HYDERABAD: She spent her school summer vacation in learning how to stitch and design clothes. She ensured she always stood out in terms of her style. She was so inclined towards fashion that she would get her clothes stitched according to her way if she didn’t find her kind of dress in the market. Today, her name appears on a 70mm screen under the category of the costume designer. Aditi Agarwal, costume designer of the recently released Telugu movie Awe is a BBA graduate, a fashion designer from NIFT, who also pursued fashion styling from Milan Fashion Campus, Italy. What makes this 25-year-old stylist distinct is her style that has comfort and panache in equal proportions.
Aditi feels she always had an eye for style and being complimented for how she put herself together fashionably became a part of her life. “It occurred to me that style doesn’t come naturally to people and it is instinctive. It is something fuzzy and elusive, and hard to grasp,” she adds.
“After completing my BBA, I went on to do an intensive course in Fashion Designing from NIFT. My first collection itself got a call to be showcased at Indian Fashion week season 2, Dubai. At the same time, I got selected for my fashion styling course in Milan Fashion campus, Italy. After coming back from Italy, I started working for an international model agency in Bengaluru as a head stylist. I worked there for six months and moved back to Hyderabad with a decent amount of experience and knowledge. I started off with an ad film which I got out of the blue from one of my website designers.
I remember how excited I was to work with chess player Koneru Humpy for that project and taking her for shopping was such a delight. I had decided to go ahead with being a commercial stylist and slowly I started getting projects. I did various ad films, catalog shoots, fashion shows and model portfolios,” she adds.
Aditi started her first project as a freelance stylist with an ad film agency for parachute oil shoot. She worked on projects for the same agency until she worked her way out to various agencies. She has been styling for Marks & Spencer for the past two years now. She fell in love with styling so much that she has put her plan B of starting a label of her own on hiatus.
“I took some time to convince my parents but now they are the most supportive. I started designing my clothes since I was in class seven. And I knew for sure that whatever happens, I will end up working in fashion industry. I was always fond of making dresses for my Barbies. And for me, summer vacations meant spending time learning stitching and crochet from my grandmom. I had a whole collection of clothes and yes my dream is to some day design a garment for the brand Mattel in the US,” the ambitious Aditi says with passion echoing in her voice.
One fine day, Aditi got a call from a friend who casually asked her if she would like to try her hands in Tollywood. There was a post on Facebook about the requirement of a stylist. She attended the interview and today, her name appears on the 70mm screen. “Director Prashanth Varma liked my work and I started working for the movie Awe from the next day itself. I read the script and totally loved it. It was so unconventional and experimental. I decided that this is it. I worked with another designer on this project. And I gave my eight months to this project. This being my first movie, I wanted to learn as much as I could and give my best at work. initially, I was scared of the industry and skeptical about how people would be. But my director Prasanth Varma made it very comfortable for me,” she shares and also informs that she has worked for the movie Taxiwala under Geeta Arts.“I styled Malvika Nair, Yamuna and Ravi Varma in Taxiwala and I am currently working on two other movies,’ she adds.
Says Aditi on the role of costume designer on the sets of a movie, “The role of a costume designer is not limited to just designing a garment. The first step is to read the script and understand background of the characters. The second step is to understand mood the story has to create. The third is to understand the color palettes that the cinematographer has in mind. Keeping all these in mind, we create a mood board of styles, colours, patterns for each character. Once that is finalised, we move on to the person who is playing the role. Not everything looks good on everyone, so we use our styling techniques to analyse the body, figure, complexion, proportion to sketch out a particular style. Later we work on the hairstyle and makeup that has to go with the look. In case, we have to show a transition from young to old, we opt for aesthetics. And like in the movie Awe, we made sure that we bring out something prominent for each character. So that it gets registered in the mind of the audience. Being present on sets is crucial for a designer to make sure each look fits exactly as imagined.”
Aditi says the colour of the year is ultraviolet. “I often go with the colour of the year. Shades of purple are in. The trend of the 1980s is back. Pastels are a must for the season. The sequins is still in the trend that started in the year 2016. We bring in fringes from last year. Heritage checks are totally in this year. Go sheer this year as everybody wants to see whats underneath. Go for sheer jackets, tops and dresses. Organza doesn’t seem to fade away. I don’t see much of a change from last years’ trends. Ruffles are in the air. Avoid too many off shoulders or cold shoulders. High-waisted denims are in. Long capes, jackets too are on the wanted list. Go quirky. Go bold. Play with silhouettes,” she advises.
“The most important advice I always give to women is to not blindly follow the trend. Look for what suits your body type. And then select your piece of garment. Just because pallazos are in, doesn’t mean, it has to be worn by every woman/ girl in town. Always arrange your wardrobe according to the season. Choose comfort before style. This summer, go for lighter fabrics and lighter colours. It is important to analyse your body type or take advice from a stylist on what are the parts of your body that needs to be highlighted and what needs to be hidden. That way it becomes easy while picking out the right outfits for yourself. If you are confident, you can carry off any piece of clothing. Most importantly, don’t get scared to go all out, to experiment and make a style statement for yourself,” the stylist explains.
Every success story has a chapter that speaks about struggles and challenges, in Aditi’s life, the biggest challenge was to work with courage in a male-dominated field. “There is huge competition in this field and since it’s a creative field, we need to keep proving ourselves not every month, but every single day. The language barrier was another challenge. I could barely understand Telugu. I am planning to take up a course in the language now,” she narrates.
purnima@newindianexpress.com
@iyer_purnima