Excerpt on Bollywood fashion in the 1980s;
"The manner in which he dresses heroines - or rather undresses them - for Hindi films, scarcely reflects the stature and reputation enjoyed by Xerxes Bathena among designers. But he doesn't complain.
"It makes no difference to me what I design for a Sridevi or a Dimple Kapadia, as long as I have other avenues to prove my talent. In fact, I love designing for films... it's fun being in this industry... and a lot of money too. Here, style is a four-letter world. The more you violate it the bigger becomes your pay packet. Perhaps, this is the only industry where one is paid generously for distorting things - including the anatomy of beautiful girls."
Stocky, effervescent Xerxes is one of the two male dress designers who design clothes for women in Hindi films and the more successful one. Xerxes had never dreamt of being a designer for actresses but a chance meeting with Shabana Azmi led him to Parveen Babi., whose exclusive designer he eventually became..."
MISSING TEXT
"...But I unlearned quickly, to be a master juggler of fashions."
Xerxes had begun at Burlingtons as a salesman, selling shirts, and rose to being a fashion coordinator. Then one day, in a fit of rage, he decided to chuck his job and join a small-time magazine as fashion editor. "It was a lousy magazine, and I was disgusted with it even before I got cracking. That's when I ran into Shabana, and through her met Parveen. Parveen impressed me instantly and I agreed to be her dress designer.
"To be fair, I must call myself a 'costumer' and not a 'designer'..."
Below: Sridevi's sequined blue bikini top for her dances in Suhaagan (1986).
It's hard to imagine in 2020 - as these words are written - that Sridevi's blouses and dare-bare outfits were a subject of discussion on social mores. The then media reps and self-imposed guardians of morality, slapped her with the label sex-symbol (almost a pejorative in the early days) and non-actress. Despite several evidence to the contrary in Tamil and Telugu films. But then, myopic Mumbai media then wasn't exactly known for doing its research and development in Bollywood tabloids, hardly an arbiter of good taste and excellence in journalism.
There are reams of early 80s media that went after Sridevi all hammer and tongs, which made her a recluse when it came to interviews. She may have been perturbed, but it never reflected in her work or her incredible work ethic. The girl (and she was indeed but a girl) just worked, and worked, double, triple shifts, Monday to Saturday - how else does one work in 260+ film from age 4 to 34? Sridevi didn't just take a break during her pregnancy and hiatus, we are surprised she didn't collapse in exhaustion!
...
"The manner in which he dresses heroines - or rather undresses them - for Hindi films, scarcely reflects the stature and reputation enjoyed by Xerxes Bathena among designers. But he doesn't complain.
"It makes no difference to me what I design for a Sridevi or a Dimple Kapadia, as long as I have other avenues to prove my talent. In fact, I love designing for films... it's fun being in this industry... and a lot of money too. Here, style is a four-letter world. The more you violate it the bigger becomes your pay packet. Perhaps, this is the only industry where one is paid generously for distorting things - including the anatomy of beautiful girls."
Stocky, effervescent Xerxes is one of the two male dress designers who design clothes for women in Hindi films and the more successful one. Xerxes had never dreamt of being a designer for actresses but a chance meeting with Shabana Azmi led him to Parveen Babi., whose exclusive designer he eventually became..."
MISSING TEXT
"...But I unlearned quickly, to be a master juggler of fashions."
Xerxes had begun at Burlingtons as a salesman, selling shirts, and rose to being a fashion coordinator. Then one day, in a fit of rage, he decided to chuck his job and join a small-time magazine as fashion editor. "It was a lousy magazine, and I was disgusted with it even before I got cracking. That's when I ran into Shabana, and through her met Parveen. Parveen impressed me instantly and I agreed to be her dress designer.
"To be fair, I must call myself a 'costumer' and not a 'designer'..."
Below: Sridevi's sequined blue bikini top for her dances in Suhaagan (1986).
It's hard to imagine in 2020 - as these words are written - that Sridevi's blouses and dare-bare outfits were a subject of discussion on social mores. The then media reps and self-imposed guardians of morality, slapped her with the label sex-symbol (almost a pejorative in the early days) and non-actress. Despite several evidence to the contrary in Tamil and Telugu films. But then, myopic Mumbai media then wasn't exactly known for doing its research and development in Bollywood tabloids, hardly an arbiter of good taste and excellence in journalism.
There are reams of early 80s media that went after Sridevi all hammer and tongs, which made her a recluse when it came to interviews. She may have been perturbed, but it never reflected in her work or her incredible work ethic. The girl (and she was indeed but a girl) just worked, and worked, double, triple shifts, Monday to Saturday - how else does one work in 260+ film from age 4 to 34? Sridevi didn't just take a break during her pregnancy and hiatus, we are surprised she didn't collapse in exhaustion!
...
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