Favourite Bollywood Celebrity Lehengas from 2016

A lot of bollywood celebs got married in 2016 and of course as usual, the weddings were grand affairs that included famous folks from all walks of life. Regular readers of the blog are going to remember that I absolutely love celeb weddings and everything associated with them - there is so much glamour that it's hard not to be impressed.

These are the brides that I really liked from 2016. Some more pictures for each of them below and some thoughts around why I really liked their outfits.

Bipasha Basu - the Bride in Traditional Red

Bipasha looked absolutely stunning in a very traditional style of lehenga. She also put on a massive choker necklace to complete her traditional look. The look is absolutely stunning, but I think she could have gone easy on the necklace because that choker is likely to have been over 3 kgs!

Asin

She looked rather lovely, but I think the looks was a little subtle for my taste. Since she was the bride, I expected a little more glam and colour - but instead she selected a neutral tone saree. Elegant, but not quite for me.

Lisa Haydon

Lisa Haydon looks stunning no matter what she wears. Her wedding outfit in white made her a vision to behold. She looked absolutely amazing and so elegant. I want to steal her entire look.

Urmila

The Rangeela star looked stunning as ever - and she still looks so so so young. Her outfit was my favourite - a very traditional style lehenga that featured beautiful details. There is very little more that a girl can ask for, really.

Some traditional lehengas that I am absolutely loving (from strandofsilk.com)

Pictures from strandofsilk.com

Best dressed Bollywood celebrities to Follow on Social Media

We are all fascinated by Bollywood celebrities and what they wear. They are setting us goals and also give us guidance on the styles that are the most fashionable. 

With so many stars, how can you keep up with the most stylish? Sure you are following all of them on Instagram and Twitter, but who should you be paying attention to? Let us help you on that front! Our list includes stars who we think are great and those who are good, but we don't think they are relevant for regular folks like us.

Sonam Kapoor

We love her style and she often wears very edgy things. She is seen on important events both locally and internationally wearing a lot of Indian designers. She also wears a lot of international designers like Ralph and Russo etc.

While we love her style, most of the pieces she wears seem to be custom made for her or otherwise are from very expensive collections. This is great if you have plenty moolah to spend, but not on a budget. 

We recommend following her for inspiration and style direction, but not to identify brands worth buying.

Pernia Qureshi

This "Bollywood actress" is also a fashion designer. She has very good taste and you can also see that on her website Perniaspopupshop. 

While she is also seen in expensive designer clothes all the time, she also wears younger and more affordable designers sometimes. 

We say that you should follow her.

Alia Bhatt

Alia has not traditionally been considered a fashion icon as such, but she is increasingly asserting her style quotient through magazine cover features, editorial features and the like.

She has a quirky and fun style that is often cute and stylish. Mind you, the girl can also bring on the oomph when she wants to impress.

A must follow in our opinion !

Sunny Leone

This Bollywood starlet is usually in the news for the wrong reason. She used to be a porn-star, is no longer, get over it.

This girl gives us serious style goals. She really knows how to carry herself and usually has a very nicely put together look. She is also experimental and wears young Indian designers. Her looks can often be re-created on a budget, and still look stylish. 

Must follow in our opinion.

From Damsel to Diva - Kareena Kapoor’s Style Evolution Over the Years

Kareena Kapoor is one of the most stylish actresses in Bollywood. She is indeed a style icon. But she wasn’t like this ever since. The actress has undergone a process of transformation over the years and has reached the zenith of success.

From a simple blonde-haired girl to a top-notch actress, it took a while for Kareena to make a mark in the film industry. And today, she is a reigning queen in Bollywood in terms of talent, beauty and style.

Let’s stroll down the memory lane and trace Kareena Kapoor’s style journey from her debut movie to till date.

Debut with Refugee
Kareena Kapoor was a chubby teenager when she made her Bollywood debut with her first movie Refugee. This grand-daughter of Kapoor clan made her presence felt with her acting prowess. Kareena’s strong jaw-line, stark-white complexion and her bleached hair made her a head-turner. But overall, she was a plain Jane who was in a desperate need of a stylist. Usually, she was seen wearing jeans and t-shirt as she found this attire utterly comfortable.

Apart from that she loved bell-bottoms and chunky jewelry which did no justice to her voluptuous figure. And when she used to don something ethnic, it looked like a pile of mass on her. Her natural beauty was suppressed by her unflattering make-up that included her signature style of putting a light lip shade with a dark outline. It took away the entire attention from her strong jaw line which was her best feature.

All in all, she looked like a girl-next-door and not a celebrity at all. This phase had more misses than hits in Kareena Kapoor’s style quotient.

