Don't Shoe Me

2019-06-21T17:43:00.000-04:00

Did Ya Miss Me?

2017-01-08T14:31:00.000-05:00

Top: Vintage Manish Arora; Shoes: Discount Universe; Fur Coat: Vintage

It has been forever since I posted on the blog, so I won't be surprised if no one ever sees this post. But just to list the chronological events of my life for my future self, there has been a lot that has happened and I am happy with the progress.

1) I got a new job 3 yrs ago that I love. I am finally finding ways to use my creativity in my actual profession instead of just using fashion and this blog as an outlet. I moved from architecture to interior design and am loving the hands on creative process. The best part is that the projects take about 6-9 months from start to finish so I get to see them built and in use in much shorter periods of times. Architecture took forever. My last building look over 4 years to be built.

2) I have gotten into gardening. I know, I know. What is happening to this world. It does not make sense anymore. I mean Trump is president you guys! Anything can happen including me loosing my shit entirely and getting into gardening. 2 years ago my idea of grocery shopping was a run to Duane Reade for some milk and Doritos. And now I am growing my own veggies in the east village on our patio. But I mean seriously people how did we allow Trump to happen to us? I can't and will never get over this shock. I think our entire country needs therapy. Phew!

Back to gardening. I love it. ohmmm..

3) I also went to Japan recently and want to move there.

4) I also tried my hand at a bunch of things and failed. But all is good. Learning experiences, all of them.

Thats all. Hoping to update the blog a bit more. Have tones of new stuff in my closet from the last 2 years. But how about them boots huh? Aren't they the shit?

Happy 2017!

Need a Dog to Adopt Me: Personal Fashion

2014-12-15T23:50:00.000-05:00

Images by Hrishikesh Vimadalal

Shorts: Comme Des Garcons; Sweater:From a shop in RI called Bananas; Shoes: Ashish for Topshop

This is what butch Frida Khalo might have looked like. Am I right?

This shoot has a few glimpses into my current life. (This is me telling my future self 10 yrs from now just for the record). Shot in my new apartment on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. I have longer hair now. The painting I'm holding in image 6 is my man's artwork he made from when he was a teenager. It's a self portrait and one of my favorite works of his. You can check out more of his work here.

I have a great new job and my office is in the Empire State Building. As an architect that is a huge deal for me. Always wanted to work in an iconic building. So a bunch has happened this year. All good to great things.

Hope everyone's looking forward to the holiday's coming up. Happy holidays to all!!

NYC Gold: Styling

2014-07-24T00:39:00.001-04:00

Images by Hrishikesh Vimadalal

Sona's Gold Earings by Eina Ahluwalia

A few weeks ago the brilliant Sona Mohapatra was visiting NYC and we caught up over some Spanish Tapas, Eina and Akita Ahluwalia who were also in town and a lot of Kallol Datta talk. Kallol is the connecting factor amongst all of us. Even though Kallol wasn't in NYC, it felt like a 3D hologram of him was floating above our heads at dinner. I think we ladies planned his entire future for him, figured out how he can conquer the world with his genius, become famous [more than he already is] and still stay humble and the beautiful person he is. It's all done and decided. We just haven't told him yet.

Connections of the like minded, connected by the like minded. Sona and I connected pretty instantly. We caught up a couple of times after that and when two creatives collide, this happens. We brain stormed over an idea to shoot and then shot it the next day. For kicks, for fun and for creative explorations. Had the best time. I decided to style Sona and Sona decided to color NYC with her fused Indianness. We took over the streets of Soho with our undefined but definitely recognisable nationality. Eina's gold jewellery that she lent to us for the shoot helped make the statement.

BTW, these Ahluwalia girls are the nicest people on this planet. I mean saintly nice! I swear. Felt like a total uncultured brat with my utterly unfiltered vocabulary in their presence. But somehow they promised they weren't judging. So I concur I'm good in their books. If you haven't seen their work, you are missing out! So do yourself a favour and go check them out. All their jewellery is hand made by super talented local artisans and the brand's business model is entirely based on not exploiting the artisans, pays them what they demand in renumeration and nurtures their sustainability so they do not give up on their trade art of fine jewellery making for a job that pays better.

On the other hand for all those who don't know Sona, she is an insane musician with the gift of a voice that can shake your core. And quite easily. You have to listen to her music to feel the soul and fun. She has several Bollywood songs to her name, was part of Coke studios, performs all over the world and has a fantastic sense of style. Check out some of her works here.

