The Look Makers

Ahead of the first look of Madhur Bhandarkars upcoming film Heroine,25-year-old stylist Tanya Ghavri got the customary one-word brief from her client Kareena Kapoor. Dramatic,read the text message. Ghavri let her unerring instinct for flair take over. Later that evening,in a smouldering red jumpsuit from Emanuel Ungaro,gold sandals,hair pulled back from the face and in-your-face-red lips,Kapoor was every bit the diva she wanted to play out at the event.

In a world fed on paparazzi,blogs,tweets and television,the ones who are trending are the ones worth watching out for. In the West,stylists like Karl Templer,Elizabeth Sulcer and Rachel Zoe have become templates of chic. In India,even five years ago,actors went by their favourite designers for public appearances,wearing a Manish Malhotra or a Sabyasachi Mukherjee to bolster their off-screen fashion forwardness. With the flourish of fashion magazines in the industry though,a new sensibility has seeped in,marking a perceptible change in how stars dress not just for editorials and photoshoots but also for public appearances. At the Gucci Vanity Fair Dinner at the annual Cannes Film Festival earlier this year,if Sonam Kapoor turned up in a black dress from the Italian design house with t-strap sandals,kundan earrings and a frizzy mop,Frieda Pinto did a photo-op in a fresh-off-the-runway Salvatore Ferragamo resort piece. Back home,actor Asin is constantly on the lookout for edgier designs while Anushka Sharma brings her fashion aesthetes to the discussion board ahead of each of her public appearances. It falls upon people like Ghavri,with a knack for scouring flea markets and high streets with equal ease,to build on these and put together a look that will keep the spotlight firmly on the stars and their outfits.

The industrys become so competitive,no one can afford to have an off day,even off-screen. Thats where stylists step in,doing all the leg work,creating a look that blends the stars personality with the event,fitting everything together like a jigsaw puzzle, says 27-year-old Pernia Qureshi. After a high-school internship with a fashion magazine,Qureshi shelved her plans to study law and moved to New York from Mumbai to learn about fashion. In the three years that followed,she moved from one magazine to another,working as a PR intern and a fashion assistant before joining Fashion Institute Technology FIT for a course in fashion. The last turned out to be a waste of time because while design is technical,style isnt. Theres no right or wrong to styling,just how you play up your aesthetes, she says. Qureshi moved back to India,took up and left a job with Harpers Bazaar,because I was overqualified for the job and pay and decided to strike out on her own. Around this time she met Rhea Kapoor,producer of Aisha,through a common friend. Rhea was looking for a stylist and she had seen my work. We got together,something clicked and I was on board, she says. The film bombed,but Sonam Kapoor stood out,thanks to her 90 costume changes,and Qureshi,for foregrounding fashion in the film. It changed the course of my career. In India,it doesnt matter how talented you are unless you have done Bollywood, says Qureshi,who has since then relocated from Mumbai to Delhi.

In many ways,Sonam,with her ability to switch from grunge to boho to chic,has sparked off the trend for stylists in the industry. Many actors wouldnt admit they had a stylist before Sonam,so it was a thankless job. But she stepped up the pace,admitted she worked with stylists and made it trendy to have one. In fact,she looks so good,people need stylists just to keep up with her, says Qureshi,who still styles Kapoor. Ghavri,who works occasionally with Sonam,talks about how the young actor sometimes builds her look around an accessory. She might like a shoe and then build a whole look around that. With her,theres no set pattern. She is open to experimenting and can carry off anything, says Ghavri. Despite her eclectic tastes,Sonam says she has benefitted from working with people like Qureshi. I tend to overstyle a lot,and Pernia stops me from doing that, she says.

Stylist to Kareena and Karisma Kapoor,Asin and several other actors,Ghavri began her career assisting Qureshi but forked out about three years ago. With degrees in apparel manufacturing and design from SNDT Womens University,Mumbai and fashion from Parsons in New York,Ghavri says much of the job is about decoding personalities and body-types. Asin,for instance,has recently lost a lot of weight and is more open to different looks. She is petite,doesnt like to show too much skin,but isnt quite conservative. She is involved in the process and needs to be convinced that what you give her is the best option for the event. Its quite challenging and thats why I love styling for public appearances more than photo shoots and editorials, she says.

Despite the challenge of public appearances,there are some who find the fullest expression of their creativity in tackling editorials and campaign shoots. Here they can indulge their whims without the strictures of reality being imposed on them. Ami Patel,stylist to Priyanka Chopra,model Lisa Haydon and television producer Ekta Kapoor,and also the fashion director of LOfficiel,India,who has over a decade of styling experience,is one of them. It gives you the freedom to express yourself much more freely, she says. Patel,who moved out of a traditional Gujarati business family to try her luck in a completely unknown domain,has seen the industry shape up since its inception and feels theres still a long way to go before styling peaks in India. India is still just making its foray into the styling industry. The UK and US markets are hugely saturated,but in India it is just the beginning. People have become a lot more style-savvy now,thanks to social media and the presence of foreign brands, she says.

