Everyone is a fashion critic these days: Nitasha Gaurav

“Chennai has a great sense of fashion, in terms of how they use colours. I think for south Indians, this sense is something intrinsic. Without much effort, they put together vibrant colours in great combinations that you don’t usually see. 

You can see this in the way they mix and match colours in their sarees and blouses and even the way they match the colour of the flower they put in their hair with what they are wearing,” says Nitasha. 

Nitasha has been working as a stylist in Bollywood for the past six years and has also styled south Indian celebrities like Allu Arjun. She says, “I started styling celebrities for cover shoots when I was a Fashion Editor at a magazine. I think the first celebrity I worked with for a cover shoot was Rani Mukherji. But Neha Dhupia was the first actress I worked with independently and Ajay Devgn was the first actor.” 

Nitasha has also styled celebrities like Siddharth Malhotra, Arjun Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Sonakshi Sinha, Parineeti Chopra, and Amitabh Bachchan, to name a few. However, it is Ranveer Singh she can’t stop gushing about. 

“Ranveer is someone who has no inhibitions and he is always ready to try out new things. Sometimes we’ve gone completely out of the box like when he wore skirts or head-totoe prints. I think they looked good on him because he looks like a model and these styles went on to become a trend. Even the beard trend has caught up because of his look,” she notes. 

Her clientele ranges from young and quirky stars like Varun Dhawan to senior actors like Amitabh Bachchan, who are always classy. How does she manage to keep each look different? “It is very important to understand your client’s personality. You need to know what makes them feel comfortable and ensure that the clothes they wear make them happy. 

When it comes to fashion, just like everything else, people’s tastes vary and thanks to social media, everyone is a fashion critic with an audience now. So, it’s not possible to please everybody. My client should feel happy about what he or she is wearing and I should feel happy about how it looks. Those are the only two opinions that matter. The rest are entitled to their opinion,” she states. Are celebrities finicky about fashion? 

“In the beginning, they are not sure what works for them and what doesn’t. Once they are a little more established and more confident, however, they are more open to trying new things. The only time they are a little more conscious about their body is when they are between films. That is their downtime, when they eat what they like and don’t exercise as much. 

So, during that time, they are a bit more reserved about what they wear as their body is not at its best. Otherwise, they are mostly game for anything,” explains Nitasha. But Nitasha does have a pet-peeve. 

“I don’t like it when people mess with their hair and change it to weird colours that don’t suit them, like the blonde trend. I also dislike people using heavy make-up. I feel anything that strays from a person’s natural look is bad,” she signs off.