1. She tries varied styles. She’s does not do a Vidya Balan or a Sonam Kapoor – sticking to particular attires or sporting just international labels.
Source : minmit.com via Pinterest
2. She has through the years maintained, flaunted and made us fall in love time and again with her curls. She made us believe curls are cool. Cools are curl…lel.
Source : India times via Pinterest
3. She is not the perfect size zero nor does she particularly have the perfect legs or body but she gives a damn, throws caution to the wind and experiments anyway.
Source : Unknown via PinterestSource : Pinterest
4. She mixes prints, colors and trends like a boss.
Source : Bigindianwedding.com via Pinterest
5. When she has an occasion she dresses up, but for the other days, its simple comfortable and cozy staples you and me would be seen in that she sports.
Source : India times via Pinterest
6. She never tries too hard. When she imitates a old time fashion icon its never a “oh look at her, she’s subtly trying to be actor.x” its always a “oh look its actor x” ya she just goes all out and looks like the icon’s clone, thus paying a tribute to them rather than aping their style.
Source : Mid-day.com via Pinterest
7. Have you seen the way she answers her interviews? From not knowing a word in English and being branded as a village bell with an accent she went on to becoming such a force in English and vocabulary and diction and pronunciation and CONTENT that it was such an in-your-face to so many in the film fraternity.
Source : Indiatimes via Pinterest
8. She has recently declined to endorse a fairness cream (She was offered Rs.2 crores for it mind you) because she strongly believed color means nothing and that it would be like insulting her dusky sister, which if she could never do, she could not insult an entire nation. Read this link for more news on that!
A quick post this one! Ever since I launched a facebook page for my blog I haven’t been giving the usual life updates that I used to. Granted, I don’t lead a page3 life (not even page 16 if you ask me 😂) but it used to be fun, talking about completely random stuff. But going big means channeling and focusing on strengths which effectively put an end to these ancillary topics. *Sob. Sob.* However, here’s a “life update” I’m gonna have to give you! I’m learning STITCHING.!! Ahhhh!!! Yes its the most fun thing to do! I enrolled myself in a stitching class recently and boy am I having a ball – a cotton ball – a stitched cotton ball – hahaha! So far I’ve done a pillow cover (elementary my dear Watson!), a kids jubba, an A-Line dress (more on that later 😍) and now an umbrella skirt. Yay!
So when my teacher asked me to buy material for my next class which was going to be an umbrella skirt I didn’t quite know what print I wanted. I went shopping and a bit of picking and prodding ended with me getting a beautiful material. Add a class of sewing hemming and a lot of struggle and Ta-daaaa 😇😍🙌👇👗
I won’t say this skirt was easy for me to stitch. Especially the waist where I had to insert an elastic into a slit and sew up after that but I had fun all the same with my tailor-teacher. 😍📍✂📏😇
This skirt is basically a patchwork of odds and bits of plain and kalamkari prints which were probably in excess. It must have involved so much labor because use square you see there has been individually sewn to the next square. I got this running material for Rs.200 per meter x 3 meters. So for Rs.600 ($10) I have a lovely summery printed maxi ready!! 😍
I found a lot of Indian fabrics and prints in this skirt. Its a prettiest and the most satisfying thing I have done and/or worn in a long time. Hope you guys liked this post. Thank you so much readers for coming back and showing so much love every single time. 💝
Hi you guys! I am back (about time!) with yet another post about Prints!! Back when I did my first post – I dint think this theme through and chose florals as an individual post and went ahead with it. But then the very obvious struck me! Taking prints as a theme just brings in almost an entire genre of fashion into its purview and here I am trying to talk about prints in like four to five posts. Which is impossible. Which is not doing justice to the theme. Which is why I decided on this elaborate plan of choosing groups of prints per post and what better way to start than closest to home. So presenting to you – (cue music 😂) my take on INDIAN PRINTS! 😀
The fashion scene in India is pretty competitive (Indians – ‘nuf said) and growing. While designers love experimenting with colors and cuts there is something common across the country’s fashion industry- Embroidery!! Embroidery is so South Asian and specific to us that I bet its not even a considered as an option for the designers of the West. While prints have been prevelant from before embroidery came into the picture, the sheer workmanship and creativity one can display (and hence charge a bomb for,) through embroidery makes it a luxury and preferred favourite of the runway. So while embroidered-wear can sit snootily in the throne I am today going to embrace its less glamourous cousin Indian Prints because hey prints are here to stay!! 😀 They have been around for ages, they are at times handmade, they fit our purse strings and they are fun to work with and sport. For this post I have chosen four basic prints every Indian girl knows or should know!