The change in the industry,says actor Karisma Kapoor,is quite perceptible. When I joined films at 16,directors approached us to do films,saying bahut achchi picture hai and then wrote the script on the sets. There were no stylists and we were pretty much left to fend for ourselves. For me,things changed with Raja Hindustani. It was one of the first movies where styling got a lot of prominence. Then Dil Toh Pagal Hai made fitness a rage. Now all the girls pay a lot of attention to styling and work a lot on their individual styles, she says.

Actor Anushka Sharma,for example,plays an active role in her styling. Mumbai-based designer Nisha Kundnani,who works with Aamir Khan,his wife Kiran Rao and Sharma on an assignment-basis,says the former model has an excellent understanding of clothes and always has suggestions on enhancing the look. Even when she has to wear uncomfortable outfits be it a built-in corset or a bodycon dress Anushka doesnt complain as long as she looks perfect for the occasion. Its her training from her fashion years that comes through, says Kundnani,29.

In a way,a stylists success is determined by the kind of trust and understanding they share with their client. While many like Kareena leave themselves completely in the hands of the stylist,there are others who believe in a process of negotiation and discussion. I make it evident that I am not the sort to put up with any nonsense. Usually,there are no tantrums. Most of the girls are reasonable, says Qureshi. For a recent magazine shoot with star wife Suzanne Roshan,Qureshi was rather surprised when Roshan refused to wear a particular colour. Later,she explained it jars with her complexion and makes her look pale and I saw that she had a point, she says. If a client is not comfortable in a silhouette,the outfit ends up wearing them,instead of the other way round, says Chandni Bahri,stylist to Poorna Jagannathan of Delhi Belly fame,Shazahn Padamsee and Monica Dogra. Sometimes,an actor discovers her personal style from this melting pot of ideas. Chandni has added so much to my individual style. She has pushed me stylistically with different silhouettes,with accessories and shoes. I have gone from two pairs of heels to about 12 in a couple of months,but most of all,shes got me thinking about style in ways I never did before, says Jagannathan. Bahri,22,who moved from Jaipur to Mumbai to pursue her career,adds,Youre putting yourself and your client out there for the world to throw roses or darts at. Good enough is not enough, she says.

Stars like Priyanka Chopra,with a defined idea about what looks good on them,choose stylists they can trust their vanities with. Amis relationships with the fashion industry,designers and brands,both in India and internationally,help a great deal. I have a strong sense of how I like to style myself. Ami works within the guidelines,while bringing in her own ideas, says Chopra. Sometimes,a little compromise is needed,but eventually both parties are happy even if it means tweaking the look a little to suit the stars point of view, says Patel.

The effortless access to brands,both Indian and foreign,and the possibilities of the internet have made their job easier. Most of the stylists believe in a mix of brands Zara,Paule Ka,DKNY,Victoria Beckham rub shoulders with Masaba,Shrivan and Naresh,Anamika Khanna,Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna but inspiration,they say,can come from the unlikeliest of quarters. My journeys in the Howrah-Bombay mail in the early 90s to Kolkata,where my grandparents lived the Dhakai saris,khadi kurtas,Indian gold jewellery,even monkey caps and sweater vests on Bengalis left a deep impression on me, says Kundnani. So,when she was dressing up Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao for the Berlin Film Festival last year,she flew to Kolkata and picked up a suitcase full of clothes from Sabyasachi. Aamir didnt have time for discussions but Kiran was very clear that at an international event,they both want to wear Indian. For Aamir,we got a Shahab Durazi and we mixed Kirans outfit with an anarkali made by a local darzi, she says.

While most are tight-lipped about remuneration,rates,say industry insiders,can vary between Rs 25,000 a lakh,depending on the star,the project or the importance of the event. Advertorials are often more lucrative,but they also take up a lot more time,making it imperative that they choose wisely. In fact,times the one thing lacking from their busy schedules. My shopping and sourcing days are usually 15 hour long. Im criss-crossing the city in rickshaws and cabs,hopping from store to store to find the right look. Shoot days last a little longer but when you crack a great look,it seems worth it all,says Bahri. Qureshi,who runs an online designer boutique called perniaspopupshop,has just launched her fashion label at the Lakme Fashion Week,and between assignments and managing the portal,she is always running short of time. Good fashion and amazing clothes are for all and these days I seem to be forever doling out advice to people everywhere on Facebook,on email,over the phone. Its crazy,but its also what I always wanted to do, she says. Its a busy,full life and while some like Bahri want to soak in the experience and grow with each job,others are working towards a goal. Eventually,Id like to start my own styling enterprise,something that is accessible to a large majority of people and not just to the stars, says Ghavri.