Round and Round and Round to Right There: Personal Fashion

2014-04-15T23:31:00.000-04:00

Images by Hrishikesh Vimadalal Dress: Comme Des Garcons; Boots: Rick Owens

Whenever you feel like you are going round and round and round in circles you have to force yourself to take another path. I know it seems like a very logical and an almost "Ofcourse" thing anyone should do when feeling stuck, but I think 90% of the times we don't actually make the effort to find a different way and take it. Just saying.

Cats on My Back: Personal Fashion

2014-01-07T01:41:00.000-05:00

Images by Hrishikesh Vimadalal

Hat: Meerwiibli by Sarah-maria; Shoes: Rick Owens; Everything else thrifted

This post consists of all of my favourite finds from the last couple of months. I paid $12.50 for that coat at a thrift store in North Carolina. Found this awesome princess Leia hat in Beacon, NY and this incredible tiger backpack online from some chinese website. The backpack is a conversation maker anywhere you go. It is huge and people can't help but talk about it, eye it and roll their eyes a bit when they see it. So if you do intend on getting one, just keep that in mind.

Also HAPPY FREAKING 2014 Y'all!! I have to take this moment to thank my fantastic photographers of 2013!

- Hrishikesh Vimadalal: who shot most of 2013 is absolutely fantastic!

- Jackie Russo: who helped me the entire 2012 and part of 2013, graduated this year from NYU with fantastic grades and I am super proud of her achievements!

- Shraddha Borawake: The original DSM photog/ artist extraodinaire

- Alison Wynn: The best-crazy-friend-photog combo

- Upasana Jain: Ex- DSM photog who moved to India and did a shot again this year when I was visiting India.

- Myriam Abdelaziz

- Ji Yoe

- Tamanna Shaikh

And thank you all for keeping up with me. Even when I don't post too regularly sometimes. 2013 was a stressful year and I am so glad it's over. You guys are the best and I am infinitely grateful for the love.

Reflections: Personal Fashion

2013-12-11T00:58:00.000-05:00

Images by Hrishikesh Vimadalal

Shoes: Topshop; Leggings: American Apparel

It has been a bit since I blogged. Sometimes you just need a break right? Hope all you guys are doing well and enjoying this beautiful holiday season. It snowed in New York today! I love snow!!

Here is a quick post I did with Hrishi a couple of weeks ago. Wearing a scarf I bought from India as a dress. Enjoy :)

Style Me on the Street - Part 3

2013-11-10T22:34:00.000-05:00

Images by Shraddha Borawake

This is the last part of the 3 part "Style me on the street" project that I have been posting lately. We took it a bit further this time by processing the final images slightly [ok a lot] crazy. All Shraddha's idea and work. I love how it started with a styling project of fashion, then became a performance of sorts by doing it on the street and involving strangers to participate and then became a composition by making the participants form a picture frame in real life by posing and ultimately in this series, the pictures are further edited to take on a whole new artistic look and composition.

Here are Part 1 and Part 2 of this project. Love Ji [our friend] sleeping on the floor in the first series and the guy with the orange poster. He walked up to us to participate and had this poster on him that Shraddha asked him to use in the picture. The girl styling me in the first series put bindis of all different colors all over my face. I think that looked pretty awesome. The lady in the last image on the right has a pretty cool blog herself. Her name is Anjula Carrier and you can check it out here.

Style Me on the Street- Part 2

2013-10-27T20:24:00.000-04:00

Images by Shraddha Borawake

In this project that I told you guys about last week that we did where we asked strangers on the street to style me from a bag of things that I had with me, this is part 2 of the series. There is one more. But I have to say of all the groups we stopped and encountered that day, this was the fun-nest. These guys went all out on styling me. Drawing on my face with an eyeliner, adding their own make up, making me wear the girl's leather jacket, etc. They even put on bindis themselves to support Don't Shoe Me. The icing on the cake was that the girl told us at the end of the shoot that she had a bag of confetti in her tiny purse if we wanted to use it and my first reaction was, "Why do you have confetti in your purse?" and her response was, "Why the hell not?". Love New York and it's people. Life is great here if you can just find a way to survive and open up your minds to take all it has to offer in.

