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| COUTURE CRISIS: (From left) Freida Pinto, Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone and Paris Hilton |
Is it too much to ask? That your favourite celeb be considerate enough to turn up in public in an outfit no one has seen before? To be caught in public wearing identical outfits or the same garment more than once is a fashion faux pas that can send any entertainment-addicted fashionista into fits of depression. But Bollywood’s stars couldn’t care less.
Not long ago, Rani Mukherji turned up at an event in a Robert Rodriguez drape top and a black miniskirt, akin to what Deepika Padukone recently wore at Salman Khan’s sister Arpita’s birthday party. That’s not all. Actresses Dia Mirza, Ameesha Patel and Genelia D’Souza were spotted in similar Nishka Lulla creations at the Lakme Fashion Week!
Stylist and fashion designer Riyaz Gangji, who retails his signature clothes from his showroom, tries to provide some insight into the trend. “If any designer repeats a design, it is a shame for the whole fraternity. It is the fashion designer who needs to check and see that the design is not out or that no one has worn it.”
Sometimes designers sell an identical dress to more than one star, or make variations of the same piece. There have been instances when a designer has accused another of copying a pattern. Occasionally, a designer lends an outfit to an actress — but that’s mostly to the lesser celebs.
Gangji, who has designed dresses for most A-list celebrities, says he takes care not to repeat himself. “I make one dress for one celeb. I do not sell any dress similar to that one,” he says.
A star’s clothes are often decided by stylists, who research on the Internet and check magazines and newspapers to see what other stars have worn. It is a fact that most stylists in the industry source clothes for celebrities from the same places. Sometimes, stores are not aware if a particular dress has been sourced to a Bollywood star, and sell a similar or identical outfit to another star.
Designer Nisha Sagar doesn’t believe the fault lies with the designers. “You shouldn’t blame the designer for these things. It’s not possible for designers to track other designs. So things might be repeated and that’s not a big thing. When I make a dress I keep in mind the nature, complexion and occasion for which the celeb will be wearing my garment,” she says.
To get to the bottom of this mystery, let’s examine the broad trend of this most blundering fashion stigma. When Bollywood hottie Katrina Kaif walked into the success party of her 2009 hit film Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani in a designer dress, she came face-to-face with producer Ramesh Taurani’s daughter Sneha, wearing a similar outfit in a different colour. Katrina being the cool Kat she is, hugged Sneha and the two laughed about their faux pas and even posed for pictures.
Rani Mukherji turned up on the sets of Dance Premiere League in an outfit that Priyanka Chopra had worn a few months earlier at the music launch of Jail. Priyanka wore the same Swapnil Shinde dress that Amrita Rao had worn earlier on the sets of The Perfect Bride!
There are so many of these fashion boo-boos that they would fill up an encyclopaedia. When model-turned-actress Mugdha Godse landed up at the Gr8 Television Awards, the dress was identical to the one former Miss India Simran Kaur Mundi wore at a public event. Dia Mirza found herself in a similar situation when she landed up at a couture week in an outfit Neha Dhupia had worn earlier at a launch event. Amrita Rao wore an outfit to a jewellery event that had been seen on Godse at a party for Fashion. The same outfit was later seen on Bruna Abdulah at a press event.
Not one to be left behind, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan wore a Louis Vuitton outfit on the cover of Hello magazine that was worn earlier by Freida Pinto at the Middle East International Film Festival and, hold your breath, Lara Dutta at the LV store launch in Mumbai. Even the ultra fashionable Malaika Arora Khan could not resist wearing an outfit worn by another star but at least she chose to ape an international star — Paris Hilton.
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| Aishwarya Rai Bachchan recycled her own dress when she wore a pink outfit to an event and then almost two years later to Shilpa Shetty’s marriage reception Katrina Kaif wore the same outfit to a Cosmo awards that Deepika Padukone had worn on the cover of Verve Shilpa Shetty and Twinkle Khanna appeared on two different magazine covers in the same outfit |
Bipasha Basu would rather not blame anyone for such fashion blunders. “If a faux pas happens, it is purely because no one discusses what we are wearing. I do not think anyone — even a designer — needs to be blamed. The fashion police need not take such incidents seriously,” she says. Vidya Balan, on the other hand, has become more cautious. “I did make some terrible mistakes during recent times but I am becoming careful nowadays,” she confesses.
Have we got our answers? Or is the answer a patchwork of a little bit of everything? You could choose one of the following — or tick mark them all: similar tastes in clothes, a way to stay in the news, a conspiracy by stylists and fashion designers and the celebs’ love for easy freebies.
The truth is out there but we’ll never really know. Till then, perhaps, we should just say Encore!