I’ve always been an old soul. My ideas of romance and life in general are quite outdated in today’s age of Bumble and Tinder. Of course, older ideas like patriarchy and everything that comes with it has no place in my life. One can say that I have filtered the good from the past and left the rest behind. Does that make sense? Maybe not.
The Dirty Lake
Learning from this shoot: I can get inside a sewer if you promise me a great picture.
Hi people, who are sweet enough to still open my website. Thank you for doing that. I may have shifted most of my work to videos but there is no denying that I absolutely love creating pictures. Whether I’m in it or behind the lens, it does not matter.
I did this one with my favourite photographer, Aparna Mohindra who jumps on any idea like a fox and invests herself 200% in the same. For safety purposes, I also managed to rope in my brother, Anmol Singh, the only person with a penis in the group. He, however, ended up doing a lot of work. Atreyi, the make up artist, may have almost died in the heat but she did her best job.
POLKA DOTTED.
In 2012 when I was in second year of college, my whole wardrobe was full of polka dots. The girls in my PG accommodation would crinkle their noses every time they saw me wearing another outfits with a million dots on it. Everyone had had enough of my polka dot obsession but me. With time, however, it did fade. I got more into other ridiculous trends of the time and left the dots behind.
Colours 2018.
2018 started with a bang of trends on the runway. Maybe I am old enough to realise or this year is special, but trends have been literally blasted from a canon. From feathers to florals, from belt bags (fancy name for fanny packs you guys!) to dramatic shoulders, everything you’re wearing right now might fit in one of 2018’s trends (or subtrends, lel).
Self-Love.
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection”. This quote by Buddha is the first one that pops when you google self love quotes. Take a moment and read it again.
How To: Plaid Bottoms
While summers have us experiment with skirts, shorts, cropped pants and what not, in winters we tend to fall back on some good ol’ jeans. And that, my friend, makes it boring.
I personally love keeping it even more fun in winters as the gloomy mornings are already dull of tackle with. I love playing with colours, patterns, textures and fabrics . Plaid definitely has to be one of the top ones when it comes to winter fabrics. It’s made out of wool so definitely warm and the chequered pattern makes it all the more interesting.
From A High Heel Hater To A Lover, Here I Am
If you have always enjoyed wearing heels, and choose to wear the pointed beauties over a pair of sneakers, I salute you. I literally bow down to thee. I have been the sneakers over heels girl for the most of my life and I vividly remember walking home barefoot after my school’s farewell party where I first had a real encounter with a pair of heels. Not just trying my cousin’s heels and taking two steps feeling all fancy and feminine, but a real encounter. It was two inch heel, yes TWO inch and I couldn’t bear them.
Me And My Tights.
Honestly, tights never made sense to me. Growing up, I only saw two kinds of tights in popular media. First, the nude ones that were worn by the nuns in my school or ladies at formal gatherings. Others were the fishnets and the ripped black ones that were worn by the jazzy dancers and girls on television that we were not supposed to watch. So I ended up wearing none of them.
Then this year we saw the colorful opaque tights from ’60s rise again from their ashes. I was confused if I finally wanted to try on tights or it was going to turn into another big mistake. Thanks to being super skinny, I try to maintain a distance from bottoms that are going to cling to my nonexistent curves. My mom feels, they make me look skinnier and I have to agree. So obviously, I took my time to think about this.
But always trying to break out of my shell I decided to go for it and get not one but three, yes THREE pairs of tights. The red, the white and the pink.
Winter Florals
The one fashion trend that has grown over me with time has to be florals. I come from a time where I lived most of my young years as a tomboy and loved pants over skirts, always.As is, I loathed florals.
Red.
Officially the colour of fall 2017, Red has taken over the world by storm. Whether it be the runway or the streets outside those runways, it was all lit with this popping colour.
Personally I was never a fan. The colour always seemed a little overwhelming and I was not into colours anyway. Now, the story is different. Colours have grown on me and more than anything I love a monotone outfit. I mean who wouldn’t want to dress all yellow and look like a banana right? RIGHT? No? Oh.
Anyway, I went a little overboard with the colour and literally wore it head to toe. A red corduroy shirt styled with a red trench coat that I wore as a skirt. Don’t worry, I was wearing a pair of shorts inside. Haha!
To take it over the top, like I wanted, I also wore a pair of red pompom earrings, did a red eye makeup too. For shoes I took a pair of black booties and wore some red and white sock. I only have one regret in my life, it’s not wearing my red mules with the outfit. Why you ask? I forgot. What a jerk am I?
