends are wearing Indo Western fashion every day, how she empowers many South Asians living in the West to overcome their identity struggles, and how her fashion style has evolved over the years.
STYLØR: Since our community is all about Indo Western fashion, we are so curious to know, have you ever heard of Indo Western fashion prior to this interview?
Saumya Gopal: Yes, I have. I got in touch with Indo Western fashion through my modeling jobs, as well as South Asian friends and content creators who talk about it. Many of my friends love it because it blends the American culture we grew up with and the Indian traditions and culture of our families’ roots. Unsurprisingly, I see more and more people wearing Indo Western outfits now, even when they’re just going out. It’s so awesome to see.
STYLØR: What do you think about Indo Western fashion? Is it something you love as well?
Saumya Gopal: Yes, definitely. I love Indo Western fashion because it’s like adding a little bit of flavor to your outfit. So let’s say you’re going to brunch and you wear regular jeans and a top. What you can do is add chokers, jhumkas, and bracelets. I even see people sometimes put on bindis. Adding these Indian touches to a Western outfit creates a beautiful blend of both American and Indian culture, while looking so seamless together. It really brightens up your outfit.
What I also love about Indo Western fashion is the unprecedented Indian craftsmanship, like the embroideries that take a significant amount of time. It’s very noticeable when you wear them. I also love the focus on natural and sustainable fabrics like silk or cotton. In fact, a lot of people enjoy wearing that now.
STYLØR: After visiting our website, were there any Indo Western brands or products that you love?
Saumya Gopal: Yes, definitely. Brands that really stood out to me were Papa Don’t Preach, Jajaabor, Isharya, and Pooja Bagaria.
STYLØR: We would love to learn more about you as a person. Imagine someone meets you for the first time. How would you introduce yourself?
Saumya Gopal: The answer really depends on the setting and the person. Nonetheless, I would say, “Hi, I’m Saumya! I grew up in Texas but now bounce between coasts because I can never pick just one. I’m a model, dancer, singer, and content creator, hoping to inspire others within my community but also across the world.”
STYLØR: Can you tell us more about your childhood and how you grew up?
Saumya Gopal: Yes, sure. I grew up in Plano, Texas with my mom, dad, and brother. They all went into the engineering field and are very high achievers. Funny story, I remember my dad once gave me a 100-page book on computer science that I was supposed to read before going to high school. I looked through the book and immediately thought, I’m not doing that. Although I went down the computer science/technology/sales route, deep down I knew I wanted to pursue something creative. I just never realized I could make it a full-time path.
In fact, I always had a strong creative side when I was growing up. For example, when I was five years old, my mom put me in an Indian classical dance called Bharatanatyam. I would practice every week for 12+ years where I joined a community of beautiful Bharatanatyam dancers. My dance guru not only taught me this beautiful part of our culture, but also taught me discipline and skills I possess today, such as thinking on your feet and picking up choreography quite quickly. This started my love for dance. In fourth grade, I also started to learn the violin.
Looking back, I want to emphasize that I’m so grateful for my parents’ support. I think it’s very unique and rare to see that parents from India encourage their child to fully pursue a creative side. I feel like very often the focus is solely on doing well in education.
STYLØR: Who or what shaped you in your early years?
Saumya Gopal: That’s a good question. First of all, my parents. They really shaped me as a person in terms of how they treat others and how they see life through various experiences like travels. Furthermore, my friends. They were also very creative growing up, which influenced me as well. And finally, the large Desi community in Plano and Dallas, Texas.
Especially the latter was very influential. While I encountered American culture every day, I also had the opportunity to embrace the Indian part of my identity through the large Desi community in Texas. For example, we had Sunday schools where we were taught about Hinduism and spirituality. Moreover, through my weekly dance classes and frequent Desi events, I was able to understand pivotal elements of Indian culture such as the outfits, food, and language.
I see this as a huge privilege because I know there’re a lot of South Asian people who live in remote locations of the United States and don’t have such a cultural community. As a result, they don’t understand much about their Indian or South Asian identity. Having that Desi community my whole life shaped me and helped me become who I am.
STYLØR: What were the next milestones in your life?
Saumya Gopal: Well, during high school, I started with modeling. My parents would drive me to modeling and acting schools, which were very expensive. Over time, however, I no longer saw any value there and stopped modeling for three years while attending college.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Information Technology Systems, I moved to Santa Barbara and later Los Angeles. During that time, I fully lived out my creative side while doing various things. For example, I created sponsorship content for Indian brands and smaller boutiques whose pieces I really loved. I was in full creative control of the photo shoots and managed everything by myself. I really loved that creative freedom because no one was telling me how to pose or what to wear. I also did music videos for a couple of artists and background dancing for shows. In the meantime, I got back into modeling as well. After getting signed by a modeling agency, I moved to New York where I did runway shows and attended many fashion events.
Fast forward to 2020, I started creating content about Desi culture and the humor of it. My videos blew up because they resonated with a lot of Indian people who live in the West. In fact, there’s such a large audience of Indian people on the internet nowadays. This didn’t exist 15 or 20 years ago. That’s why it’s amazing to see so many young Indian American girls getting ready, putting on Indo Western outfits, and even including their parents in their videos.
