Tuesday, June 9, 2009

My dolls in Haute Couture: a photoshoot for Grazia India magazine!

A while ago the editor of Grazia India, Nadnini Bhalla contacted me about doing a photoshoot with my fashion dolls for the magazine, with them wearing miniature outfits created by Indian fashion designers. She said she loved my Vogue mock up covers and wanted to make something in that context for the photoshoot. Of course I agreed and started planning the whole thing. After a while, the outfists arrived. Opening the garment bag of each one was a surprise: the worksmanship was incredible. The designers, with only a basic pattern to help them had made miniature miracles. Some of the outfits had miniscule accessories with them, which made them even more incredible.

Turmeric sequin ball gown and gloves, Lecoanet Hemant

Not all the outfits were made in the exact doll sizes I had provided. Some were too big or too small to fit on either 12" dolls or 16" dolls. But with the help of pins and proper posing, all of them were finally photographed by me with my dolls wearing them. From a huge number of photos, I picked soem and sent them over to have the magazine editors finalize the selection and layout. When this was done, it was ready for printing. The issue was out in May and it was a huge 12-page spread exclusive. I am publishing the results here and hope you like them! In future posts, I will feature each and every dress seperately, with facts about the designer, the specific dress and also photos of the original outfit on the runway. Enjoy!


Jumpsuit, Raakesh Agarvwal; Bubble-hem dress, Sitara By Manjaree; Bambino-print maxi, Kallol Dutta


Bubble-hem dress, Sitara By Manjaree


Ombre pleated gown, Nachiket Barve

Ruched Dress with circuitry sleeve, Prashant Verma

I would also like to thanks Nandini Bhalla (senior editor), Nidhi Jacob (editor) and Rajni Phatak (accounts) for their incredible help and collaboration and coordination of this dream project! Grazia India is in great hands!




Lame origami gown, Varun Sardana; Lime one-shouldered maxi, Gauri and Nainika


Ball gown with rosette train, Preeti Chandra


Sheer knotted dresses, Anuj Sharma


Tie-dye sleeveless jacket and top over satin pants, Savio Jon


Sequin strapless dress, Namrata Joshipura


Textured prom dress, Alpana and Neeraj

The shoot was also published in an indian blog about fashion, High Heel Confidential. The photos below of the magazine pages scanned are from that blog as I still have not received the magazine to scan them myself.



All photographs for Grazia are not to be published in any other form, in print or electronically without permission from the magazine and me. Photos published by special permission of Grazia Magazine.