"It Is No Fun Wearing Jimmy Choos If You Have Grubby Feet" ~ Amrita Bardhan

I have been away from the internet world for ten whole days, roaming the little gallis and streets of Mumbai with regards to my work. It has been an eye-opening, insightful and interesting ten days. Unfortunately I am not a travel blogger. I somehow cannot pen my thoughts about the places visited and countries travelled. So after a ten day hiatus from blogging and social media, I come back with an exciting new section on my Blog.

This whole new section introduces people in our daily life, who adapt and carry their own style tips, are fashion conscious, know what suits them and most importantly, take style off the ramps and make them wearable. Now isn't that, what most of us look for - fashion which we can wear in our day-to-day life.

Keeping this in view, I introduce my all new section "Her Style" and being the first person to grace this section is Amrita Bardhan. Each day, Amrita puts together a look which is unique and attractive. Read on to learn more about Amrita and her style, with some very interesting quotes by her.



"I always accessorize & a flash of bright hue adds the zing."



I met Amrita around nine years back at her office in Baroda, Gujarat. It was peak summers and the minute I met her, the first thought to cross my mind was, "how does one manage to stay so prim and proper even in these hot and sultry days". That was my first and always lasting impression of her, here is someone who loves to dress up, knows what to put together in her wardrobe and keeps it that way at any given point of time. Nine years down the road, her zest for life and fashion remains intact. Meet Amrita Bardhan, partner at Purple Crayon, an advertising firm in Baroda.





"Being comfortable in what you wear is the secret to a well-dressed person"
Amrita with her better half

 

Amrita says, "Everybody I know is well dressed, but only a few can really grab your attention. I love clothes and I love shopping! I am always looking for a bargain to something affordable and beautiful. Being in the advertising field allows me to not get compartmentalised into specific dressing styles."

Amrita has an interesting and eclectic collection of accessories.

 

 

 





A magenta and blue onyx neckpiece





A small glimpse into a part of her neckpiece collection





















Amrita is the new-age woman who wears her mind on her sleeve. She knows what she needs to pick out for herself on a particular day. I am motivated to ask her some very obvious questions:







"Gold and turquoise threads entwined together make for an interesting piece"



Amrita, looking at your collection, I am tempted to ask, what would one find in your bag at any given point of time?

I am not much of a bag person, but, I always have a lip gloss, comb, tissues and sun glasses.

I for one know you travel a lot. Which place has been your best shopping experience?

Every city has it's own charming and secret alleyways that open up to enormous treasure troves.Off late I have also disvovered the joys of inexpensive window shopping. The exchange rate is also helping :) :). Every place I go, I pick up little souveniers and local attractions. London is a great place to shop. You get unbelievable bargains and very avante grade fashion. And who can say no to Bangkok!?! Shopping at Bangkok is non-stop, you just can't stop at one.

How well do you experiment with colors?

I love experimenting. One of my favorite styles is color-blocking. I prefer pastels but a flash of bright hue always adds zing.

 

Amrita carries several looks, depending on the occassion. Here are a couple of her avtaars.






Making summers really cool.





 






In traditional Navratri attire





 






The Nine-yard wonder



With great ease and finese, she transforms her cool soho look into the traditional sari. She is equally comfortable in western as well as indian wear as seen in her photographs.

 




Breaking the color monotony with lovely
Royal-blue slip-ons



Going Retro - In black&white Polka dots - With Parvez



A secret most well-known is that she is a huge ShahRukh Khan fan and considers him the style icon for the opposite sex. Among the women, she feels, Deepika, Sonam and Kangana have high style quotient.

 

 



Notice the interesting Elephant-shaped Mother of Pearl earrings

Hand-painted earrings

 

"Bangles&Bracelets are a must for me"

"I am a greedy shopper :)"

 

Vintage, Multi-colored earrings







Amrita signs off with some fun shopping mantras::

 

1. Always try before buying

2. Natural fabrics are the first choice

3. Go shopping on your own

4. As with secrets, reveal only what you want others to know

5. Do take help of mirrors

Amrita's latest Facebook status says, "Wise are those who carry their comfort zones everywhere". I think the status and the above picture say it all :). I hope you guys enjoyed this post as much as I did writing it. I have to admit I troubled Amrita a lot for the right photographs and clicks and she very patiently obliged. I guess that's another one of her hidden accessories :). Thank you Amrita for being a part of this blog, more so, for flagging off the "Her Style" section. You may learn more about Amrita's work and Purple Crayon advertising firm  here http://www.purplecrayonindia.com/

P.S. - If all goes well, Amrita will soon be featuring as "Guest editor" on my blog, and shall be covering the style elements of one of her personal favourite people. Keeping my fingers crossed for this one Amrita :)



 

In Wine there is Wisdom

Caudalie Mathilde Thomas - French born Entreprenuer - is the cofounder (with her husband, Bertrand) of luxe skin-care line. She has perhaps the most beautiful inspiration board on earth: her parents' Chateau Smith Haute Lafitte Vineyard. The 600 year old winery in Bordeaux, France, is home to the original Caudalie spa - a chic aerie above a picturesque outdoor pool - where many of the company's products are used as treatments. Caudalie has been steadily discovering new ways that ingredients derived from grapes can beautify the skin.

