Pema Bakshi is Grazia USA’s senior fashion writer and cultural analyst, known for connecting sartorial trends to societal undercurrents. With over seven years of experience across Refinery29 and Grazia, she’s developed a beat that straddles:
Successful pitches to Bakshi often include:
“The best stories live where fabric meets friction – show me the tension points.” – Bakshi’s editorial philosophy
Recent accolades include the 2024 CFDA Media Award and 2023 OJA for commentary. She’s currently developing a book exploring fashion’s role in climate adaptation strategies.
Pema Bakshi has emerged as a defining voice in modern fashion and lifestyle journalism, blending acute cultural analysis with an accessible tone that resonates across generations. Over her career, she’s developed a signature approach that treats clothing as cultural artifacts and beauty trends as sociological phenomena.
Bakshi’s 2,400-word dissection of Nicolas Ghesquière’s station-themed collection transformed typical runway reporting into a meditation on post-pandemic mobility. By interviewing urban planners and transportation historians alongside models, she revealed how the collection’s structured silhouettes mirrored society’s renewed hunger for collective experiences. The piece became required reading in Parsons’ Fashion Theory curriculum within six months of publication.
This 2023 deep dive into platonic estrangement combined anthropological research with raw first-person accounts. Bakshi’s decision to include friendship duration timelines and "last conversation" transcripts created a new template for interpersonal journalism. Therapists reported patients bringing printouts to sessions, while the piece’s "friendship autopsy" framework has been cited in three peer-reviewed psychology papers.
Her technical analysis of Daniel Lee’s inaugural Burberry collection broke down how heritage tartans were reengineered for climate-resilient fabrics. The piece’s interactive fabric swatch illustrations (later exhibited at London’s Design Museum) demonstrated Bakshi’s ability to make material science accessible to mainstream audiences.
Bakshi prioritizes stories that connect aesthetics to behavioral economics. A successful pitch about cottagecore fashion would need demographic data on remote work migration patterns, not just fabric trends. Her Burberry analysis linked waterproof trenches to NOAA’s extreme weather forecasts – mirror this approach by showing how your subject reflects larger societal adaptations.
While many journalists cover workplace dynamics, Bakshi seeks stories that reveal systemic paradoxes. Her viral piece on "imposter syndrome economics" connected self-doubt to corporate profit models. Pitches should include anonymized salary data or HR policy documents that expose structural contradictions in professional environments.
Rather than covering trends reactively, Bakshi looks for beauty developments with supply chain implications. Her Hailey Bieber "glazed brownie lips" piece traced the lip balm’s key ingredient to drought-affected shea plantations. Successful pitches will include interviews with chemists or sourcing managers alongside beauty influencers.
Bakshi’s LV FW25 analysis drew parallels between 1930s travelwear and modern "transit aesthetics." She values pitches that use archival research to predict future trends – for instance, how 1970s upcycling techniques might address fast fashion waste. Include access to vintage lookbooks or textile conservators.
While she frequently covers celebrity style, Bakshi’s Met Gala reports focus on collective themes over individual outfits. A pitch about Zendaya’s stylist should explore how their partnership impacts design school admissions, not just red carpet moments. Include data from fashion academies or union membership rolls.
“Bakshi doesn’t just report on hemlines – she decodes the semiotics of seams.” – Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) citation, 2024 Media Excellence Award
At PressContact, we aim to help you discover the most relevant journalists for your PR efforts. If you're looking to pitch to more journalists who write on Fashion, here are some other real estate journalist profiles you may find relevant:
