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Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

Trendsetter Surya Parvathi with an outfit she created for Samvritha Sunil in ‘Romeo.’

“It’s so flattering. I went shopping in Kochi recently and the vendors were selling versions of my designs in ‘Hallo.’ It looks like my fabric paint designs on saris are a hit. While shopping at a leading retail shop, I saw a mirror image of a sari I had designed for the movie – a black sari with gold fabric paint. Shops are also carrying patterns of the salwar-kurtas in ‘Hallo’ and are calling them ‘Hallo’ churidars,” says a jubilant Surya who studied fashion designing at Apparel Leather Techniques, Bangalore, and PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore.

A teacher of fashion designing at Saraswathi Vidyalaya, costume designing came by chance to Surya. “While studying for fashion designing, you are not taught the ins and outs of the costume designing industry in tinsel town. As I was curious about the industry I asked Fazil Sir if I could observe how costumes are designed on the sets while he was shooting for ‘Vismaya Thumbuthu.’ He gave me the green signal.”

It was Rajasenan, however, who gave Surya a break into the industry. “He asked me to design for a movie of his, ‘Immini Nallorallu’ which, however, did not do well at the box office. There, I did the designs for Navya Nair.” Navya, who played a movie star in the movie, was given chiffons, “to give her a slim look.” “She was dressed in bright colours and the clothes were mostly churidars and lachhas.”

Then came ‘Hallo’ in which she dressed Parvathi Melton, mostly, in kurtas and patiala salwars.

“It was a challenge as Parvathi did not want the clothes to be in bright colours but at the same time insisted on dark tones. So, I centred her outfits on purples, military greens, mustard yellows and blacks. We did, however, manage to squeeze in red.”

According to Surya, a designer should fashion her clothes around the character.

“Like in ‘Romeo’ for instance, where Sruthi plays a Brahmin girl in the movie, I had her in half-saris and as Tamil Brahmins are usually superstitious about the colours black and white, I have steered clear of that although they make a fabulous combination of colour. The designs need to reflect the personality of the character in the script.

“The shapes, colours and textures that a designer chooses, makes an immediate visual statement to the audience.”’

Research plays an important role too. “If doing a period film, you have to set the designs according to the fashion of the time. For example, if set in the 1990’s, the fashion in Kerala then was churidars with three-fourth puffed sleeves. ‘Om Shanthi Om’ is a perfect example of good costume designing as the movie stuck to the fashion relevant to the period.”

She adds that one should keep the body structure of the artiste in mind when designing too. “If they are on the plump side, chiffons and crepes work best. Cottons and jutes look good on those who are slim.”

While most of the outfits are designed by Surya, she admits blouses and skirts are often ready made, “but often modified.”

“Now, the trend is half sleeve for blouses. I cut off the sleeves and give them a different pattern - flounces for instance. You must be innovative in your designs and be a trendsetter,” says this fan of designers Rocky S. and Manish Malhotra.

Surya is now looking forward to various designing projects in films and to starting a boutique of her own. “But they are all still in the pipeline.”

According to Surya, kurtis paired with skirts will soon give way to tops and formal wear trousers. Short kurtis and patiala salwars still rule the fashion scene although Surya points out that the hem line has gone up for kurtis. “It’s now two inches shorter and the kurtis come with embellishments such as beads, coins and thread work.” Bright colours rule this season.

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