Nitasha Gaurav, Styles Ranveer Singh
Tell us a little about your journey.
“I was heading the fashion communications department at NIFT Delhi, while writing for various publications, when I got a job as the fashion editor of Femina in 2007. After a four-year stint where I styled celebrities for shoots, I started freelancing, and styling celebrities for other magazines. My first shoot for Filmfare was with Ajay Devgn. And from there, it just kept snowballing.”
While everyone sees how glam celebrity styling is, what are the most challenging things about the profession that no one knows about?
“It’s anything but a cakewalk. It’s blood, sweat, and tears, a lot of hard work and it’s quite a high pressure job. It’s about the relationships you build with designers within the country, and internationally, so it’s a lot of human skill required. We don’t have any fixed work hours, sometimes you work for weeks at end before you have some time off. There’s no concept of weekends. You can only do this job if you love it. No one really sees all the work that goes behind the scenes before they see the red carpet look.”
What’s your favourite thing about the personal style of the celebrity (actor) you style?
“Ranveer Singh is very open minded, and he’s not constrained by anything. He truly enjoys fashion, it’s not something that he does because he wants to appear a certain way. There are enough people who dress up to appear a certain way. So I’m not working on a back foot, I can work freely, and expand my horizon as well. Every time there’s a red carpet appearance, a black tuxedo is the last thing I’m thinking about. I think fashion here has two periods — before Singh, and after Singh”
Isha Bhansali, Styles Ayushmann Khurrana
Tell us a little about your journey.
“I started out as a junior fashion stylist in 2006 in a luxury and lifestyle magazine. I’ve primarily been an editorial stylist, and eventually ended up being the associate fashion editor at Femina. For 10 years, my ground was editorial styling and fashion writing. I had styled a couple of Bollywood actors in between (Irrfan Khan, Kartik Aryan, and Tahir Raj Bhasin). But it was my cover shoot with Ayushmann Khurrana for Femina that made me venture into men’s styling, full time. It’s been five years, and the journey has been amazing with a lot of learning, fun challenges, growth, and achievements.”
What are the most challenging things about celebrity styling that no one knows about?
“A stylist is a link between the fashion world and Bollywood. It can get quite challenging to synchronise the two worlds. But on the bright side, a stylist also gets to experience the best of both worlds. The biggest challenge for every stylist is a sense of maintaining responsibility. With the nature of our work, it’s important for us to respect the celebrities’ personalities, and also the designers’ nuances.”
What’s your favourite thing about the personal style of the celebrity (actor) you style?
“The best thing about Ayushmann Khurrana is his open mindedness, which is even evident in the choices of films he makes as an actor. He carries my ideas off effortlessly, and with aplomb. He is versatile, and sky’s the limit in the kinds of moods I can express with his personality.”
Anisha Jain, Styles Shahid Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Saqib Saleem
Since when have you been a celebrity stylist, how did you start, and how did you get your big break?
“Ever since I was in school, I knew that I wanted to do something in fashion. At that time, the concept of styling didn’t really exist. Right after my 12th grade, I started working with designers Manish Malhotra & Kunal Rawal, where I could explore this part of fashion. That’s how I started styling. It wasn’t planned, but I was always passionate about styling and fashion.”
Keeping the glamour of it aside, what are the most challenging things about celebrity styling that no one knows about?
“There’s a lot that goes behind the scenes for everyone to see the perfect look. One of the challenges is to have dibs on the best pieces that you have chosen for your client. There are times when getting your courier on time can be challenging, because events, at times, have short deadlines.”
What’s your favourite thing about the personal style of the celebrity (actor) you style?
“Shahid’s personal style is edgy, yet classic. Even though he’s happy with experimenting with different garments, he likes to be in his comfort zone. Rajkummar, I believe, suits and monochrome dressing works the best, while Saqib has always favoured neutrals.”
Amandeep Kaur, Styles Vicky Kaushal
Tell us about your journey.
“I started interning with Vogue India under Anaita Shroff Adajania in my third year of college. I interned with various magazines, and then started working as an assistant stylist for Sportswear International before becoming assistant fashion editor at Marie Claire, and then fashion editor at Cosmopolitan. In 2018, I decided to go out on my own, and moved to Mumbai from Delhi. I approached celebrities, and started styling Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal etc., and that’s continuing.”
What are the challenges of celebrity styling that no one talks about?
“There’s a lot of management and a lot of coordination involved, which is at the level of an organisation, but you’re an individual handling it. What people can see is that I’ve shown a couple of clothes to the celebrity, and they will wear one of them. But there’s a lot of background to it — it starts from researching fashion shows, independent designers, what are brands doing, being absolutely aware of everything in the industry, and then approaching them for the clothes. There’s a lot of lifting of bags, opening of couriers, and sending couriers. There’s a lot of physical labour involved, that people may not see or know of.”
What’s your favourite thing about your celebrity’s personal style?
“Vicky’s personal style is very minimalistic, he’s not someone who likes to experiment a lot with colours and patterns and silhouettes, and he’s not someone who is as out there in terms of fashion as, say, Ranveer Singh or Ayushmann. Like he’s not someone who will wear a skirt out of choice. But whatever you style him in, he makes it his own.”
Nikita Jaisinghani, Styles Karan Johar, Abhishek Bachchan, Aditya Roy Kapur and more
Tell us a little about your journey in styling.
“I was always a fashion lover, but my journey as a stylist began when I was asked by my friend to join the costume designer as an intern on the sets of Mere Brother Ki Dulhan in 2011. Post that, I got a chance to work with Shiraz Siddique for Student Of The Year. My big break was when I got a call from Karan Johar’s office to give a presentation for IIFA, and the rest is history.”
What are the challenges in celebrity styling that no one knows about?
“As stylists, meeting our clients expectations, working on new ideas to do something new and trendy in terms of fashion so that people could follow it, working on a given budget, are some of the common challenges we face.”
What’s your favourite thing about the personal style of the celebrity (actor) you style?
“They are open to trying new things, and have their personal taste as well. When it comes to Johar, he is a fashionista in his own right. You simply can’t say ‘No’ to Karan Johar. Aditya likes wearing a fitted basic T-shirt with a nice pair of jeans and sneakers. Everyone has their own style.”
