Nishka, the 20-something daughter of Bolly’s fashion favourite Neeta Lulla, drapes the likes of Sonam Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Kalki Koechlin, Shruti Haasan and Genelia D’Souza. The pret-a-porter girl is one of the six designers dressing a celebrity according to a given theme in the show Style and the City Season 3 (Fox Life Fridays, 8pm). A t2 chat...

For Style and the City, you chose three styles for the celeb models — power-dressing, neo-grunge and vintage. What is the essence of power-dressing?
Power-dressing is what is very comfortable and at the same time makes you feel very confident. It comes from the ’80s and ’90s where people wore those big-shoulder padded jackets and tonal suits. Now it has a new meaning. You could wear colours, a waistcoat, bandhgala jackets, palazzos and it could be called power-dressing as well. I have shown what new-age power-dressing is.

Any tips on how to make power-dressing work on women?
Go for a tonal look — a nice jacket and comfortable trousers in a tonal colour. Now you can use more colour. You could even go for florals and make it more fun. Instead of a simple, regular jacket, you could go for a teflon jacket and a floral pencil skirt. You could do a colour-blocked jacket with a jumpsuit. Fabrics which look luxurious should be incorporated in power-dressing. The main thing would be the cut of the outfit. It should be well-cut and fitted. 

For neo-grunge and vintage, does one need a specific body type?
You can pull off any kind of genre as long as you incorporate it in your own way. Someone girlie can include some aspects of neo-grunge and wear it. The celeb we worked with is very feminine — Kriti Sanon. We made a sexy version of neo-grunge — a feminine wrap skirt and a relaxed top. It went with her laid-back style. It is important to incorporate these genres into your style. Someone who is hip-heavy could go for a jacket or a grungy top. Someone who is top-heavy can go for a nice belt or grungy shorts and boots. You have to play with your dressing according to your body type. 

Younger women are discarding Indian outfits more and more in favour of Westernwear. What would you say to them?
It should be about what suits you as a person and whay you enjoy wearing. Just incorporate the hint of a style. Even a salwar-kurta would look nice in office. Women of the north wear salwar-kurta in a nice, contemporary way. A nice short kurta with dhoti pants is vintage yet contemporary. I am a pret designer. I do ready-to-wear collections. That is why I always highlight that it should be wearable, versatile, which could be easy mix and match with other things as well. 

What is your preference in shoes?
I love flat shoes. In heels, I like block and mid-size heels. Block heels and wedges are really in. Metallic shoes with a little rainbow effect and external fabric look quite nice. 

Sudeshna Banerjee