If you just cannot decide on the perfect outfit for the occasion, stylist and personal shopper Prachi Khade is the woman for you. She gives as much attention to styling celebrities like Priyanka Chopra and Sonakshi Sinha as she does to her non-celebrity clients.
Tell us a bit about your background?
My father is an engineer and my mother is a professor of arts. She has done her PhD in colours and I think I get my creativity from her. She preferred traditional wear and was always well-dressed. She taught me how to combine colours and wear the right accessories. I pursued a bachelors degree in Computer Science in Pune, and did a diploma in Fashion design and a diploma in personal shopping.
What are your professional qualifications?
Born and brought up in Pune, I come from a conservative Maharashtrian family. I got married right after completing my graduation. But I had always been very creatively inclined and was desperate to get into the world of fashion as soon as possible. While I was still in my final year of Bachelors in Computer Science I enrolled myself into a diploma course in fashion designing. It was difficult to juggle married life with further studies, but I was very determined and managed to do both.
How did you get into styling/personal shopping?
After I finished my Diploma in Fashion Designing, I was approached by the editor of Femina Pune to design for the cover page of the magazine. When I sent her the designs, she liked the way I had styled them and told me to style my own shoot. It was well-appreciated and I continued styling for Femina Pune for a year as a freelancer. I met a lot of photographers during the shoot who offered me other styling assignments apart from editorials, and I decided to take up styling as a profession. While styling for different shoots, some celebrities needed personal shopping advice and wardrobe management done. The thought that personal shopping was a relatively less explored concept in India struck me, and so I did a professional course from Milan in personal shopping.
Tell us about your celebrity clients
I have styled celebrities like Priyanka Chopra, Sonakshi Sinha, Prachi Desai, chef Sanjeev Kapoor, sportspersons such as Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symmonds, Rohit Sharma, chess master Vishwanathan Anand. I have styled many celebrities like Sarah Jane, Arti Chabria for Filmfare, Prachi Desai for Star Sahara Awards. I have done a lot of print ads and ad films for several huge brands such as HDFC, ICICI, Brittania etc over the past six-odd years.
What was the experience of styling contestants for Pune Style Diva like?
I have always enjoyed being a part of Femina since I started working with the magazine. The contestants are young girls with a lot of dreams which I can relate to and hence enjoyed being with them. Styling for them and teaching them was fun.