Donna Karan celebrates Mahashivrathri at Isha Center
Donna Karan, the legendary designer and owner of the designer label after her name, was in India, celebrating Mahashivarathri at the Isha Yoga Center in Coimbatore.
When you spot her chanting ‘Aum Namah Shivaya’ with almost six lakh others, dressed in a South Indian silk sari, hair rolled up in a neat bun with jasmine, you would hardly believe this is the woman whose fashion empire pretty much runs the American retail industry. This is Donna Karan, who along with Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, makes the holy trinity of American fashion’s mega labels.
Karan is here in India following the “yogi” within her to Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev’s Isha Foundation ashram outside Coimbatore.
It was a big night for Spiritual seekers everywhere in India and abroad and some of the really big names were there at the Isha Center in the foothills of Vellangiri near Coimbatore. Ranging from filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, adman Prahlad Kakar, lyricist Prasoon Joshi, to socialists Devieka and Suresh Bhojwani, Shivani Modi and Mitali.
In the South Indian silk sari, she was feeling a little awkward, but was appreciative of the character of the Indian dress.
“I am a dancer, I like movement, but the sari could do with a few tuck-ins,” she smiles. “But the most incredible thing about a sari is that it’s all about the personality of the fabric, it allows the fabric to talk.”
When she was in the Isha Center, the teachers there did not show they knew who she was – given her social status and popularity – so that she could get her own space in there, without being disturbed.
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