Makeover experts Trinny and Susannah are all set to change the way Indian men and women look. They suggest you go for colours, embrace your body shape, shed your inhibitions and celebrate individuality. The duo spoke to Divya Kaushik
How much we women wish there would be no days when we looked at our wardrobe, made a face and said, ‘There’s nothing to wear out here.’ And then we end up pulling out our dear denims and one top we once invested in to at least look presentable. But only looking presentable should not be your agenda, you need to create your own style, identity and dress to feel good and confident. This was the first lesson learnt as I sat down to chat with two women, who sounded no lesser than a goddess and looked like a diva who’s out on a mission to clear the world of all the unfashionable people that it has. Meet the world-renowned style experts, Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine, who have been working laboriously to change the way people across the world look. They are best known as the presenter of the TV series on BBC What Not To Wear and have written many books on fashion and style that became the bestsellers in Britain and America. The duo was also featured in the Oprah Winfrey show as makeover experts. And these makeover experts have now taken upon themselves the task to make Indians learn to dress to impress and turn them from fashion faux-pas to fashion fabulous. They will be hosting the series Trinny & Susannah’s Makeover Mission India on TlC from August 12. The show will feature two women moving around the streets of Delhi and Mumbai, observing people, talking to them and then finally selecting their contestants, who will go through a complete makeover. A makeover that they will learn lessons from, not the one that is only done to look good in front of the camera. “That is what the mission is all about. It is making people realise to develop their own style, love themselves, embrace their body shape and look different each day. Why dress like a uniformIJ” said Trinny and shared that during the process of makeover they shared tips with the contestants that they can keep in mind for life long. “Also we did not only focus on branded wear, we suggested things that are practical and can easily be a part of your lives,” she added.
The two said they have noticed that Indian women do a brilliant job when they dress traditionally, “as colours are a part of their culture and traditional wear and therefore they adorn it.” But when it comes to dressing for every other day, most women choose grey and black, and end up looking same each day. “We noticed that majority of women wear either slip over dresses or skinny jeans teamed with a shirt or a top. Seventy per cent of women chose their denims right but it didn’t look good on the other 30 per cent. Skinny denims don’t look good on women with big hips as they tend to highlight the flaw. So it is better to choose a bootcut denim. One should always choose a denim as per one’s body type. The other thing is that women choose to wear Western for the evening parties and they wear jeans, why shy away from dresses that compliment your body shape,” said Susannah. They shared that generally women also go wrong with the choice of right inner wear. “A well-fitted brasserie is a must. You should know your size. Also women should look for body shapers that help in making the body look toned. like we need to dress up as per our body shape, we need perfect shoe that is comfortable and goes with the dress that you are wearing. These are first basics that we all should keep in mind,” shared Susannah.
Dealing with mindsets and making women shed their inhibitions is one thing that the duo is working on. “While talking to the contestants we got to know such inhibitions and we try telling women that it’s not about others, it’s about how you feel. We need to dress up to look good and feel happy about ourselves. I live in a middle of a countryside and I have absolutely no reason to dress up, but still I do to feel good and happy,” said Susannah. Trinny added, “Also we realised that some women were conscious of trying colours because they were not happy with their complexion. Each one of us have something unique and we tell women that you have to celebrate individuality. They have so many questions while we are dressing them up, which is quite difficult to deal with, but when they see the end result they are so thrilled and the feeling is just out of the world. So we try and prepare women to have that feeling every day.” Talking about Indian women body shape, Trinny said that “they have the most feminine and curvaceous body that might be little heavy at the bottom, but the trick is to choose the right shape dress and everything will be taken care of.”
We though Trinny and Susannah would have had a tough time dressing Indian men but they shared that “they are plain lazy and stuck in one way of dressing. But Indian men are like peacock, give them a change and they would love to flaunt it.” After Delhi and Mumbai the duo plans to visit other cities like Bengaluru and Pune.