From her high-fashion costume stint in Student of the Year and minimum costume changes in Highway, Alia Bhatt had a completely new wardrobe to wear as Ananya Subramaniam in 2 States.
What Alia Bhatt wore
Styled by Manish Malhotra, Alia Bhatt wore a range of cotton kurtas—in neon shades, with jeans, or with a denim waistcoat. Her tees and tank tops were paired with ghagra skirts, and accessorised with jhumkas, cotton scarves and Kolhapuri wedges.
While Alia Bhatt looked great, I got a sense of déjà vu. I had spotted similar looks in other movies like Kareena Kapoor in Bodyguard (also styled by Manish Malhotra) and Kangana Ranaut in Tanu Weds Manu and Queen. All these looks are very Indo-boho / ethnic. You’d probably get Alia Bhatt’s huge collection of jhumkas, ghagra skirts and other such ethnic stuff Mumbai’s Colaba or Linking Road market and I’m sure every Indian town has such a market or two. There are also several local brands like Global Desi and Fab India who stock Indian-looking separates and accessories.
So what do girls at IIM wear?
While Alia Bhatt looks great and is styled well, I wondered what does a girl studying at IIM really wear? There is no definite answer of course- but I got some inputs from my hubby S (an IIM alumnus). While he claims he doesn’t remember much of his two years there (yeah, RIGHT!), and especially not what the girls wore, he add an interesting statement or two to make.
“The girls at IIM did not have time to accessorise or wear makeup.”
Packed lecture schedules, multiple projects and ongoing tests leaves IIM students with little or no time to do anything other than study. So for the girls there, there’s almost no time to find the right earrings before class or carefully apply liner to their upper and lower lash lines. But hey, I liked Alia’s nude pink lip colours.
“They mostly wore business suits to placement interviews.”
Alia Bhatt’s character Ananya wore a sari to her placement interview with Sunsilk (an HUL brand). Hubby confirms that almost all women wore business suits for their interviews- crisp shirt and trousers, blazer et al. Only one or two students chose to wear saris instead. Nice to know that Ananya was one of the rare ones!
“Only a handful of the girls were fashion-conscious.”
Ananya is clearly fashion-conscious- but while she doesn’t seem to follow trends, she has a flair for trying the quirky. Also, she seems to have a good fashion sense off campus as well. She wore a gorgeous sari to her boyfriend’s cousin’s wedding in Delhi- traditional but with bright colours. Given her fashion choices and cute looks, no wonder 11 guys hit on her on the first day at IIM!
What did you think of Alia Bhatt’s outfits in 2 States?
