CHENNAI: For anybody who loves fashion, and in particular, loves to shop, becoming a wardrobe stylist seems like a career fallen straight from heaven. City Express catches up with Aarya Maria Mathai, head stylist at Myntra.
From fashion design to styling
I finished my degree in fashion design and realised that there are more things in fashion than just design. The thought of putting things together and compiling different pieces to create a whole new look seemed attractive to me.
Current trends
For me trend updates and inspiration come from niche and quirky blogs, like The Blonde Salad, Sea of Shoes. I prefer these to commercial sites and magazines. You get a bit of a fashion forecast through these as well, and not just the trends, which is usually more important.
Favourite trends this season
Denim-on-denim, I feel like I’m starting to embrace it fully now. I’m also loving cold-shoulder-cut tops, given the weather in Chennai. Monochrome never goes out of style.
Her style of designing for clients
It’s a long process. I talk to the client and get a sense of their personal style. Understand their body type and analyse the styles that they would like to wear. So I fuse the two, give them something they’d like to try, that fits their sense of style.
5 must-haves in your wardrobe
A nice white shirt or a T shirt always goes a long way, a pair of skinny jeans, black pumps, structured handbag and a traditional tusser or cotton ikat saree. Coming to accessories, a good pair of white sneakers. It goes with anything and makes you always look very blogger chic.
Style advice
Don’t follow trends blatantly. It’s easy to copy something off the internet or a magazine but it is so important to retain your personal sense of style. For Chennai weather, if I could I would put everybody in a pair shorts! (laughs) Cropped linen trousers with a cotton T shirt paired with sliders.
Men don’t have to feel left out
I think men should put a little more of an effort. Dress in a pair of cut-off shorts with a bright polo sport T shirt and boat shoes. It isn’t too dressy and you can still go out to places and your fellow guy friends and be assured that they aren’t going to make fun of your outfit.
And if you are heavy?
There are a lot of silhouettes that suit large women. Try something that isn’t too straight, like A-line’s, empire cuts and colour palettes that are on the darker It’s important to just be yourself, these are just clothes at the end of the day. If you wear anything with confidence, your clothes will look fine.