New Delhi, June 12 -- Have you noticed how obsessed fashion has become with nostalgia, especially when it comes to style icons? Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, Diane Keaton, Zeenat Aman-women who cultivated a distinct relationship with clothes, dressed on their own terms, and refused to let the trend cycle dictate who they were. What united them was a simple philosophy: fashion served them. They had personal style. In an age of social media aesthetics, have we forgotten what personal style really means?

In the years before social media, red-carpet dressing retained an element of spontaneity. Before every look became a statement, a campaign or a carefully managed moment, there was room for experimentation-and for mistakes. In fact, mistakes wer...