I also made sure to shoot it on a red background and also took my friend Elmo along. Also, Faizan, the magician behind these pictures, made it all come through! Yay. Hope you enjoy!
LOVE.
Summer Whites
Before the season is completely over, I want to put this out there! The summer of 2017 brought with it something quite unexpected. It brought me whites. To a girl who was raised to avoid whites as much one could as they got dirty easy and were too much work, finally accepting the colour was a big achievement.
Into The Woods
Jungles have always been really close to my heart. Whether it was reading about Mowgli, or the fact that I grew up on a hill station, jungles mean a lot to me. Back in my hometown, I had a special place where I would go read, write, listen to my favourite Avril Lavigne songs, sing them out loud sometimes, had my first kiss and even contemplated killing myself. That spot, in the middle of the woods, witnessed a lot from my life.
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Speaking Your Mind
For as long as I can remember, I have been a shy kid. I knew I could fight if need be, but I would avoid it as much as I could. As a result, I was bullied and didn’t do much to raise my voice against the same. And it’s not me alone, a lot of us have been through this. We try our best to avoid conflicts and in the process suffer burns that we weren’t supposed to. The society does suppress our voice but more than others, we ourselves choose to do it to ourselves.
Photo Story: An Ode To The Whites
“Let’s pick a darker colour!”, is my mother’s first response to white. The colour white. A colour she would never wear because in our culture, it is worn when people die, thus a symbol of sadness. The kids couldn’t wear it for it only meant more frequent washing cycles, which has to be avoided at all costs.
One Dungarees, Three Ways
Let me start with a funny story. When I was a kid, about 6 years old, my cousin got married. And among other clothes for the wedding, me and my brother were bought a pair of dungarees each.. My brother decided to wear it everyday, EVERY DAY. After a day of the wedding, the men of the family, along with all the kids were supposed to go pick up our cousin from her in-laws’, as per the traditions. My brother insisted on wearing the same dungarees, again! My mom had given them out for a wash but my brother wouldn’t budge. And as life (or my mom!) would have it my brother had to decide whether to go without his dungarees or not go at all and in between his crying fits, we decide to leave him to it. Haha!
Monsoon
Rains bring different memories to different people. While some go back to paper boats and puddles, others are reminded of the worst of traffic jams. A long time back a boy told me that he had never in life enjoyed in the rain by choice. My question is, how can you not?
The One Trend That Will Never Be Outdated
I had never realised this until very recently when all I could see at the H&M store was stripes, stripes and some more stripes. That got me thinking, if it was a new trend or was I missing out. On some more thinking, research and going back to memories of my fashionably scarring childhood, I came to the conclusion that stripes, in one form or the other, have always found a way to remain important in fashion. They have always disguised themselves and formed alliances with other trends of the time to remain relevant throughout. Does that mean they are a classic? I believe so.
How To : Wear Revealing Clothes Without Revealing Anything
As ridiculous as the title may sound, this has been a very much requested post by a lot of you who read the blog. Given the diverse country we live in, in most places, donning short, revealing clothes is not a possibility. Most girls asked me to do this so they can look fabulous and not turn up to college looking like Pooh from K3G and ultimately getting kicked out of the campus. Some of us are facing the rules set by the society, our parents and some other forces. Illuminati? Maybe that too. Honestly, I get out with wearing such clothes mostly because I do not live with my folks. So, while I strongly believe in wearing what you want, twisting your choices to respect the surroundings and occasions doesn’t hurt.
Photo Story: A Public Toilet
I have recently come to a realisation that creating images is also something I feel really passionate about. Every time I come across a new concept, location, well anything, all I want to do create some pictures. And for good or for bad, I am not even concerned to include fashion in it anymore. I love images that can talk for themselves, recite a little story. So since this blog is what I live for and things I love, I have decided to do some photo stories from time to time. Just for your eyes (and of course, mine!).
I Dressed Like My Mom. (Well Almost!)
From the day I can remember, I have seen my mom wear a Sari, every single day. She was married at a delicate age of 16. What a different world would that have been?
While I find it hard to zip a pair of skinny jeans, she manages to drape a Sari in a minute. Magic? Maybe.
Florals Are Groundbreaking. (Sorry Miranda!)
