A National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) graduate with a master’s degree from London College of Fashion, Leepakshi Ellawadi comes with 5 years of fashion experience. She’s worked on over 200 print advertisements, and a whole bunch of movies. Apart from this, she’s had a hand in the fashion choices of India’s top cricketers. Today she’s giving us a peek into her fashionable life.
MissMalini (MM): How did you start styling celebrities?
Leepakshi Ellawadi (LE): My styling career took off as soon as I landed in Bombay. I had a good portfolio, which helped me bag lot of advertising work with the celebs to start with.
MM: Do you find any major difference between styling male celebs as opposed to females?
LE: Styling the men is slightly easier as the body type doesn’t fluctuate too much.
The cuts, colour, fit all of it needs to work out well for the women and its slightly more technical in terms of the pattern of the outfit.
MM: You’ve done movies like Bewakoofiyan and Ek Villain, what are the key things that you keep in mind when styling for a movie?
LE: I think styling is not as easy a job as it might seem. There are a lot of technical aspects, which need to be taken care of, and that comes with a lot of experience. For a film, I don’t like to deviate too much from the character the person is playing as that’s the most important thing. The personal image should never take over the character he s playing.
MM: Do you stress on trends?
LE: Fashion has become very important and it’s also very competitive. I love to keep myself updated with latest trends and fads. I love fashion but more than just blindly following trends, quirkiness is very important to me which comes to you from your own personal touch which I try to do in every job I do or any celeb that I style. I also travel a lot and try to attend lot of fashion and lifestyle oriented fashion fairs and shows to keep myself constantly inspired.
MM: Tell us about the cricketers, are they fussy about their clothes? Do you have to convince them into wearing certain things?
LE: Cricketers are lovely to work with. Much to everyone’s surprise, they love fashion. They love to dress up, look good and pay equal amount of attention to their public image as movie stars do. It’s always really entertaining and refreshing to style them as there’s a lot that they depend on me to bring to the plate and I try to do my best too!
MM: What are your top favourite trends this season?
LE: I’m in love with new florals, not the usual pastel Michael Kors reverse prints on color but, Marc Jacobs’ version of Hawaiian prints. African influences in prints and accessories are quite big for me this season. I love mixing sporty with chic.
MM: Do you have a safety look for the celebs you style?
LE: When in doubt, just go classic and never go wrong with the fits. Unfortunately or fortunately because of them being public figures, they get praised and criticized at the same time. So just go safe with classic looks like a black suit or a classic black dress.
Stay tuned because we’re bringing you behind the scenes deets and info on all the styling and fashion behind all your favourite celebrities.
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