Size-zero Phase
There came a turning-point in her life when she flaunted her newly-acquired size-zero figure. She worked hard for this envy-inspiring body and was on a strict diet and exercise regimen. Bebo lost oodles of kilos for her role in movie named Tashan. She initiated the trend of size-zero and became a household name overnight. Her vital-stats became the most- discussed topic in the country at that point of time. She switched from jeans and t-shirts to more lady-like dresses and gowns to suit her new figure and voila she got her mojo back!

Her movie didn’t work well at the box-office, but for Kareena it was indeed a career-altering point. She got a lot of endorsements and every director wanted to cast her in their movie. Also, her locks got a complete transformation from blonde to auburn. Not just this, Kareena endorsed no-make up look with just a hint of blush and extremely kohled eyes. But it was her petite frame which did all the talking and the actress was happy showing it off. It was a reincarnated avatar of Kareena Kapoor.

Mrs. Kareena Kapoor Khan
The most crucial time for Kareena was her wedding to her prince charming Saif Ali Khan. Like every girl, Kareena too made sure that she looks like million bucks on her wedding day and she surely did. Though she gained weight and wasn’t size-zero anymore but Kareena knew by now what suits her best in terms of make-up and clothing. Her wardrobe now consists of lot of extravagant gowns and printed dresses and she loves to experiment with hemlines and silhouettes.

Her all-time favourite attire is sari and she swears by her close friend and designer Manish Malhotra’s creations. Bronzer became her new best friend and enhanced her sharp features. Kareena is ever-glowing and her post-marriage glow is even more evident. Kareena Kapoor’s style is very contagious and she is truly a trendsetter. Whatever she wears become a rage among her fans and they want to look like her.

All in all, this actress-par-excellence is elegance personified and her style has evolved over the years to become the glamazon she is today! If you'd like to read more, here is another good article about Kareena Kapoor's style.

Image Sources: www.rediff.com, www.talkbollywood.com, www.pinkfashionz.com

Trends for Indian Bridal Make-up 2015

Those eyes kill me quietly. As your face, your devilish lips

Take my breath away; like it was sucked out of my soul.

It leaves me completely breathless,utterly speechless.

-Alexander Bentley

A ravishing, radiant bride is the focal point of any wedding. As mostly the Indian bridal attires are in bold colours with lot of gold and glitter, the Indian bridal make-up has to be at par, so that more than her dress, it is she who takes everyone’s breath away.

Let’s cover the trends of Indian bridal make-up for each specific feature that is highlighted:

Tress Talk:

This season the hair can be tied up using any hairstyle with accents of flowers or a jewel hair accessory. The South Indian bride displays an amazing braid hairdo with flowers and ornaments. For a modern look the bride can let the hair down with soft curls. Hair extensions and a hint of colour in hair with an emphatic mangtikka are also popular.

The flawless skin:

The base foundation for the face, which is like creating canvas for art, has to be perfect. It has to look flawless and natural at the same time. It is important to choose the tone as per your complexion, sometimes a shade darker does more justice than ending up like ghost bride. Brides are going in for airbrush foundations that are applied through misty spray and they let your skin breathe. One trend in Indian bridal make-up is using a bronzer instead of blush as it gives definition and contour on the face with a more natural look and this in turn results in amazing wedding day pictures!

The eyes say it all:

Smokey eyes are big now as they go well with this season’s more bejeweled and opulent classic wedding attires. This year rust and copper brown shadows are favourites, as is the addition of shimmer to the eyes. There is also a trend of adding a hint of the attire colour to the eyes like blues, teals, greens,etc. whatever the bride is wearing. This season for the Indian bridal make-up, the focus is on the eyes. The younger brides prefer a minimalistic look with no huge fake eye lashes.  Kajals will always be popular with Indian brides and full eyebrows are also very in for the Indian bridal make-up.  

Lips don’t lie:

Indian bridal make-up this season is all for natural berry stained lips or underplayed nude lips to match the brides’s smokey highlighted eyes. Instead of the sharp edge of the lip liners, the stains give a more natural look. Orange-browns and plums also go well with Indian complexion and most of the conventional Indian bridal-wear colours. Before choosing the lip colour the bride should consider her dress colour and skin tone too. The brides can go for bolder colours like reds or fuchsias with lightly done eyes.

Brides are also going in for permanent make-up these days. Permanent make-up helps you have well done eyebrows, eyeliners, lip colours and you can also add a beauty spot that will stay for a long time.

When we talk of an Indian bride we cannot ignore culture and tradition. So apart from the general elements of Indian bridal make-up, the Indian bride has some unique additions. The Bengali bride goes for a big red bindi and red and white motifs on her forehead accentuating the eyes. The red bindi is a common element for most of the Indian brides (except the Catholic or Islamic bride). The Maharashtrian bride sports a crescent moon shaped bindi.

