Hi guys I am Priyanka Mody. Welcome back to Pinkvilla. Today
designer Arpita Mehta has invited me to walk through her store. So, let’s get in.
Hi
Hello
How are you?
Good. How are you?
I am good.
I will take you through all our classic mirror work jackets you know which is our forte and we have done
it in multiple ways. In colours, like this
This is the outfit we shot on Vaani Kapoor for my coffee table book. So, we have this. Then
we got black and whites, we have got the golds, creams, the
rose golds. So, these are all our classic jackets.
Going into some lehengas I mean of course we are dressing brides for mehendis and the
wedding day so you see a lot of yellows, pinks, dust pinks and the blues. This is another
outfit we shot on Kiara Advani for my coffee table book. So, it’s like a tiered, hip hugging
lehenga, that’s what we call it. Its apt for brides to wear for their mehendi. It’s a very fun, yellow
I can see so many colours and I am already intrigued
Yeah, I mean I love colour and we love dressing up brides in colours so
This is one of our latest collections called Reflection, it’s what we had showcased at Lakme
Fashion Week. So, we have done prints ranging from like a sand colour, seashore colour
going into the mangos and then into the flaming reds. So, it’s a very fun, resort line that any
girl could wear for either like a kaftan, like a lounging holiday or she could wear it at home
while entertaining people or if she wants to wear like a ruffle
saree, she could wear it for a mehendi or like a destination wedding
Very boho chic vibes
Very boho chic and I mean this is something that has become a classic for us. Like these ruffle
sarees, the feminine, soft free flowing fabrics along with fun prints. I think it’s become like a
brand thing now. Even like these shararas, the gararas and the shararas are huge hit with us.
Brides love it, girls love it beacuse it’s a very flattering silhouette. And
it’s fun, its playful and at the same time it looks dressy as well.
My current favourite I will show you, is this piece. Its one of my most favourite pieces. This
is actually a draped blouse that we have with a slim skirt and slip and we have teamed it with
all red-on-red linear mirror embroidered jacket. So, it’s very detailed, its very sexy. And it is
something that one could wear to a red-carpet event or even for their own personal event like
if I am hosting a cocktail party or something like that. Or I could even wear the jacket just as
really short dress. So, I love the versatility of this outfit. And of course, you can see its very striking
Yes, its stunning
So yes, I wanted to show you this book where we, its basically a very pictorial book and it
has all the beautiful campaigns that we have done and just specifically for this book, we got
10 amazing actors who are friends of the brand to shoot
this for us, in our garments of course. So, starting with here, that is picture of Sonam that we shot in
This is very similar to the jacket that you were showing
But like I mentioned the jackets are our identity like you know the mirror work jackets that we do
So that’s why we wanted all the girls to be dressed in iconic outfits from the brand.
Like Ananya is wearing a mirror bralette and a printed skirt.
I like how you still catered to their own personal style. I
mean like giving a bralette to Ananya to
For like, Sonam, we gave her a little layered look because
Sonam can pretty much carry off anything and she looks great in those
For Madhuri ma’am, we did this organza saree, very soft and
elegant just like her graceful and timeless
That’s Sonakshi.
I love these photos.
Thank you
This is again one of those BTS shots that we click during the shoot. We all went in camel
carts right in the centre of the Rann of Kutch, the white sand Kutch.
And it was quite a task, like I mentioned. So, I mean mojudis, heels, sneakers that we were
talking about, lehenga and sneakers. Kind of go hand in hand.
Always cheat and be comfortable. That’s our vibe today.
How has your journey been and tell us about the last ten years?
So, I feel I have been in the industry since the past 10-12 years but recently we marked like
the official 10 years of the brand and it has been super exciting. There have been tons of ups
and downs but I just feel that we have been blessed, we have worked hard and I think we
have been grateful enough to come this far and looking
forward for all the amazing things in the future
You cannot deny the fact that the pandemic has taken down a lot of businesses and taken a
toll on fashion as an industry. So how are you coping with it
and what are you like? How is your game right now?
The pandemic actually I feel took a toll globally not only for us over here but all over the
world and during these times, there were really sensitive times so then we just had to make
sure that we are looking out for each other. Like you are looking out for the team, you are
looking out for all the people that we work with, associate with. Thankfully we didn’t have to
downsize our business or like you know cut short anything at all but we just had to make sure
that we are being sensitive about everything that’s around us.
Do you think brides should look out for trendy lehengas because you know everyone’s
wearing so say like a shoulder or silhouette or should they keep it classic?
I feel a bride should always keep it classic at least for her main day, the pheras that we are
talking about because that is something that is going to be etched in your memory for life so I
feel its always good to go with a classic silhouette and feel for the main day but if you do
have other functions say like a pre-wedding party or you have like a small mehendi I think
those are the events and the functions where you can experiment with silhouettes like you
mentioned like something exciting on the shoulder, maybe a slit in your skirt or wear like a
sharara or garara. So those fun silhouettes are nice for your
pre or post wedding parties but for your main day go classic.
Are you pro sneakers with lehenga?
Oh yes, absolutely because I feel that every bride should be like dancing at her wedding and
the most comfortable way of doing so is I think sneakily
wearing sneakers under your lehenga.
Okay so moving on, there has you cannot deny the fact that there has been a debate going on
about the whole designer and plus size women who are trying to you know get their lehengas
done or are wanting to look their best for their big day.
Do you think that debate is valid? What is your view? What is your take on it?
I just feel that as a brand, we have been catering to all women, all sizes. Be it a double XS,
XS, S, medium, large, XL, double XL, triple XL and in the beginning I used to just, the kind
of women who are placing orders with us were very limited. But I feel in the recent times in
the past few years everyone has become so confident about dressing the way they want to
dress that it has gotten us so excited to dress them. I mean we have gotten so many orders in
various sizes with the most amazing styles and we are like wow you know we received this
order like you know this person wants to wear this kind of a lehenga, its amazing we are
getting really excited making these kinds of garments because we custom make like I
mentioned for everyone, for all sizes. So, it’s actually amazing to see everyone feeling that
confidence to go ahead and wear what they want to wear.
So, when it comes to your designs, they are different from the rest.
So how do you deal with your creative process? I know being from a creative industry it does
take a toll on you if your designs are you know plagiarised or somewhere
copied. So how do you feel when that happens and how do you deal with it?
We dealt with this phenomenon, plagiarism pretty early on because we were one of the few
people who started mirror work and it was something completely new and different at that
time and so our designs were getting copied left, right and centre in the beginning I was
flabbergasted. I was like what is going on? You know like this is not fair, I went into that
whole emotional turmoil. The best way to deal with this is being a step ahead you know so I
think that you know even kind of motivated us to stay ahead of everyone as in if someone is
already copying your work, let them copy it doesn’t matter. That just shows that okay you are
on the right track, you are doing something correct, everyone loves your work and that’s why
they want to copy your work. So that’s what it is.
So, you know when it comes to plagiarism Diet Sabya has been that one Instagram account
who has made it pretty evident to the world. It happened but not a lot of people knew about it
so what are your thoughts about it, Diet Sabya doing what they do?
No, I think its an amazing job because they are creating a lot of awareness about the original
and awareness is always good for everyone, I think it’s kind of essential for everyone to
know what is authentic and what it isn’t so I think they are doing a great job.
So, I think on that note, thank you so much for having us.
Thank you, Priyanka. I am so excited to do this with you guys.