My Style; My Fashion Choices; Why I wear what I do; What is my style statement!

It's important to be what we are, comfortable from within with our unique choices, not frenetically focused on trends,

Not wearing aubergine because it's the 'in' colour but because you are in sync with the shade. And, of course, to suit your body type.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Being the rebel that I am I wear what makes me happy, sometimes aware of OTT choices. 

I am  nonchalant of  people who fashion themselves as 'critics' , ironically themselves wearing obsolete styles but with that childish audacity  comment on what the jet set wear!

Clothes are like an experimental adventure to me  - I prefer not to conform to accepted norms of age, size and 'beauty', whose youth is my own mindset and zest for life.

One endeavors to retain the free spirit of the person one is, to tide barriers of narrow traditionalism and preconceived confining notions of feminine, masculine, 'proper' and 'branded'.



Impractical sometimes- I enjoy flamboyance, and have to often remind myself that what I am buying will probably work only on a few occasions. I have often been marked out for my choices, and am happy to brandish what I enjoy whatever the reaction of the so called 'critics'-  hair facinators, hats,                long flowing dresses..........the works!



Hats are a great penchant, I wear them with panache uncaring of any question and criticism,  and another indulgence is my gowns, I savor my extravagant gowns. My favorite era is the Jane Austen period and would love to live in a manor in that era. Downton Abbey maybe!?




I have been a collector of gowns and love all of them - from the original Cristóbal Balenciaga original I bought while at college in LA to my Gaultier outlandish gowns while working and studying in Paris.





I am asked what are the items I would never discard?
I never discard trench coats, capes, gowns and some chosen long vintage long dresses from my wardrobe. They are classics that transcend trend, time and forecasts to seamlessly move beyond reason and season.

Traditional craft creations like Kantha, Paithini, Dhaka and Kalamkari textile fabrics stoles and ensembles are museum level creations... heirlooms that will stay with me forever. These are synergistic with my work at saving craft in India; my association with the late craft activist Roshan Kalapesi was for me the start of a long passionate journey deep into the exotic world of Indian craft... its unique beauty and my romance with the handiwork of the Indian craftsman.

Corsets, bustiers, gowns, jackets, frocks and more frocks, cocktail dresses... they are an all-year indulgence. I enjoy the newness of wearing something just bought, the excitement of a child to don something crisp and immediately brandish it.

Contrary to popular opinion, I am a recluse, and enjoy the loneliness of solitude and the silence of a journey with books;-
partying is always like work and in tiny doses, only with special people does it become magical.

At home alone, I enjoy wearing long flowing satin wear or summer strapless dresses .

Walking the Ramp For Sabyasachi Mukherjee

 















Clothes are an extension of my design, my love for color  
silhouette, fabric, the craft of weaving and my passion for beauty.  It has never been about people but a romantic moment or a special occasion makes me want to make a little more of an effort.

This is the same reason, even though I established  an interior firm and am a professional interior architect, I diversified and launched a fashion label; creating clothes which in fact, makes for less birth pangs.  It is the most natural extension of my personal love for style, color  and fluidity. It is nearly an aside, an indulgence, not a profession.

 Ever since I can remember, I've seen clothes as expression of my 'self'… something that further expresses my creative outpourings and providentially early travels around lent exposure and an international aspect in my interpretation.

I do  not dress after all with the feeling that 'I am because I am wearing a brand'. I am most non-cognizant of brands for the sake of a name, I think its quite frenetic and wannabe. I try to avoid wearing an obvious brand or even a monogram emblazoned upon my chest, and I dress like a bit of a rebel. For instance, at good friend Shilpa  Shetty's spa launch, I came straight from a flight as I was in flat gold sneakers and a floppy hat where everyone was so dressed up, but while traveling in the Nilgiri hills , alone at dinner in a colonial restaurant, I wore a Mary McFadden gown. For me... alone with myself in my utopia!


Nisha JamVwal