The Bengali bride

The wedding pictures of Bollywood celebrities like Aishwarya Rai and Kareena Kapoor, shows them with lots of jewellery or regal dresses with subtle make-up, so I guess that sums up the make-up trend. You can go heavy on your attire but ‘au naturale’ is the Indian bridal make-up mantra for 2015.

Image Source: newtrendsinfashion.com, shaadisaga.com, stylecraze.com

Indian Fashion Style: Sarees V's Gowns

We are recently seeing a lot of photographs on  social media with the specific tag #100sareepact. It is two innovative women who have started this new buzz, as they want to encourage the fact that wearing saree in the workplace is a great and stylish option.

This new virtual platform created by these two women is a space where people can celebrate their memories of sarees. All participants in this pact are attempting to wear a 100 saris before the end of this year. Since the creation of this website, there has already been 4000 visits and 1400 women who have participated. The concept is really simple, the person has to post a picture and explain how they feel when wearing a saree into the workplace.

But obviously, the pair want to go further with this, and not just wear sarees in the office, but begin to bring the saree back on the red carpet, instead of seeing the same thing over and over again: gowns. We used to see a lot of sarees on the red carpet with the previous generation of Bollywood actors such as Hema and Rekha Malini, who always showed up for ceremonies in stunning Kanjeevarams or subtle chiffons.

Before, Bollywood celebrities wore what they liked and looked good, based on their tastes instead of following all trends, what people wore was not so important. Nowadays, it’s different as everyone tends to follow trends of the moment to look stylish.

At Cannes 2015, we saw the Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor make an outstanding appearance with her voluminous gown. After this appearance, she then attended a press conference wearing a extremely unique fluffy outfit, although this choice of outfit was not such a success. The look was more suited for a teenager going to prom night!

The idea of bringing back more traditional clothes on the red carpet is for Bollywood celebrities to generate further attention from the international press. For this kind of big event such as Cannes 2015, every look is perfectly planned and thought out. Obviously, with all the paparazzi around celebrities, the stable black gown will be the safe choice, however, it will miss the brilliance and condition of making someone stand out. But, for the first time it will be difficult to convince Bollywood divas to be different and not follow the trends, because it will also mean taking the risk of stirring the fashion police, as all celebrities hate this kind of “bad” judgment.

When we look at Aishwarya Rai and Sonam Kapoor looking perfect in Elie Saabs and Oscar De la Rentas during Cannes 2015 Festival, we know that it was to stand out from the crowd. These two Bollywood divas ultimately looked extremely glamorous, and are obviously outstandingly beautiful,   but maybe the looks were slightly too much.

It’s always better for everyone to have fun with their fashion and not stress about what they will look like. For example, we saw the actress Nandita Das, in a simple black and red saree, she looked very natural and it had a greater impact. 

It’s the right time for the designers to rethink about the approach to red carpet dressing. It will might be better to make people look comfortable, natural and fun loving with their outfits and not superficial.

Celibrity Showstoppers at Indian Fashion Weeks

For the last seasons of several Indian fashion weeks, we haven't seen a lot of celebrities walking the ramp.

A small variety of celebrity showstoppers were present for the spring/summer season for the finale of several Indian designers. Within the finales, we saw Aditi Rao Hydari for Payal Singhal, Koyal Rana for Joy Mitra, Sania Mirza for Ritu Pande, Monica Dogra for Kanika Saluja and Arjun Rampal for Rohit Bal. For a long time now, Indian designers have included celebrities in big events such as Wills Lifestyle Indian Fashion Week, because it’s a sort of distraction to have Bollywood celebrities walking on the ramp and even better for the audience. However, having these celebrity showstoppers during these events remains strictly business.

For example, this year for Amazon India Fashion Week, there were an unprecedented number of celebrities who attended, but not necessarily for walking the ramp. The first celebrity that we saw in a show was Sonal Chauhan for Nikhita Tandon, which wasn't until Day 4 of the event. And for the rest of the week, it was more about focusing on the clothes than anything else.

Nikhita Tandon, the only designer who featured a celebrity in her show, stated that she was surprised to be the only one. Because for her, it’s not that important to have a celebrity walking during a show, but for sure it helps to get easily noticed, especially for the new designers and can be very interesting for them.

Showcasing a celebrity within your show is a big choice to make, and sometimes some shows need a celebrity showstopper to gain more attention, depending on the major part of the collection that the designer wants to share.

For some designers, they believe that there is no particular need for a celebrity because their collections are already well known. And obviously, they have to take in account that showstoppers are attractive of course, but they are also very expensive.

