No Filter: Chennai girl whose dream of working at a European fashion house came true

As a youngster, she filled her room with cut-outs and collages of fashion.She admits that working with an international couture house didn’t seem like a remote possibility years ago. Arthi now aces her job at the high fashion brand, aiding with visuals, shoots and graphic design. After a successful internship with the firm, she was hired by the couture house — this is certain to inspire youngsters in Chennai to keep their dreams of working with European fashion brands alive, which may seem impossible. Every once in a while, Arthi tells me that she pauses to take it all in and pinches herself as it seems too good to be true. She recalls following the fashion house right from the Tumblr days, and was obsessed with it. When she moved to London, the brand’s was the first show she ever saw.

I was curious to know more about her journey and what took her to where she is now. She was steadily working her way through internships, starting with small companies, where Arthi says she learnt a lot. Then, she followed it up with internships at renowned fashion magazines, and as they say, the rest is history. She recalls that every internship she landed was through relentless emailing. She believed that one should ask to receive and that the worst that can happen is someone saying ‘no’. Without letting rejection get to her, she kept trying till people said yes and kept working on building a strong portfolio for herself. With tenacity, hard work, this is a tale of a young girl who dreamt big andmade her dreams come true. This simple mantra was her route to success.

Getting through the Lakme Fashion Week model auditions is a milestone that every model in the country aspires to achieve. Akshaya Navaneethan, who made it to the headlines for being the bold, bald bride, went viral on social media. She is one of the models selected at the LFW plus-size models auditions. ‘All’, a plus size store, has been hosting auditions for plus-size models for the past few years, but Akshaya couldn’t make it. She went to Delhi for the LFW audition, for which she credits stylist and designer Chaitanya Rao, who helped her prepare. The models were judged on the basis of their personalities, walk and confidence. She had modelled only in a couple of shows in the city earlier, and yet went on to be one of the 21 models chosen. Akshaya is very passionate about body positivity. She says obesity is unhealthy, but self-acceptance is important. She hopes to inspire other women to feel better about themselves.

It is great to see Chennai girls making waves not just in the city, but on national platforms. Watch out for this enterprising social media sensation as she sashays on the ramp this season in Mumbai.

Kripali Samdaria, a popular model from Chennai, is doing us all proud as she was part of the recent Winter collection by renowned designer Sabyasachi Mukherji. Kripali has been breaking barriers even in our city about the definitions of beauty — slowly yet steadily. She has also chronicled her everyday life dealing with anxiety with candour, which has helped destigmatise it and also be of help to many others in dealing with their own issues. From gracing billboards to websites with her stunning face, it makes me very happy to see this girl getting her due credit in the national fashion scene. If you haven’t seen the recent campaign by Sabyasachi yet, make sure you do as Kripali shines like a star. I wish her all the success and hope that she continues to be the trailblazer that she is.