Bandage dress & Louboutin !

As a designer I never approve of investing into extremely expensive shopping when all you need is a bit of your creative mind put to good use .

I don’t know if this happens with only me or it happens with you too ….  

 

When I go shopping if I like the style I don’t get it in the color I would like to pay for and when  I like the color the style just doesn’t impress me enough to pay for . What do I do ? Many a times I wished if the high end branded stores would indulge into this experimentation of producing some crazy styles and try to reach the by large consumer market rather than just setting the shelves for these products in their fashion houses  in Paris , Milan , New York ,…….

Well I would like to wear the Louboutin and salvatore ferragamo but what if it’s not available here where I live ? Well I have the budget to buy any of these products but can’t go shopping for it to Paris or Milan or NY or ……

Well if you need any of these products and just don’t have enough to go for it or otherwise just do it yourself . Trust me when I say this It’s just simple the only thing you need is creativity , patience apart from these things : acrylic paints , marker pens for leather, spray paints , sequins , nail polish or any of these depending on your requirement .

I was into such a situation but not so recently where my Louboutin stilettos would not complement my bandage dress . I used my creativity to use and thought I should write about it for people who find themselves in such a lurch.

 I had to go as a judge for a fashion show and here I was shopping I had everything suitable dress , jewelry , accessories , ….. but the only thing I couldn’t find was footwear  that would complement my outfit .  The whole design was incomplete without proper footwear  and I couldn’t afford a fashion blunder . As a designer myself I couldn’t  have compromised as people have certain expectations with me . Now , I had to be creative and indulge in some footwear shopping that would suit my requirement .

 I went to Irla [fashion footwear market in Mumbai] and picked up stilettos that fitted the best one in white and other in nude . I love painting and indulge my mind into creative fine art from time to time so I have a set of acrylics , oil paints , fabric paints , spray paints ……. Sequins ….. varnish  and fixative .

All I  needed  was  glue , some acrylics , sequins , varnish and fixative. As acrylics dry fast so acrylics was my first choice to paint and varnish to give it that luster . I painted my stilettos in solid color first and left it to dry . The next day I painted some intricate design on my stilettos and left it to dry for a few hours . Now I glued some sequins to enhance the look . After one complete day I sprayed my stilettos with fixative to give it the required finishing and protect it from any kind of water damage  though it was not raining nor was it going to rain for the next few months but accidents happen.

My  dress and design for the show was complete and I was saved from creating a fashion blunder . My fashion taste was hugely appreciated by other judges and the organizer who was my friend and had accompanied me on my  crazy footwear shopping trips from place to place in Mumbai and was skeptical about my idea of painting and embellishing my stilettos.

‘I am proud of you !’ said my friend whispering into my ears lightly squeezing my hand.

Stockings !

Stockings & the cocktail party!

If you need stockings and have hit the rock bottom in your wardrobe . You don’t have enough time to go shopping? What do you do ? Don’t panic , just paint one !

 

A little black dress more commonly known as LBD is a simple cut quite short dress suitable for evenings or otherwise . It never is outdated just embellish it to suit your today’s need .
It is one of the most important ‘essentials’ in any women’s wardrobe so even I have one . Well this is the story when I had to go for a cocktail party called by one of my best friend before her painting exhibition was inaugurated and some VIP guests arrived and since I am a designer I had to look my best and keep up with the image . Cocktail parties are for more of socializing and gossiping than for anything else .

                         

I had everything to go along – a little altered LBD , stilettos , diamond choker , ....gossip .... only my LBD was little short than the usual . Well short enough that if not teamed with a stocking would leave nothing for imagination . I had about 2 hrs left to go for this party before I realized that I had something missing in my wardrobe and had little or chance to go panic shopping and you don’t go online shopping at this hour !
It was the only dress suitable for this party or say I wanted to wear this dress particularly for this party due to one or many reasons . All I needed was stockings to complete my style but ……..
Stockings! Stockings is 1 hr ? It would take at least an hour to dress for the party so I could dedicate only 1 hr to figure out something to replace stockings!
I am a designer . I am creative , innovative , talented , …... I got a creative idea for this problem as well . It was not the first time I was facing such a situation . It happened earlier also while I was in my 3rd semester of fashion school and my dress which had suddenly become too short for the model and needed a solution before it got disqualified to go on the ramp . Today I still had 1 hr to figure out but that day I had only 15 mins . I still remember how I was trembling in my stilettos with thoughts running in my mind , ‘All my hard work would go waste if my dress doesn’t go on ramp.’ I had sequined the dress alternating with rectangular mirror pieces and there was a huge drama set for all this . It was a closed auditorium where all the lights would go off and only the spotlight will follow the model and the glass pieces will create reflections all around in the auditorium …… ‘OMG ! What will I do now ?’
I used same solution here as well but in a different way . Well for the fashion show I spray painted my model’s legs with bronze glitter . And oh ! I won the best designer award and got an opportunity to throw lots of kisses in the air accompanied with ‘thank u ! I love you !’.

Today I had 2 hrs before I had to reach for the party so I did a bit of time management and decided to paint lace net stockings which teamed up very well with my LBD ,all the accessory , stilettos ,… my diamond choker. To paint lace net stockings all I needed was a fine marker pen . It took 30 mins to draw fish net on both legs and after some time I did a bit touch up to add some intricate designs on my stockings . My stockings were all set in half an hour . After which I sprayed some body glitter to enhance my stockings and I was all set to rock !
And yes I did steal the show and psst !!!!!!!!! my friends were all over me to buy the same styled stockings !!!!

*I am a fashion designer and a published author of 2 books on pattern making published by Atlantic publishers.

Nosy neighbour

Nosy nieghbour :

My nosy old neighbour once asked me in elevator ,"what do you do ?" I answered very enthusiastically ,"I am a author ." She looked at me from tip to toe [or maybe was trying to see through me with her not so x-ray vision which she was opearted not so recently for cataract ] and asked again,"what do you do ?" As a teacher my mind is trained to chose different words to explain the same thing , so , I answered ,"I write books." The elevator door opened at 8th floor and a lady in her seventees entered in a muddy colored silk saree . My neighbour started talking with her who had just entered the lift but not till after hugging and kissing and a wide smile that exhibited her teeth that looked more like the keyboard of harmonium with the stains of paan etc...... Phew !!!!! I was happy she found her friend , so what if in a elevator ! Atleast she will not remember me till I got off the ....... she turned to me yet again as if a lightning managed to strike her in the elevator right from the sky and asked ,"what do you do ?" Well now she had company who was squirming at me because of my casual dressing in a track suit with a sling bag across my shoulder and a shopping cotton pouch bag in my hand and sneakers that would help me in running away ......... she scrutinized me form tip to toe ........ My neighbour was now holding my hand as if trying to stop my flight ....... we all knew we were approaching the ground floor and we will go our way .......... unfortunatley the lift was still on the 4th floor and I didn't have an answer and my she was holding my hand ..... I eased myself out of her clutches by turning around looking into the mirror .........but fortune didn't take long to come to my rescue and we reached ground floor by the time i tied my hair into a neat bun , looking at myself and admiring and .......... by the the time I was done with all this admiration and adjusting my assets we reached ground floor and I just rushed out of the lift [if only i had wings !!!!!!!] ........ I had no answer .......