I’ve always loved shopping from brands and stores, though my mom always nagged me to get kurtis stitched from the tailor. The idea was to buy some cloth material, select a design and give it to the tailor. I soon realised, us girls don’t take enough advantage of this as we should!
A year back, I had to move to Mumbai for my post graduation. Living life on the edge with the little pocket money I got, I started exploring the idea of getting replicas of branded clothes stitched instead of actually buying them from the store. Why, you ask? Well, because it’s cheaper and also because you get a custom made outfit instead of altering store-bought ones. This outfit will exclusively be yours and no one will ever have anything exactly like you, at least, I like to believe that.
Anyway, I decided to borrow branded clothes from my friends and then with the help of my tailor, I created replicas of the those clothes with a little twist.
Here are the five looks I created (modelled by my lovely friends along with myself):
1. Cotton Printed Asymmetric Contrast Button Top
The left one is a peplum top from Fabindia worth almost Rs 1,500. The right one is its replica. I got 3 metres cloth material for Rs 300 and then got this stitched for Rs 500 amounting to a total of Rs 800 only!. Instead of using a different cloth material for the neck, the overall material was the same and it looked even better to me.
2. Cotton Printed Front Slit Maxi Dress
The left one is a dress from Vastra By Milonee. My friend got it for Rs 1,500 and I got the exact same outfit for Rs 1,000 including the cloth material and the stitching charges. Instead of going with a collared neck, I chose a V-neck. I also added a thick neon border at the bottom which made my outfit stand out.
3. Indigo Cotton Dhoti Skirt
Doesn’t this look exactly the same? My friend got this dhoti skirt on the left for Rs 2500 from Fabindia and I got this amazing and unique dhoti on the right in just 1400 bucks. I saved a lot on this. I didn’t play around much with this one ‘coz I just loved the original one and I wanted a dhoti exactly like that.
4. Cotton Printed Crop Top
I love shopping from Biba and even though it’s not all THAT expensive, I replicated a crop top from this brand just for fun. The original one on the left cost me around 700 bucks whereas the right one just cost me 500!
5. Cotton Flared Maxi Dress
I love wearing maxi dresses, especially indo-western ones. The one on the left is an original Biba maxi dress which I bought for Rs 3,000, the one on the left is what I replicated for Rs 2,000. I experimented with an all-over print and changed it up by getting 3/4th sleeves and it looked amazing.
So guys, go out, explore the local tailors around your locality, give them a chance and get customized stylish designs at affordable prices.
Special thanks to my friends and lovely ladies Kripa Tamuly, Devansha Sanan, Isheeta Sharma and Sanya Jain for letting me click their pictures for this story.
Images: Shivani Shrivastava, Trending Writer