Style Me on the Street- Part 1

2013-10-21T00:13:00.000-04:00

Week after week for the past 3 plus years I have styled myself for the blog and it has been awesome because I can see the progress made in my own style. But just to switch things up a little my favorite collaborator artist Shraddha and I decided to do a street styling project. The idea was to have random people on the street style my outfit. I had a bunch of arbitrary items from my closet in a big bag and we stopped complete strangers in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to style me how ever they liked. That was just one aspect of the idea. As the styling was happening Shraddha also added some other strangers to participate in each shot. There are random people doing different things in each shot, all of whom where asked to participate in the shot on the spot and were given directions on how to pose. So every frame is composed by Shraddha with random people and all my outfits/ makeup are put together by complete strangers.

Since there were a bunch of people we stopped I am going to post each group of people as a separate story.

STORY 1: 20 DOLLAR SHOOT

Our first encounter was with "The Queen of Williamsburg" Leonora Russo. She is an 87 year old extremely stylish lady who caught our eye and we asked her if she would participate and she totally obliged. I just looked her up and she actually has a documentary made on her called "The Queen of Williamsburg". This is the outfit she came up with. Guy on the right under the book was a tourist and the guy from the window of the cafe was just having coffee there.

STORY 2: TAKE 2

My second stylist was this incredibly creative girl with her sick outfit and hair, selling some stuff on the street alongside her friend [lady on the left of picture one sitting on a chair] who was selling her jewelry. She styled me with that first outfit and didn't like it that much and then she tried on the second outfit which was to her satisfaction. I love it. BTW, please to be noticing the older couple in the background shooting each other. Again passerby tourists who indulged us in creating an interesting scene.

STORY 3: HERE IS YOUR COFFEE MADAME

My next stylist was this super flamboyant dude who I am sure is a stylist by profession or is atleast related to the fashion industry. His personal style was so cool and he went through my entire basket to find the perfect things to make a chic outfit. He made me pair my black skirt with a sequin Comme Des Garcons top and my fur around me neck. The girl holding the coffee cup was his friend. The other three girls were shopping in the store next door before Shraddha caught hold of them.

STORY 4: NO STYLIST NO CRY

So as you can see that my outfit here is the same as the series above. It was because we couldn't find anyone to style me. Every one had somewhere super important to be. So we just found the people who wanted to participate in the picture. We found this cool couple who were coming back from their workout and this gorgeous photographer guy who was wandering about and our friend Ji who lives in the neighborhood.

The rest of the stories and encounters will be posted in the Part 2 / 3 of this series. Cannot tell you how cool they are! But until than just know this was one of the coolest experiences of my life. Blogging alone isn't enough. Fashion alone has never been enough on this blog. Creating experiences is so much more important. I love that I have awesome friends and artists around me who are always ready to collaborate and make things happen just for the sake of art and being creative.

All images by Shraddha Borawake. She is the best!!!!!

Check out her blog http://musttkalandar.blogspot.com/

Connecting The Dots: Street Fashion

2013-10-14T00:52:00.001-04:00

Images by Prutha Raithatha

Can we all please take a moment to recognize the brilliance of this woman's outfit and look. I love the drawings on her shirt and shorts and her hair. The overall cool of her outfit is quite and rare. I love it.

Tungsten

2013-10-13T15:34:00.000-04:00

Modern Design sent me this flat tungsten band as a present and I am here to review it. There are tons of times when I like clean lines, probably has something to do with my architecture back ground. This one is a tad bit big for my thumb but I highly recommend wearing bands on the thumb otherwise. Yeah I am one of those thumb ring wearers. Deal with it.

Maggie Gyllenhaal: Street Fashion

2013-10-09T23:46:00.001-04:00

Image by Prutha Raithatha

Outside the Alexander Wang show. And because I like her.

80's Revelation : Personal Fashion

2013-10-07T00:33:00.000-04:00

Images by Hrishikesh Vimadalal

Jacket: Vintage; Shoes: Moonspoon Salon

I found this really tacky-cool jacket at my favorite thrift store in Chicago. It is so big I can actually wear it as a dress. It's the perfect ensemble in these early fall days of NYC when . Also it has become by favorite brunch outfit. That's all. Hope everyone is having a happy life!

Kyle Anderson: Street Fashion

2013-10-03T11:38:00.000-04:00

Images by Prutha Raithatha

I love Kyle Anderson's style. It's very out there, fun and he's always so confident yet non-douchy. Amongst all the editors who play it safe and pretty, he's probably the only one who still exudes the young carefree experimentation that I like to see in editors who are supposed to be setting new trends for the world to follow. I never miss taking his pictures whenever I see him.

