Of Bollywood tailors and star waist sizes

Last week i worked on a fashion styling assignment. The project involved styling a set of 6 heavily embroidered kanjivaram sarees for the photoshoot of a South Indian saree brand called Seemati. The model was Indian tele/ theatre actress Mandira Bedi.

The shoot went off without a hitch, and we managed to achieve the right look courtesy some mighty creative draping and a few blouses and corsets i got tailored from Mandira's tailor.

Located in the bylanes of a Mumbai suburb is the workshop of the man. Having reached there post a long day of fabric sourcing, i was looking to breeze in, explain the styles, hand over the material and vamoosh! After going back and forth on a few styling details, the man launched into delivering me a) the story of his life and b) his extended resume.

While i was pleased to know that he's worked with the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, Sridevi, Karishma Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee and the lot, i was unable to evoke the kind of response he was probably expecting to his revelations.

At one point he thrust in my face the photos of a cross dressed SRK, as taken during the filming of 'Duplicate'. He proudly pointed out how his corset had aided the Khan in flaunting a life-like cleavage (which admittedly looked pretty real) and helped draw in his waist from an ungainly 34" to a womanly 25". He also hastened to add he'd performed magic in the same vein to reel in the expansive waistline of the original Indian bhangra man Daler Mehendi.

I must admit the man's pieces fit like a dream, and were wonderfully finished as well. Maybe i ought to call him to say so and boost his spirits :)