She has been in the industry for over two decades and her work in films "Lamhe", "Devdas","Jodhaa Akbar" and "Bal Gandharva" helped her win the prestigious National Awards. And now designer Neeta Lulla, who is currently working on Ashutosh Gowarikar's movie "Mohenjo Daro", says that such appreciations have turned out to be a "milestone" in her career.
She also thanks the industry for being kind and acknowledging her designs with open hands.
"My journey in the industry has been nothing but beautiful and memorable. Each film that I have worked on is very close to my heart. A milestone that I would like to recall would be the four National Awards that I received for 'Lamhe', 'Devdas', 'Jodhaa Akbar' and 'Bal Gandharva'.
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"The industry has been very kind and I feel immense gratitude for being appreciated and acknowledged by everyone," she told IANS on the sidelines of Lakme Fashion Week Winter-Festive 2015, that started here on Wednesday at Hotel Palladium.
Lulla has worked as the costumer designer for both period films and mainstream cinemas and her next project is "Mohenjo Daro" and a south-Indian biopic called "Rudhramadevi".
Ask her that how different is it so style for films that have such an opposite story telling method and she said: "In terms of period films, there is a lot of historical research that goes into constructing and creating the looks of the characters. By research I do not mean the internet. Research entails reading the bounce script of the film, reading ancient relevant books and visiting museums, visiting the historical places talked about, understanding in-depth the persona of the characters and so on."
"Each film that I work on is an experience in its own," she added.
Lulla feels that "fashion has no boundaries" and her customers helped her in embracing new ideas and experiment with designs.
"My definition of fashion would be 'power dressing'. Power dressing for me means to identify one's own style and to be comfortable and confident in how you dress at all times. What makes a designer unique is their inspiration and how well they can portray it into their collection," she said.
She also said that her interactions with individuals from across the globe helps her in keeping abreast of the consumers' needs.
"Meeting new people from various parts of the world has kept me abreast of innumerable criteria the eventual consumer looks at thus enabling me to create newness in my designs," she said by adding that "today's youth are well versed with fashion trends."
Lulla said that India's fashion industry has become very "serious" because of the "immense fashion awareness" that is prevalant in the current era.
"Today, the youth is more fashion conscious and well versed with the latest trends in place. At this point, the role of an Indian wear designer would be to contemporise traditional embroideries, cuts and silhouettes for the modern age consumers as it is very important for them to relate to what they adorn today," added Lulla who has associated with Lakme Salon to showcase her collection at LFW on the final day of fashion gala.
Sharing her brief about the range, she said: "The bridal looks co-created by me and the Lakme Salon Bridal experts are a humble attempt to revolutionize bridal fashion in India by presenting a symphony of hair, makeup and the ensemble.
"The aim is to focus on the importance of hair and makeup in addition to ensemble. For hair, this season at the Lakme Salon Bridal Show, look out for lots of textures, simpler, easy going edgy bridal hairstyles that aren't very complicated. Messy bouffants, textured open hair - lesser neat and clean looks are replaced by waves and undone sort of hairdos. For makeup, there are 5 categories of bridal looks to keep an eye out for this season - Vintage, Glam, Traditional, Sculpt and Nature."
The designer has also opted for a real bride who will be walking for her on ramp as the showstopper.
(Nivedita can be contacted at nivedita.s@ians.in)