COLOUR BLACK: The athleisure-inspired pants with zipperdetailing, bandeau top, a semi-formal bomber jacket and stilettos shouldn’t work together but here they do

As told to Ankita Chaurasia (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 23, 2020)

After styling Yami Gautam for several commercial ventures, we started collaborating for personal assignments and now, it’s been two years of working together. I shuffle my time between India and Greece, so I style her on and off but we are comfortable with each other and pick up where we had left off every time.

Yami is a stylist’s delight because she is open to ideas and doesn’t shoot down any look without trying it at least once. She gives me a brief of the event and what she wants the look to be like. At the end of the day, she is the one who has to work it, so, I take her inputs very seriously and proioritise her comfort over everything else. Like, if she is attending a marathon, I can’t put her in a gown or if she’s going for a video interview, a dress too short would be a no-no.

It’s fun to create a look which is trendy but at the same time it has to complement the person I am styling, else it falls flat. I never present options that are completely out of her comfort zone. It has to look stylish and yet be distinctly Yami. Copying her peers or blindly following fashion will take away from her personality. A celebrity works long and hard to build an image; it would be foolish to dilute it for the sake of trends.

I usually shortlist looks, get her to try them on, and zero in on the outfit that she likes best. Then I create a mood board for the complete look where we decide details right down to her nail colour, accessories, hair and make-up. So, on the day of the event, all we have to do is put it all together and walk out of the door.

Yami’s inherent style is fun and flirty. She loves prints, frills and flounces and favours neutral colours and athleisure. Her overall vibe is girl-next-door and relatable. But since I have started working with her, she has evolved as an actor, and with it, so has her fashion sense. Now she goes for edgier outfits that are modern and sexy. I have not met an outfit that Yami has not liked. Recently, I gave her a saree and she suddenly took a shine to them. Every day is a surprise with her.


PASTEL PLEASE: Working two different pastel colours—pistachio and lilac—can be tricky but we balanced out the puff-sleeved blouse and straight trousers, with zero accessories, clean makeup and shiny silver heels


LICENCE TO FRILL: Yami loves girlie silhouettes like this dress. The polka dots added to the fun element and she loved twirling in it


SEQUINS OF EVENTS: This dress is right up Yami’s alley in terms of the silhouette and print. It was cinched together at the waist for a more structured silhouette


PURPLE HAZE: There’s a lot of scope to play with textures in monochrome, like in this purple co-ord set


ZIP, ZAP, ZOOM: A pink dress with a zipper running right through the front is an antithesis but it has never looked more beautiful