Actor Faces: Street Fashion

2013-09-30T11:36:00.001-04:00

Images by Prutha Raithatha

I know I am supposed to be concentrating on the fashion at fashion week but I am so much more inspired by talent than people in pretty clothes that when I spot someone who's talent inspires me, it's a lot more exciting than say watching a fashion show. Can you just look at Alan Cumming's 2 second faces please and tell me that 2 minutes watching him is not worth missing a fashion show for? But that's just me.

PS: Spotted the actor outside the Cynthia Rowley presentation.

Off The Runway: Street Fashion

2013-09-29T23:36:00.003-04:00

Image by Prutha Raithatha

Debt Bird: Personal Fashion

2013-09-27T00:00:00.003-04:00

Images by Hrishikesh Vimdalal

Top: Kallol Datta; Pants: Comme Des Garcons; Shoes: Sketchers

I had a birthday recently. I blew a bunch of candles and wished for the same thing over and over again. I wished I could grow a pair of wings. I go to sleep every night thinking it's going to happen tonight for sure. The first thing I do after I wake up is run to the huge mirror in my room, turn around and lift up my shirt to check. Frustrating as it sounds, they don't grow. But I still believe it's mind over body, so it will happen eventually. I shall force my body to modify and grow wings.

In the mean while I am just practicing being a bird already. A mean one, that collects rent and interest from all who owe. Which is you, you and you. So if you can't pay up be prepared to be turned into a lifeless iron statue in which you will have no choice but to lay in stillness forever.

Michael Kors SS2014: New York Fashion Week

2013-09-21T21:23:00.000-04:00

Images by Ji Yeo for Don't Shoe Me

Michael Kors sent down some beautiful wearable yet expensive looking outfits down the runway this season. That is what you expect of Michael Kors ofcourse, but I loved how he down played the gowns with the casual coat on it and the hair and make-up being very easy. The brown snake print skirt with the blue knit sweater was my favorite outfit.

Y-3 : MBFW

2013-09-16T00:21:00.000-04:00

Images by Prutha Raithatha

The Y-3 show is always inspiring and entertaining. Ofcourse Yoji's work is phenomenal but this time the show was in a huge warehouse-like space in the general post office in NYC near Penn-Station and had a bunch of drummers playing live music for the models to strut to, which was awesome. I loved the Y-me platform shoes. The show ended with Yoji playing the drums himself for us for a minute. Super cute and funny.

Hot Chick Alert: Street Fashion

2013-09-13T00:46:00.000-04:00

Images by Prutha Raithatha

This girl's outfit rocks my world! Especially that shirt with the white color. Who makes it? Anyone know? I seriously want to recreate it for myself. Maybe I should just ask her to style me. LOVE IT!

Opening Ceremony x PENDV x Zana Bayne Party + NYFW Presentation

2013-09-08T23:31:00.000-04:00

PENDV & Zana

Bumped into my friend Courtney after a longgg time.

With my friend Chokra, an amazing performance artist.

Last friday Zana Bayne showed her leather harness collection in collaboration with Opening Ceremony at the Hudson River Park. The location couldn't have been better. Anything on the river is always perfect during the warmer months. It was a fun event with new people and old friends.

Faustina Rose: Street Fashion

2013-09-08T00:40:00.000-04:00

Images by Prutha Raithatha

One of the most original people at fashion week. You can find other images of her here from a previous season. Faustina is a stylist and a super creative one at that.

Glow in The Dark White Jungle: Concept Store Design

2013-08-20T23:10:00.001-04:00

I have a knack for doing things outside of what I am actually supposed to be doing when I am supposed to be doing work. This one emerged out of excessive frustration and lack of sleep. Its my tribute to my favorite designer Manish Arora.

Brownian Motion: Personal Fashion

2013-08-15T11:44:00.000-04:00

Image by Hrishikesh Vimadalal

I have become quite detached from the world around me lately because I've been working like a recently turned mad person who doesn't know what to do with themselves except keep moving. hehe. As soon as I get my life back in order and back on track I'll be a little more present in the universe. Until then enjoy a glimpse into this cool project I did with my brilliant photog Hrishi last weekend. The stories in my mind while doing this project will be reviled when I post the entire project. Until then use your imagination darlings! xo.