Bengaluru, KARNATAKA :
Elegant designs
In school, she would finish all the notebooks her parents bought for her to doodle and design her future clothing collections.
At the age of seven, when the teacher was busy giving important notes that would come for the final examination, Syma Ahmed spent that precious time thinking about what else she could design. By the time she was 12-years-old, she had started designing her outfits that she would show off during festivals like Eid and Bakrid.
She says, “My parents encouraged me from a young age. They would give me the boost that I needed whenever I wanted to design something.” Having completed her Bachelors in Fashion and Apparel from Mount Carmel College, this Bengaluru-born designer is proud to see how much she’s grown in last few years. She was also an intern with Bollywood designer Vikram Phadnis and attended summer school at London School of Fashion. Today, she has carved her own niche with her wedding and Indo-Western collection.
“I think I learnt the most once I started working on my own and branding my own designs. When working under another designer, you need to be on par with their style and execute it accordingly. But here, I have the freedom to experiment and choose what I think looks best, and I’ve also been able to understand the fine line between what people want to wear and my vision in terms of design,” she says.
Syma likes her designs to be elegant and soft, therefore she mostly uses pastel colours. She uses everything around her as an inspiration and decides the colours and patterns accordingly.
Her latest collection is called ‘Wisteria’ and is inspired by a famous garden in Japan. Talking about the collection, she says, “This collection is inspired by the Wisteria Tunnel in The Kawachi Fuji Gardens in Japan. It encompasses 150 Wisteria plants with 20 different spices ranging in colours of white, blue, purple, violet-blue and pink. The clothes also depict these pastel-coloured fairy-tale flowers in their graceful silhouettes, ombre dyeing and intricate embroidery details, making it a complete and rich experience.”
Recalling some of her favourite collections, she says, “The ‘Nur Jahan’ collection that I presented is one of my favourites. It was a lot of fun making because it was something different. All the designs were painted with bright, bold colours, which made it a great collection.” Syma is also proud of her interpretation of the sari. She calls it ‘TMS’ or a two-minute sari, which can be worn as a skirt and wrapped around.
She says, “Wearing a sari is absolutely time consuming. This works well with every body shape. Now people don’t have to go through the hassle of wearing the perfect sari — you can always look perfect with this.”
Apart from designing fashionable clothes, she also makes accessories like clutches and earrings. With an eye for intricate details, she looks up to Zuhair Murad, a Lebanese fashion designer, for his details in embroidery. She also loves the work of Anamika Khanna for her interpretation of the old and the new.
“Designing is something that I’ve always wanted to do and I’m happy that I’ve had so many learning experiences so far. I look forward to experimenting so much more in this industry and bring out the best of designs,” she concludes.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Supplements> MetroLife / by Anila Kurian / DHNS – December 14th, 2015