A recent highlight was also a partnership with Bobbi Brown. I was able to speak about colorism and its impact on how you see yourself and on feeling confident.
STYLØR: When you look back, what do you consider to be your greatest success in life so far?
Saumya Gopal: In the past, I’d have said something related to my time in college or my job, since that’s the easiest way to measure success. Yet nowadays, I see success differently.
My first milestone is overcoming my mental health struggles and learning to love myself. When I lived alone in New York and Los Angeles, I was dealing with depression, a topic we don’t talk about in our culture. I had to get along with so many new people, had an entirely new job, and was all by myself. I had no one to talk to. This was such a tough time because I’m a very family-centric person and I’ve always been part of a community that supported each other. On social media, it looked like I was having the greatest time of my life. I was walking Fashion Week and doing all of these cool things. Everyone would message me, “Wow, you’re living your life.” Meanwhile, internally, I was struggling and no one knew. It was really hard to overcome this depression, but I did it. Now I love myself, and I’m excited to see where I go. It’s a completely different journey from where I was then to where I’m now.
Yet, my greatest success is building a growing community that celebrates owning your cultural identity, being proud of who you are, and loving everything about yourself. In my content, I talk about how, as South Asians, we’re often told to soften our identities to fit in — but our culture, our beauty, and our voices are already more than enough, and exactly what the world needs more of. For example, many people have messaged me saying they were told their skin is too dark or that they should be more Western. But that’s not true. Our culture, our beauty, and our voices are already more than enough, and exactly what the world needs more of. Thus, it doesn’t matter what other people think or say. This is the message I want to share through my social media content. To be honest, I never thought I’d see so many messages from people in my community sharing how my content has inspired them or spoken to what they’ve felt. This is truly such a gift to hear, and I hope to continue so that one day other kids can look at me and think, ‘She looks like me and I could do that too.’ Looking back, I had no idea that my words could be so powerful. That’s my biggest success.
STYLØR: Fashion clearly plays a pivotal role in your life. What is your earliest memory of fashion?
Saumya Gopal: My earliest memory of fashion is getting ready for my dance performances. It took two hours to style my hair, put on makeup, get dressed in a costume, and add jewelry. Yet afterward, you feel like the most beautiful and unique individual, ready to perform some of the most graceful dancing I’ve ever learned.
STYLØR: What does fashion mean to you?
Saumya Gopal: For me, fashion is an expression of creativity. I mean, why would someone pay $1,000 for a jacket? The functionality to keep you warm costs maybe $30 to $40 in reality. You pay it because it’s the expression. It’s the uniqueness. It’s the value of what you’re wearing. Fashion is more than just fabric at the end of the day. Fashion creates stories, it creates memories, and it creates a sense of home.
STYLØR: How would you describe your personal fashion style, and has it changed over the years?
Saumya Gopal: Yes, it definitely changed. After graduating and moving to Los Angeles, I had a completely different style compared to when I was in high school. For example, I started wearing a lot more colors. After moving to New York, my fashion style changed again. At the time, I was already a big fan of hoodies and sweatpants, but then I started dressing like the swaggiest man you could think of. I would wear super cool streetwear, big headphones, and sunglasses.
Nowadays, I like to mix it up. I wear everything from streetwear to beachwear. I love asymmetrical styles, and I even pair pieces I never would’ve thought to combine before. And of course, a lot of my looks are inspired by Indo Western fashion.
STYLØR: You show your love for fashion on social media with great success. As of today, you have more than 38,000 followers. So we are curious to learn, what inspired you to start posting content on social media?
Saumya Gopal: Well, in the beginning, I wanted to showcase my work. At that time, I started modeling and doing creatively directed shoots. Being a creative person, I had a clear vision of what I wanted the grid to look like.
Then my focus shifted toward connections and inspiring others. I’ve always loved bringing people together. To this day, my number of followers has never been the main priority. Instead, it’s about connecting with people, making them laugh, and helping them find inspiration. In other words, just having a great time together.
STYLØR: Are there any other fashion content creators you personally know who really inspire you?
Saumya Gopal: Yes, definitely. The first content creator is Wisdom Kaye (@wisdm), who is one of my favorite content creators. He’s not only a revolutionary fashion icon, but also produces, films, and edits all of his content. It’s not easy to do what he does and he always brings such creative and unique stories to fashion I’ve never seen before.
Another one is Kristy Sarah (@kristy.sarah). She inspires me to bring more of my personality out to social media. While it’s probably her job to create content, she makes it seem so fun and I feel as though my audience doesn’t get to see my fun side as much. I catch myself watching her videos for hours.
STYLØR: What are your next goals?
Saumya Gopal: From a professional perspective, I need to figure out whether I want to pursue the creative field full time. However, it’s important that the job has some type of stability.
In terms of social media, I want to grow my audience and build my community. I want to entertain people. I want to inspire people. I want to make people feel like they can do what I’m doing. This includes venturing into things beyond Instagram and TikTok, for example, YouTube. And once I grow, I want to work with brands I fully believe in.
Yet, my biggest dream is to be on stage releasing music, singing, dancing, and having fans.
