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Sandeep Caberwal Is America’s
First Sikh Model
WSN Network
 MANHATTAN:
A Sikh model peering down from Manhattan bill boards? Well, if you
happen to be sauntering along the 5th or the 6th Avenues between
48th and 51st Streets, you cannot miss the arresting picture of a
young Sikh looking at you from a magnificent and imposing 20 feet
tall billboard outside the Kenneth Cole store at Rockefeller Center.
He is the handsome “Sandeep Caberwal” (known as Sonny Caberwal on
the ad) - the first ever American born/Indian Sikh model for the
famous Fashion House Kenneth Cole.
Kenneth Cole has a
history of supporting social consciousness. It was this company that
supposedly initiated spreading the awareness of AIDS and
homelessness. For this campaign Cole selected 11 models in all from
diverse walks of life, to shed light on the challenges they face in
their day to day life. The Sikh community has not been the same
since 9/11 and knowing that, selecting a Sikh model for the company
showed its sensitivity and understanding of a community many take
for terrorists.
This World Wide ad
Campaign has been taken out to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the
label and it focuses on real people with different cultures and back
grounds who live their lives in their own unique manner. This
initiative is focused to bring about a greater consciousness and
acceptance of diversity and help dissipate social prejudices. ”It is
all about bold unexpected people of substance”, said Meredith Paley,
a Vice President of public affairs at Kenneth Cole. According to the
Kenneth Cole press release, the ad will also appear in NYC on the
Huston street mural and the west side highway billboards. Moreover,
Sonny Caberwal will have his own inserts in Vanity Fair, Marie Clair
and In Style Magazines to name a few.
When Kenneth Cole
launched Sonny’s Video Ad and interview on its website and released
the ad in The New York Times, it created an intense interest and
enthusiasm among the Indian community, especially the Sikhs.
Caberwal is an
entrepreneur, an alumnus of Duke University in North Carolina and a
2004 Law and Business graduate from Georgetown University. His
parents moved from Chandigarh, in Punjab, India where his
grandfather Sardar Puran Sing Bajwa, still lives after he retired as
an Air Marshall of the Indian Air Force. Sonny spent his childhood
with his parents and two older sisters in North Carolina, where they
moved in 1971. Growing up as a Sikh boy in North Carolina, says
Sonny was not bad.
Sonny got married in
July of 2007 to Dilpreet Kaur whom he met at his sister’s wedding
and moved to San Francisco- a city they love. “We found New York too
tense a place to live in.”
Modeling for this
multi billion dollar company, and to be the first Sikh model in
America, began as just by chance. “My brother-in-law handed me the
ad about Kenneth Cole looking for a Sikh model for their spring ad
campaign. I sent in my photograph and got selected from quite a few
other contestants and rest is history. Even they probably didn’t
realize what a dramatic impact this ad is going to have on not just
the Sikhs but the entire South Asian population of America-be they
Muslim, Hindu or a Sikh. Hopefully my being here has a positive
impact on my community and if. it can make it easier for other
people, then I’d find that very fulfilling. That’ll make me feel
that I have achieved what I looked towards doing. I will be starting
a blog on Kenneth Cole’s web site, wherein I will be talking and
writing about the Sikh community. It was an amazing experience to
work for Kenneth Cole and a lot of fun while it lasted”, said Sonny.
18
June,
2008
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