Commenter Angie points us to Sandy Dalal née Sanjiv Agashiwala, a competitive fencer from Penn who got turned on to fashion at his mom’s import-export business and ended up a menswear designer in Manhattan. 
He’s also qui’ fi’, as the Brits might say, and his light-colored peepers made People’s beauty list in ‘98.
Bronx-born Sandy Dalal has followed in the footsteps of other famous northern-borough fashion designers Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren to become one of the hottest men’s wear designers around. Dalal won the 1998 CFDA’s Perry Ellis Award for Menswear while still attending the University of Pennsylvania. [Link]He was also named as one of People magazine’s “50 Most Beautiful People” in the same year. Sandy Dalal’s clothing can be found in prominent stores like Barney’s, Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue… [Link]
Bjork, Beck, Wyclef Jean and members of Duran Duran, Foo Fighters and Third Eye Blind wear his clothing during performances. [Link]
Once brown, always brown:
He is known for using beautiful and luxurious fabrics and for mixing patterns — unusual in a men’s wear line. [Link]
The double standard between male beauty and female — male models and ‘manhunts’ are not taken seriously:
How does it feel to know you’re known for your face as much as for your clothes?
Dalal: Right now it’s a cool gig where I can feed off the clothes and the clothes can feed off me, and rightfully so…It seems like you don’t take yourself too seriously, despite the awards and fame. How come?
Dalal: How seriously can you take it? Clothes don’t talk back to you. [Link]
Hear, hear for menswear, which in the U.S. is insufficiently sexy for our bodacious sepia bods 
Born and brought up in America, this grey-eyed Gujarati comes to India at least once a year… [W]hy did he take up designing menswear? “… I think it’s more intriguing in terms of construction… before I came onto the scene, everybody was offering pretty much the same thing, and men’s wear was really boring.” [Link]Dalal’s love affair with fabric and style began when he first saw the perfect suits of his father and grandfather, made by Saville Row-trained tailors in India…. “I realized the importance of why you use real horn buttons and beautiful linens with $200 a yard cashmere. The suit deserves it. The tailors deserve it. The guy who buys it deserves it…” [Link]
Zara is paradise for sexy men’s clothing… It’s one of the vanishingly scarce stores in America which do fall colors and deep jewel tones, like Indian formalwear, instead of those sickly pastels which look terrible on desis. Its fabrics are beautifully textured, like sherwanis, so subtle details appear upon closer inspection. It does dramatic tapered cuts rather than the shapeless American box cut; it’s the only non-designer store where I can get any semblance of a V-shape and waist… [Link]