I may have been in awe of everything that Miranda Priestly did and said in one of the (my) most iconic movies of all time, The Devil Wears Prada, there was one thing that I wasn’t sure about. According to the lady, florals for summer are blah. Anything besides groundbreaking.
And while for a few naive years I supported her opinion, I have recently come to the conclusion that florals indeed are groundbreaking, and honestly, the season does not even matter.
9 Reasons Why You Should Try An All-White Outfit Tomorrow
When I first decided to do this story, the one title that came to my head was, “How to do an all-white outfit without looking like a cigarette!” Or, a tampon? But the matter of fact is, you ARE going to look like a cigarette and you definitely are going to look like a tampon. Should it stop you from doing it? NOPE, absolutely not.
The Spice Sisters Feat. Babbu
Thanks to the Internet gods, every day I come across so many people doing some of the most amazing work I have ever seen in the 24 years of my existence! One such person is Babbu The Painter, a person as intriguing as her Instagram username. Babbu, documented as Babneet Lakhesar, was born in Punjab but her family soon moved to Canada. On my explore feed I once came across a denim jacket with the face of an aunty (a typical Indian aunty). On opening the profile I stumbled on more gems, my favourite being a t-shirt with Govinda’s face all over, there was no looking back after that. We got in touch soon and I knew I wanted to something with her someday, SOMEDAY.
One Cropped Pants, Three Different Ways.
I love playing around with fashion and the one thing that makes me look forward to mornings is dressing up. Sounds shallow? Well maybe. But, as long as it makes me happy, I do not care. For the longest time, just like the other fashion girls I kept chanting ‘I DO NOT FOLLOW TRENDS’, like if I did, it would be sin. Of course, trying out something that is currently not in trend will never be an issue for me. The problem is, I actually love everything that’s in fashion right now. And to think about it, what isn’t? The ’70s? Yes. The ’90s? Yes. The future? Hell, yes. And the serious FOMO issues I have in life, I doubt that not trying a new trend will only choke me to death. How can I judge it unless I try? (Not high-low hems though. Never tried those, never will!)
One Track Pants, Three Different Looks
The sudden and surprising take over by track pants in the world of fashion, took me a little time to take in. Personally I would always hate people who would show up to college in their rugged pyjamas and this trend only looked like an upgrade to that. But thanks to my girls Selena, Kendall and back home, Deepika Padukone, I realised how wrong I have been. Track pants on an everyday basis may sound absurd, it is all the more wonderful. For many of you who do not know, I have been interning with this website called IDiva.com. Recently, after shooting this story, I wrote an article for the website called *’13 Reasons Why’ Track Pants Should Be Your Everyday Pants*, now if you get the connection in the title, you MUST go ahead and read it before you delve further here!
.POP.
Colour is Summer’s favourite child. While winters witness a lot of greys, and believe me, happy greys; summers welcome the yellows and the oranges. Yes, the fruits too. I personally like wearing colour all year round. And I am sure there are many of you who do the same. So, unless you absolutely hate colour (is that even possible? You little child of Satan!), you might like this story.
So, let me get this straight. I hate colour-blocking. Never tried it, never will. The reason only has to be my choice of aesthetics. So today we are talking about my kind of usage of colour; POP. Somewhere between monotones and a single colour pop, I found my calling. Here you pick up colours from the same family and put them together. But there are neutral blocks in the outfit that prevent your outfit from becoming a monotone look (Which btw, I absolutely also love!).
Only Lost To Be Found
Clearly this is no styling story or another one of my trend trails. I remember Karanvir and I had already shot 7, yes seven, looks and we still decided to this with my roommate’s projector that was lying around.
I am not going to shoot any big words and philosophies at you but all I’m going to say is sometimes (actually, most!), that we feel lost in life, the feeling may not a wonderful or nice but it leads us somewhere. Being lost leads us somewhere. So most you can do is, enjoy that moment, Enjoy being lost. Because, you’re lost only to be found.
How To: Dress Over Pants
Dress over pants is quite debatable. I remember I would question why people couldn’t just wear the efffin dress. Guess what, I was a judgemental prick and I have no qualms in accepting that. Now I know what other people choose to do is none of my business. Anyway, thanks to being more aware and understanding not only the new trend of people wearing pants under their dresses, but also the need that sometimes, thanks to a lot of other reasons, you need to wear pants and of course, you still want to buy that pretty dress, right? I know because I come from a place like that.
