Need a Dog to Adopt Me: Personal Fashion

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!!

Round and Round and Round to Right There: Personal Fashion

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.

Style Me on the Street- Part 1

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/

Debt Bird: Personal Fashion

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.

EXP DATE: 7/7 - Personal Fashion

Images by Hrishikesh Vimadalal 

Pants: Comme Des Garcons; Tee: J.Crew; Shoes: Underground UK 

 In British English [which is what I grew up learning] when someone dies, a polite way to say that is, "he/she expired today". I know the rest of the world finds this phrase to be funny or impersonal but that is not the intention. However the idea of us as humans having a pre-set expiration date of survival [like milk or fruits] is quite surreal. If you asked my mom she would say she believed we came into this world with our destiny pre-decided with an exact date of expiration. I think a lot of us believe that. But what about some times during our course of life when we die a little. And then that happens again and we die a little inside again. And then over and over again at multiple times during the course of an entire lifetime? Is life a slow death?