Born to Indian parents, and brought up in the US, this designer has achieved great heights in the fashion industry. She has designed outfits for Hollywood actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Kim Kardashian to start with, and in India, she has worked with Sunny Leone.
Riya Kodali, who has been in the City for past one-and-half-years, has no formal background in fashion designing and she says, “I am a psychologist and artist by profession. I was always an artist. I taught fashion designing in Paris and Milan, but have never received any formal training. Things like fashion designing, art and photography are creative fields and one can’t really learn them sitting in a classroom. One should be born with it. Of course, the technical part can be learnt but not creativity.”
She adds, “Being an artist, I found my love in fashion designing. I designed outfits for Hollywood celebrities, which were much appreciated, and as these appreciations kept coming, I thought I would explore more and eventually found myself in this industry. It actually parachuted in my life more than I wanted.”
Her first piece of creativity, she recalls, was sold when she was in her 9th grade for a huge sum, after which ‘there was no looking back’. She kept painting and selling them and all the money went to a breast cancer foundation.
Riya was also a part of the 13th edition of the ‘Bengaluru Fashion Week’ a couple of months back, which she claims to have been a huge success.
Her works are more Indo-Western, explaining which she says, “My roots are Indian and I was raised in America, so I have seen the best of both worlds and cultures. One can either find a lot of Indian wear or a lot of Western wear, but not a good combination of both. However, when one looks at my creations, they will notice that the colours and patterns are different.
The embellishments that are used are not really the ones that are available in the market. Even if one buys the cheapest outfit from me, it will still have something different to tell you.” Her new collection is lively with a lot of colours, which are all Spring-Summer hues. Bright pastel colours, heavily embroidered with glass beads, Swarovski and crystals are some of the striking aspects of the collection.
She says, “The latest collection is unique in terms of patterns, falls and looks. And the colours that are used are pleasant and eye-catching at the same time.”
About the fashion scene in the City, she says, ‘it is not much, everybody is trying to imitate the other’. Youngsters wanting to experiment with fashion is good, however, if we talk about young fashion designers, trying to design something different, they have no idea, rather they steal designs from here and there and present it as their own. It is not their fault, most of these young designers that I come across tell me that they do not have good funding. If you really want to be a good designer, you need to put in crores to become a big name, participate in fashion weeks and bring out a lot of collections. Youngsters don’t have that kind of money. If they have angel investors, probably even they will explore and do awesome work,” she says.
She has plenty of plans for the future. “Expanding my presence to Delhi and Mumbai is the foremost. Apart from this, I have ‘London Fashion Week’ and ‘Paris Fashion Week’ coming up for which I am working on my collections.”
As a piece of advice to aspiring designers, she says, “Be yourself and don’t replicate someone else’s designs. Even if you come up with the most crazy or silly ideas, put it to reality and you will be able to design excellent outfits. And you really don’t have to spend a lot to make a good garment, if your idea is great and the fabric is cheap, it is fine. A lot of fashion designers give up hope because there is too much competition and they don’t have that kind of money to put in. If you work really hard and give yourself time, you will definitely make it to the top.”