Meet Costume Designer Anju, a Storyteller through Fashion to launch a collection in India and abroad
When you think about what goes on behind the scenes of the women’s fashion industry, what do you imagine? Perhaps you’d picture a large open-air office filled to the brim with women of all kinds, designing clothes, writing copy, and analysing exactly what it is that women want to buy. And in some ways, that’s exactly right.
Anju Kukudala, 25, a young fashion designer from Hyderabad, is preparing to launch her readymade Indo-Western outfit’s collection under the label LoLi A by Anju Designers in the country and abroad. LoLi A is the brand name for Anju’s unique and trendy stylized collection in Hyderabad. According to Anju, her fashion designing was started in 2017 and also been designing Indo-Western outfits in India and abroad very soon she own a showroom in the country.
She developed her skills not just for fashion and dress design but also worked on her other skill sets like social media marketing along with visual and apparel merchandising. This made her understand their requirements and diversity in fashion. She with her incredible skill sets and magnetic personality can make anyone her fan.
One of the most striking features in her personality is her knack to design and develop dresses and fashion for all occasions and genres at an affordable cost. She has some of the best designs and fashion to offer. The same is the story with special parties and occasion dresses. She is skilled to design dresses with her skill sets. She is a fashionista and trendsetter when it comes to coming out with incredible designs and outfits that can easily trend at any place you go.
“My vision is to create affordable and stylish clothing for different variants of audiences as well as create a different style showcasing western in the form of clothing. I want to create a place where teamwork is promoted, skills are enhanced, and the economy is distributed.”
Talk about the fashion industry and her journey to success as a fashion designer.
Do you have what it takes to be a part of the industry?
The two most important things are flair and talent. You need a lot of focus and determination. But more than anything you need to have passion follow it and a drive to create something.
How did you go about researching the costumes of the period?
I absolutely adore the process of research whether it’s a contemporary piece or period or naturalistic or magical. Whatever it is, I like to start with a completely blank sheet if I didn’t know anything about that particular subject matter. So I usually throw a very wide net, social history, physical, environmental, everything going on in the world of these people. Of course, the search is dictated by the script and the vision of the work. Then you refine, you let go. You have to have the courage at that stage to know which direction you’re going in, what story you’re going to tell. What colours you will use, what textures you will use, shapes you will use. So it’s going very wide then refining back in, always led by the script.
What is one piece of advice you would give a young woman who wants to follow in your footsteps?
I hope that both young men and young women will! You should have as broad and as wide experiences as possible before you go in. And not just studying costume design-which is terribly important and vital! But because you have to bring in so many elements into costume design and movie making now. You have to be able to express what you want and develop your imagination and be interested in everything in the world. You have to bring all this knowledge with you. I would advise being open to as many life experiences as you can and to love film, go to movies, go to the theatre and really immerse yourself. You have to love the medium because it’s a tough world, so love it first.
