Bhavitha Mandava, a 25-year-old model from Hyderabad, has suddenly found herself in the global spotlight after she opened Chanel’s Métiers d’art 2026 show by Matthieu Blazy in New York . Before the fashion world discovered her, Bhavitha was an architect who moved to the US to study assistive technology at NYU, a completely different path from the runway she now commands.

On December 3, she posted a moving video of her parents watching her big moment. In the clip, they see her walking through Bowery Station, stepping onto the subway, and then leading the Chanel show. Her mother can barely contain her emotions, repeatedly calling out Bhavitha’s name through tears of joy, while her father watches proudly beside her. She captioned the post, “Can’t put into words how much this means to me. T

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