Kalamkari
While I have yapped enough and more about Kalamkari on this blog to you before, heres what you need to know of what Kalamkari is all about !!
“Kalamkari is a type of hand-painted or block-printed cotton textile, produced in parts of India and in Iran. The word is derived from the Persian words ghalam (Pen) and kari (craftsmanship), meaning drawing with a pen (Ghalamkar). The “kalam” or pen is used for free hand drawing of the subject and filling in the colours, is entirely hand worked. Only natural dyes are used in Kalamkari and it involves seventeen painstaking steps.”
While in modern times, on the kalamkari dresses we wear, the parts about natural dyes and the “pain staking process” part might not be true, it is said that artisans still use their pens to touch up the lines and pictures created mechanically! So you say its handmade or nothing? Haha good for you bro, I am happy with a “fully machine made but thoda handmade bhi” tag too!
Chennaites looking for Kalamkari, the place you gotta be is Shilpi! (Nungambakkam or CP Ramasamy Road)
I have had a love affair with this Print and material right here on this blog several times before! See for yourself! 😀
Meanwhile, here’s how my favorite cousin styles kalamkari palazzo pants while vacationing in Thailand
Gosh! This chic knows to holiday in style!
Block Prints
Another traditional form of prints are block prints. This is another form of Kalamkari but its quicker and easier to make because they are block printed!
Anyone can try block printing because it works on a simple concept! You’ll know what I mean when you see this!!
Yes! We all, each one of us, could have become artisans had we had the vision mission and purpose when we were taught the highly messy, satisfying art of vegetable printing. Lel.
So blocks which basically look like this are available on etsy and amazon! Wet paint on them and plop them really hard on a fabric of your choice and you get your block print!
Block printing is widely used in India. It works really well on cotton and hence we Indians embrace it with two hands and two feet because a thing called winter is nonexistent here.
This Kurta – my all time favorite, is a really old block printed piece I have!
Also here’s how my school mate and friend Anusha loves her block prints
Anusha is giving western outfits and retail brands a run for their money by rocking New York in this block printed beautiful salwar kameez.
Nailing looks since 1990 can be a tagline for this cute fashionista friend of mine 💝😊 thanks Anusha for the contribution
Bhandhani
Bandhani is a type of tie and dye practiced mainly in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, India. The term bandhani is derived from the Sanskrit word banda (“to tie”). Bhandhini is tough process whereby a piece of cloth is tied up and covered in small loops at various places and then dyed. On drying these tied up portions are opened up and since they weren’t exposed to the dye they remain in the original shade.
Bhandhini is again a work of art special to Gujarat and Rajasthan (honestly how skilled and creative are these people?)
My friend Nandhini readily agreed to help me out with showing my readers how she styled her beautiful bhandhini saree. I love the way she has accessoried so perfectly for this saree!
How Nandhini? How do you manage to find the perfect accessories every single time 😍!
Bhandhini apart from being styled as sarees is really popular as dhupattas and skirts
Ikat
I must say I knew nothing about ikat until very recently. I call it the aztec of Asia. I saw this video about how ikat is done and it is such hard work!! Check out the video here :
Giving you the link because a) seeing it is so much better than reading about it and b) even describing the process seems like hard work for me 😐
I recently bought an AMAZING ikat short skirt and I’m surely posting about it soon. But for now lemme show you how some of the lovely girls I know styled and nailed this pattern!
Niveditha does Ikat in style with this boho type blouse. She has pulled it off with such grace and elan and she gets brownie points for such a fabulous backdrop 😍
My style crazy shopping crazy bestie preeti does Ikat in this party wear shirt and she sure has moved out of comfort zone and is rocking the look!!
While these are not all the prints that there are in India I have tried covering the main ones. Hope you enjoyed this long and long due post. Have a happy rest of the weekend peeps. Love y’all 😘
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