 

So we have one more reason to keep that wine bottle near us....wonder when wine treatments will be introduced in our country.

Spring Collection

"Spring is the time of plans and projects" - Leo Tolstoy, Anne Karenina.

I simply love colors. Just the splash of it around me lifts my moods in more ways than one. Needless to say, that spring time is one of my favorite designing times of the year. You just "spring" from one color to another and no matter what is the end result, it all just turns out so very beautiful.

 

A little secret I would share though, I was forever selecting clothes, footwears, upholstery, accessories in earthly colors or colors of black, white and grey. I would go shopping and just go around picking out all things in these shades. I guess this was majorly influenced by working in the NGO sector for so many years. I still can't believe myself, when that voice in my head says, "You are a jewellery designer now...you gotto think colors from now on".

 

Being a designer in indian stones was never a conscious decision. I once read somewhere, "work grows out of other work, and then there are few eureka moments". I found my eureka moment one fine day :) and I have to thank my family and friends who believed that I could do this. Their belief only strengthened my persuasion for designing.

 

Very soon I plan to do a couple of courses, furthering my newly found expertise but for now, here are a few pictures of what I am currently working on....



One of my favorite designs - hand painted pendant tulip pendant+peridot+carnelians

 

The post would be incomplete without this photo. My green plants in full bloom.

Flowers actually help me create designs

Play of colours



Peridot + Peridot Pendant

 

The Classic Gemstone!

The Wolf of Wall Street's leading lady steps out wearing insanely cool Pearl & Diamond Spider earrings.

Photo Credit: Getty Images

 

The Curved Heel

Colours for your sole this Spring
Photo courtesy:: Elle Magazine

Equality is a duet, not a solo.

Deviating a little from the essence of my blog, I felt like putting this article up. The article is written by one of my favorite journalist and columnist - Bachi Karkaria. Her writings are clearly stamped with her branding of style and a sense of wit. With great ease she utilises the elasticity of the English language and intertwines illustrations and quotes by great authors of ancient literature with her thoughts on modern day India and more.

 

The below link is a post on her blog - Erratica - wherein she writes about the sexist changes happening with rapid speed today. The article comes in wake of celebrating International Women's day. Interesting and fun to read, her cheeky sign-off character "Alec Smart" seals the article with a smile :).

 

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/erratica/entry/sexist-changes

The business of blogging - Imran Amed

"The Business of Fashion is a blog that has gone the way most bloggers can dream of - but probably don't" ~ Blogger Imran Ahmed's "passion project" is now one of the fashion world's most widely respected publications. He is one of the people who left lucrative opportunities and believed in something, more so in his calling. As he launched the blog from his sofa, he worked various ways and intersections of business and fashion. He was named the most influential men of 2011 by British GQ. Read on about his life, his choices and his blog that make front-page fodder, especially for those connected to a creative industry. You may find the full article here:: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Imran+Amed+Business+Fashion+business+blogging/9582561/story.html

Neckpieces

Moonstone

Amethyst+Rose Quartz with a Rose Quartz pendant

Brown Sandstone

This is what I call...COUTUREGASM

An effortless Rihanna for Vogue....what a storm!

 



Confused mornings

Each morning I wake up with my list of things to do. I have been designing jewellery for more than a year now and each time I sit to work my way around the stones (I design primarily in precious & semi-precious stones), I get interruptions galore. I sometimes wonder, am I just a bad planner or do I really have so much on my plate. Thankfully I have some wonderful clients to my credit, who give me the time and space to work out the best possible designs for them. My tag line each time I hand them over a finished product is - I don't believe in the word "clients", these are relationships I am building along the way.

It's just one of those days today where I am feeling so bogged down that I have no clue where to start. And to come up with designs, is a far far away thought. I guess this is one of the primary reasons I love to keep flowers in every possible corner of my room as they inspire me to think colors, beauty and designs.

Every piece designed is individual and hence getting the mental block out is crucial to my work. There is so much to do and so little time...and I hate to ramble on. So after penning down these lines, I hope to get some stuff done and some out of the way today. But at the end of it all, I must say, I love what I do.

 

The grainy click below is from a phone camera.

 

 



Self-inspirational pic from my home



Chai time makes work time complete

Inspirational work days

My Guardian Angel

An Angel Pendant in Tigerstone

 

One of my creations that holds special significance to me, is the Angel in stone. It is a pendant. The angels are available in different stones like tiger stone, jade, Lapis Lazuli and so on. 

 

At my exhibitions, I find an increasing number of people admiring this particular design. It is interesting to see the various interpretations an angel can have to people. One lady bought this for her daughter  to carry it in her school bag, each day.

 

Different stones have different meanings to people. I know someone who regularly purchases designs in rose quartz from me. She believes, it brings a lot of luck in love :).

 

The pendant in the picture, has been a complete sell-out at each and every exhibition, display, pop-up shop and shows. People say tortoise brings a lot of good luck and is considered very auspicious if one owns a tortoise when combined with stones....something I had no clue about!

Work brings along so many exciting anecdotes, the tortoise stories really enthralled me. I feel happy when people own my creation with the hope of bringing something good, apart from being stylish ofcourse. It's interesting how we look for our Guardian angel in the tiniest of things. In the end, we all lead our lives on a song and a prayer.

On this note, have a lovely weekend you beautiful people.