Star and style

Alisha Singh, a New Delhi-based college student, loves the way Alia Bhatt dresses off-screen. Twenty minutes into the launch of Party Up, a line of clothing hand-picked by Alia for Jabong.com , Alisha bought a soft-fur sweater, one of the big-ticket items on sale, from the collection. “Alia dresses her age and is always well turned out at events,” Singh says. “I would love to dress like her.”

Gone are the days when girls with pictures of their favourite star’s on-screen ensemble hovered over their neighbourhood “tailor uncle” demanding Madhuri Dixit’s “ Hum Apke Hai Kaun-wallah ” blouse, or Aishwarya Rai’s “ Ravaan-wallah Anarkali suit ”.

Today, it’s the star’s attire in real life that holds appeal.

Like most things, this trend started in the West and India followed suit. “These celebrities have created a niche for themselves in the industry and people look up to them as style icons. Alia Bhatt was roped in to collaborate and design a range that would appeal to college-going girls. This helps the brand and the portal associating with them garner the interest of the consumers through the collection,” says Jabong.com ’s Founder and CEO, Arun Chandra Mohan.

Representatives of The Label Corp agree with him. (The platform retails home décor products by Sussanne Khan under The Home Label; clothes selected by Malaika Arora Khan under The Closet Label; and jewellery and accessories chosen by Bipasha Basu under The Trunk Label, on three different Web portals.) According to The Label Corp, these celebrities’ exposure and experiences make them tastemakers, which enables them to contribute by ideating and forecasting trends in their respective domains. And because they are established names, associating with them gives the portal a wider reach. The only downside, it says, is that “customers may get distracted from the product because of the celebrity’s presence.”

Design duty But do these celebrities actually partake in the design and production process or is it just another marketing tactic, this time by leveraging the star’s power, without roping them in as ambassadors?

These clothing lines are marketed as a reflection of the celebrities’ design aesthetic and personality, so it’s important that they’re extremely hands-on when it comes to the production process, says Avnish Chhabria, CEO, Stylista.

What about established fashion designers for whom designing clothes is their mainstay? Are they miffed that celebrities — who showcase the clothes designed by them and whose sartorial splendour is a creation and product of the designer’s vision — are suddenly getting into the business of designing and selling clothes, sometimes on the same platform? Do they worry it will eat into their market share in the mid-range, high-street or ready-to-wear categories and/or compete with their design philosophies?

For instance, stylista.com retails clothes under different collections, in the same price band, designed by fashion designer Masaba Gupta and actor/singer Monica Dogra. Likewise, Ritu Kumar’s ready-to-wear line called Label, apart from its stand-alone stores and its own Web portal, is sold on Jabong.com , which retails Alia’s line, and Myntra, which retails Hrithik Roshan’s collection called HRX.

Fashion designer Ritu Kumar has a measured take on this. She believes that films and celebrities tend to become brand muses as they have a ready following. “It is both an international and national practice to tie up with them,” she says. As a brand we would be open to the possibility of engaging with a star, if an opportunity — when a collection suits and fits his/her personality — presents itself, Kumar adds.

“In today’s age where there is little customer loyalty, it’s important for us to cater to a wide segment of women with different needs,” says Stylista’s Chhabria. And each designer has his/her own sensibility and every fashion line has a USP, so there’s always someone to buy it.

Conflict of interest Going forward, though, another conundrum presents itself. What if the line handpicked by the star for one brand begins to retail a product sold by another brand the star endorses? Well, the answer to that question is an open-ended one since it remains to be seen if Alia Bhatt, recently roped in as the brand ambassador of VIP’s Caprese, will anytime in the near future go on to include handbags in her collection for Jabong.com .

Price it right All things said, while a celebrity and an existing brand coming together seems like a marriage made in retail heaven, not everyone (unlike New Delhi-based college student Alisha Singh) is sold on the idea.

Vrinda Sasidhar, a Hyderabad-based HR professional on a sabbatical, was “super thrilled” when she heard that Monica Dogra had launched her line because she “loves her breezy-meets-grunge style”. But what’s actually on offer doesn’t excite her. “It is a mixed bag of things, some of the things aren’t in sync with Moica’s sense of style, which makes me wonder if they are really a part of the creative process or have just lent their name to the line owing to their popularity and status.” And for her, unlike Singh, price matters. “I will buy it only if I like it and it suits my budget, irrespective of it being designed by a celebrity or not,” she adds.

Put the clothes on your back

Apart from Alia Bhatt, a slew of celebrities, such as Deepika Padukone, Karan Johar, Hrithik Roshan, Bipasha Basu, Malaika Arora Khan, Sussanne Khan and Monica Dogra have collaborated with international brands such as Van Heusen and Vero Moda and ecommerce portals such as Myntra, The Label Corp and Stylista to curate a collection of clothing and accessories.