Ghunghat
The city of Jaipur has always had a special place in my heart. For some reason the colours, the architecture and the people have always attracted me. As a kid, on a family trip we once decided to visit Jaipur and the plan was called off last minute, it broke my heart. Since then, all I wanted to do was to visit the city. Just last year, thanks to a college trip, I got to witness the city in all its glory and that sure is not going to be my last visit.
Catching The Last Metro
How often do you find yourself people who believe in you and support you in all ways they can? Not very often, right? So when I met this fool, Karanvir Singh Bajwa or, as you guys might know him, Einsjordan, a year ago I had no idea we would come this far. So I wanted to dedicate this one story just for this sweet little child I have in my life.
Daydreaming
Back in school, in the senior secondary, in English we had a chapter called Going Places. The story revolved around a girl, Sophie, who loved day dreaming and sometimes went a little too far. Her dreams started to look like realities to her and she was lost.
Lookbook AIFW AW 17
This year’s rendition of the Amazon India Fashion Fashion- Autumn Winter was quite a mad house. The fashion community was on a roll. From designers, to reporters, bloggers to enthusiasts, everyone had their own share to provide. You can find the show to show review on my Instagram, @spill_the_sass. But here are all my looks from the 4 days that I was there. Hope you like them! 🙂
A Week In Bell Bottoms
I just realised that I like starting my pieces with philosophies and analogies about life. ‘Oh life is so funny’, ‘Oh life is like a big bundle of poop’ and other crazy ideas. Today I’m not going to do that because every moment in life is precious and I do not intend to waste a single one.
When I had to decide what I wanted to do next for the ‘one-week’ series I had a million (actually, like 5) ideas running in my head but I wanted to do something that generally poses a little problem in front of people. Pieces they find hard to style. And I noticed that most of my friends just couldn’t decide what to wear with flared bottoms, that too after 2 years of contemplating if they actually wanted to get it or not. I hated bell bottoms as a teen because they hung on my skinny body like the most unflattering piece of clothing ever! This time when they came back, which was about 3 years ago, I forced myself to give it a try. My body is the same but I think with a better fit and tricks to styling I have managed to make them work for me.
Frida From India
As soon as a huge flower band on the head comes before our eyes, the first name that comes to our head is, Frida Kahlo. We may not know much about who she was and what she did, her look is iconic. Frida was a Mexican painter who was famous for her self-portraits and showing through them, the female form in its raw form. She led a tragic life and was uncompromising and unapologetic.
The looks inspired by the lady have been done and overdone but I wanted to try my hand nonetheless. However, as most of you would know, I hate doing mainstream things. So to do this, I needed something that set it apart. Something, my Frida had that none of the other ones did. I wanted my Frida to be Indian, ethnic and rooted in my culture. That’s when I decided I wanted to do it with a saree and a hint of sindoor (vermillion), that my mom, for her own reason, wears with pride every single day.
A Week In Velvet
I am a huge Man Repeller fan and if you do not know what that is, go look it that before anything. You can thank me later! Great, so, guys there post stories like “I dresses as Kim K for a week”, “I dressed at Diane Keaton for a week” and other similar stories that I absolutely love. And while I was trying to figure ideas for the next blog story, I knew I wanted to do something similar but also different in way. Because, come on, this is my blog right? Anyway, that’s when it struck me. Velvet.
I chose velvet for 2 reasons:
The Modern Woman (Part 3)
And here we are, the last part of one of my favourite series. For someone, who for the most part of her life, wished she was born as a boy, today, I am proud to be a woman.
It is sad though; sad that a lot of girls I met as a kid, even as a teenager, wished they were a boy too. And I am glad that sooner or later we accept. Accept that we are women, women who can be a boy (whatever that means!), and be so much more.
The Modern Woman (Part 2)
Ever since my childhood I could never keep friends. I didn’t understand girls most of all. Fighting for petty reasons was beyond me and so I could never keep up.
My colleague recently wrote a story showing how friendships among girls are harder to keep than those between boys. But why is that? This is not how it should be right?
The Modern Woman (Part 01)
So much has happened. And so much is happening. No matter how much we move forward, there is always something to pull us right back, to pull us down.
We may feel short, small, tiny, minute but trust me, we matter. I matter. You matter.
I remember my father always told me how he would love it, if I become a doctor or teacher. Why? They’re very respectable jobs he would tell me. This is what women ARE seen as, nurturers! I say ‘are’ because with all that’s currently happening, aren’t we still fighting to get out this shell?