For a Grand finale of an event such as Lakme Fashion Week or Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, it can be very interesting and important to have a celebrity in the show. This is because the finale will close the fashion event, so it’s understandable that the designer will want to make a lasting impression somehow,  sometimes the sponsor will even ask the designer to do it.

  

For others, it’s also the fact that showstoppers will not necessarily walk for a show without a particular reason. Often, it’s because it will bring the showstopper a kind of gratification, or because there is a friendship between the designer and the showstopper.

So the real question is, do you think that Indian designers really need celebrity showstoppers during an Indian fashion week?

Want to see more about celebrity style?

The Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2015: 15 years of Fashion

Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2015 is finally here! All was ready, the stage, the lights and the models. We will observe carefully and catch up some of the newest talents and styles to hit the runway.

This year, Lakme Fashion Week will reflect the completion of 15 years of the bi-annual event. In total, there are 83 designers and 15 sponsors that will be in this Summer Resort 2015 event. The big names of India's fashion designers will include Manish Malhotra, Tarun Tahiliani, Suneet Verma, Raghavendra Rathore, Krishna Mehta, Shivan & Narresh, Kiran Uttam Gosh and Wendell Rodricks.

All the Bollywood leading ladies from Sridevi to Deepika Padukone already made a beeline to attend the opening show of Lakme Fashion Week. We have witnessed Bollywood diva Kajol in a lovely floral dress design by Indian designer Sabyasachi. She completed her look with simple bun, nude heels and turquoise chandeliers.

Deepika Padukone was also wearing Sabyasachi, a beautiful floral printed dress in a berry tone with a bright red clutch, and looked absolutely gorgeous. Fashionista Neha Dhupia also attend the event, wearing a simple pretty beige tunic

This 5-day gala began yesterday with the opening show with Sabyasachi. As the Indian designer loves the 70’s decade, he wanted to combine this era with his signature in his collection, creating a distinctive 70’s vibe.

Here are some remarkable photos of Sabyasachi’s show at Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2015:

All eyes will be on The Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2015!

The Bollywood Celebrity Replica Trend

Recall the days when you brought a magazine with you to your favourite tailor and asked them to duplicate the ensemble of what your favourite star wore in a specific film? Now, you just have to go online, look at a variety of replicas that are available to purchase on websites, then select what Bollywood stars wore in their newest film or at particular red carpet event, and then simply order it. From a saree to a particular salwar kameez, you will be able to find it.

E-commerce brands have understood that Bollywood style clothing sells in a very large way, not just in India, but globally as well. Rahul Garg, the co-founder and CEO of ArtisanGilt.com stated that the global customers purchase extremely high-value products and their quantities are over double then by local customers.

According to Garg, these consumers are happy purchasing very expensive replicas of specific garments and accessories that have been showcased by Bollywood stars. He also claimed that his garments are actually made by the same materials and are designed precisely like the original.

Garg also stated that within the case of global customers, Bollywood is the main and important sector to showcase fashion garment trends in India. And that most these consumers purchase these particle items for social parties, particularly weddings.

Do you buy replicas? have any thoughts to share with us on the topic?

Bollywood Actresses and their Social Commitments

Who said that Bollywood Celebrities are only interested in themselves?

Indeed two weeks ago they attended an event organized by Nikhar Tandon in Mumbai to raise funds for cataract surgeries and medical camps, moreover a part of the proceeds will be developed to the Maharashtra Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. The host of the event was the founder of Samyedana Foundation, created in order to support under-privileged children. In this case the show was about artworks made by different artists, including Nikhar herself.

Among the guests present, some caught our attention for their sober and good-looking outfits. One of these was Karisma Kapoor dressed in a white shirt and floral pants, enhanced by high heels and open toe Louboutin shoes paired a statement necklace. The outfit was completed with a simple hairstyle constituted by a fishtail braid.

Other actresses opted for monochromatic outfits, for example Aditi Rao Hydari choose a long black kurta and embroidered pants designed by Anita Dongre, complemented by golden heels and a clutch in the same colour, finished by a beautiful necklace. The makeup was really simple and she looked chic and elegant.

Also the outfit chosen by Lisa Haydon was Black, even if it was a little bit more eye-catching because of the stripes on the dress. The chiffon top featured roses around the neck softening her outfit.

Completely in contrast with them, Parineeti Chopra opted for white trousers and same colour top paired with nude open shoes. Finally Gauhar Khan, the famous Raw Star, was wearing a black high- waist skirt and a white sleeveless top, obviously with black pointed heels. A puff hairstyle completed her outfit.

Want to have a look to other another celebrity style?