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EXCLUSIVE: Designers Rimple & Harpreet Narula talk about Alia Bhatt's white saree for Berlinale Film Festival
The designer duo share what went behind the making of Alia Bhatt's look for the International Film Festival.
Alia Bhatt has been promoting her upcoming film Gangubai Kathiawadi, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, with full swing. The actress has been recreating facets of her on-screen persona during her promotions by opting for white outfits and flowers in her hair.
For her film's international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, Bhatt walked the red carpet in a saree by Indian designer-duo Rimple and Harpreet Narula. We spoke to the designers about the process behind creating Alia's looks and how they came to be.
It all started with creating an outfit for the 28-year-old for her RRR promotional wardrobe in December. "We ended up having a conversation about her Berlin Film Festival appearance for Gangubai with her stylist Ami Patel around mid-January. Even though there was a major time crunch, the prospect of dressing Alia was a no-brainer and we delved straight into conceptualising the outfit with her styling team," Rimple said. And since there was a short time frame, rather than travelling back and forth from Mumbai to Delhi, the outfit was created with the help of telephonic and video consultations. "And in the end, we all zeroed on the idea of a pristine ivory chiffon saree. We all agreed that the outfit had to bring together a certain sense of joie de vivre which Alia is associated with and aspects of her reel character’s style on the red carpet.
The ensemble had to be reminiscent of the iconic Gangubai portrayed by Alia as well as at the same time reflect our brand’s aesthetic philosophy and love for the vintage," she said. "We wanted the overall effect to be very sublime and ethereal, and our love for travel and collecting vintage textiles came into play as a starting point in our design process for the saree. We decided to reference some Edwardian and French lace shawls that are part of our personal archives," pitched in Harpreet who added that a skilled team of 25-30 artisans who hand-embroidered the saree which featured everything from jaali-work to shadow embroidery, zari work with mother of pearl paillettes, hand-cut sequins and a scalloped hem with a dramatic hand-knotted silk dori macrame fringe completed the opulent red carpet look.
The duo who have created outfits for SLB's Padmaavat were also elated to get the opportunity to design an outfit for him keeping in mind the director's personal style. "The sherwani to be designed for this appearance had to reflect his personal style which is very discerning and has an inherent understated elegance. Knowing that he likes to keep things classic and muted when it comes to his personal clothes, we came up with a tonal black sherwani for him. The jacket features an all-over tessellated texture derived from sacred geometry rendered with resham threads and appliqué. The rendering of the surface textures took around two weeks due to the complexity of the pattern. We paired the sherwani with an ivory kurta and pants to complete Sanjay Sir’s look for the appearance," Harpreet said about the director's look before the duo signed off.
What are your thoughts on Alia Bhatt's Rimple and Harpreet Narula saree for the film festival? Comment below and let us know.
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