3 Ways To Revamp A Beanie! (DIY)
Hey guys!
I am back with some fun DIY videos. Well, you should tell me whether they’re fun or not actually!
This time I revamped three basic beanies into something more badass. Do check out and tell me what you think!
How to: Mesh It Up!
Pinterest made me do it.
I’ve been pretty obsessed with mesh and all things related for quite sometime now. It’s never enough! In fact, I am not even the tutus and fairy tales kind so that definitely is not the reason behind this obsession.
Not clear but I think its because mesh just adds so much flavour to boring outfits. Masala! That’s the word.
Evening Dress For The Day? What? Yes.
Winters have turned me into Miss. Sleepy Sleeperson and the thought of getting out of bed stabs me like a sharp knife every morning. But do you know how I deal with the sadness? By dressing up. If you wear good clothes you definitely feel more pumped up and elevated. So, this winter make sure you dress well.
Now, I used to work as an emcee for a while (3 years actually!) back when I was in college and I have a number of evening dresses just lying in a corner of my closet. I just failed to understand what to do with them until recently when I realized that an evening dress can be your perfect day outfit too, if paired right of course!
How to: Big jumpers!
It snowed in my hometown (Nainital) last night and I am so bummed to have missed it for 5 years in a row now. Ugh.
So to put myself in a better mood and to come to terms with the realisation that I haven’t posted a story in the last week, I decided to share one.
Don’t we girls just love the long, big, warm sweaters which we either steal from our brothers/boyfriends or just buy them that way, because only god knows how good it feels. I bought this green one while I was home for Diwali and I really don’t seem to get enough. I have worn it multiple times already and I think we can all relate.
So, as is quite obvious, I decided to show you how you could style those big, comfortable, jumpers in three different ways!
Learnings via 2016.
I do not believe in new year resolutions. No, I don’t. Why would you wait for a particular day to start doing something you’ve wanted to do? I fail to understand that. But, to each, his own.
Poor 2016 is being quoted as the worst year of all times but honestly my year has been sweet and smooth. I have grown tremendously as a person and that for me is the biggest achievement there is. Of course twists and turns do come along and things do not go how they were supposed to sometimes (well, most of the times!) but the few things that do, make it all worthwhile.
How to: Suede skirt, three ways!
Have I been MIA for too long? Yes. Can I blame my exams and the holidays for that? Yes.
Alright then. Fur, velvet, suede, velvet-suede, has got everybody swooning by lately. These fabrics are definitely hitting the right button. So, I decided to take out my beautiful, oh-so-sesky, oxblood suede skirt and do what I do best. Style it in different ways!
Summer Clothes for Winter.
The title needs no explanation, does it? As much as I can remember, I have always hated how colourless winters become, thanks to people choosing to wear only shades of black during the season. I mean what is that? I only did that when I was going through my infamous emo phase. But no, what is that really?
I have two reasons to still exploit my summer clothes for winter:
- I am cheap af.
- I like them colours.
How to : Monochrome!
If I had to pick one trend that I have been using too much lately has to be monochrome. Long gone are the days when I would laugh at people who wore the same colour heat to toe, ‘cause I got to admit, if done right, monochromes are a hit.
The Great Escapade
I think it was about a month or two ago, Faizan posted on Facebook if someone had any ideas for a shoot they wanted to do. Without taking a single minute, I dropped in his inbox, an idea I had hovering over my head for a long, long time. Faizan was right in!
Inside the woods.
I have lived in the hills all my life. As kids we would go and collect firewood, for fun. Spending a day in the jungle was an adventure. The sweet parents had no idea about it and the constant fear of leopards and tigers who we had heard about in stories would make us crawl at every unfamiliar sound. The wild flowers and the large trees that gave no sight of the sky, was all a charm. The dogs would be your jungle companions and monkeys would scare you to death. Some times when I think of it, life in the hills is indeed one of the best.
I wore a hijab.
Hijab, a mere word seems to create a bigger stir in our lives than do nuclear weapons.
Disclaimer: I am only speaking of my own opinion here with no intention to hurt anybody’s feeling in any form.
I am sitting in India, a country that is culturally diversified and apparently much more tolerant than many others. The situation of people who wear hijabs or for that matter, a turban, has been quite clear lately. There have been a number of bans, protests, laws against the use of hijabs and I seem to not understand the reason why. It doesn’t make sense to me! We call them conservative, but with this ideology aren’t we the conservative ones?
Spill The Sass 