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Meet Pooja Vaidya, a commerce grad from Mumbai, who won the Mood Indigo contest at IIT Powai in 2011 and never looked back.
What's your style statement?
For me style is something that you can carry off happily without any grimace or frown on your face; even if it is a ragged jeans or torn t-shirt.
Obviously, accessorising makes a lot of difference to what you are wearing.
Like if you are wearing a simple, white t-shirt and accessorising it with nice jewellery or bracelet or a buckle to match with it or a broach that really enhances the look, that is what style is all about.
For me the most important thing is your accessories. Style for me is neat accessories without overdoing. Minimalist, very-statement accessories.
So, choose wisely.
How do you keep fit?
Workouts...
What's your workout regime like?
I am a very core workout person and functional training is my forte. I am not a gym-rat but gymming one hour a day is essential. Even an hour's workout helps you maintain your weight and tone the body.
Why did you choose to become a model?
After winning Mood Indigo contest at IIT Powai in 2011, I started getting offers for shows to walk for designers. I kind of started enjoying the whole part of grooming and looking pretty and since the experience was very nice and I was happy with myself, I chose to continue doing that.
How do you keep your hair and skin healthy?
I do hair spas. Because of the kind of make up and chemicals that are used on our hair and faces, obviously the skin starts ageing really faster and you have to keep your face always moisturised.
When I am not wearing make up, I keep my skin moisturised. It helps your skin to breathe naturally and keep it soft and glowing.
Hair too gets spoiled a lot after fashion week. You should always, always go for a hair spa. At least once a month is something I would suggest.
Most interesting shoot...
I did this campaign for jeans wear, a brand called Hiz & Herz jeans, a new label that will be soon across online stores in India. That was very interesting because the campaign had four male models and just me as the female model.
What do you do when you are not modelling?
I write. I blog a lot. I like watching movies so I often watch movies back to back. I love biography movies. The recent one that I watched was an Alfred Hitchcock biography starring Scarlett Johansson.
One piece of advice for aspiring models...
Stay stylish. Learn and study fashion. Try and understand what exactly fashion is. Everything that you see on TV or read in magazines is not fashion. Invent your own style and just be yourself.
Photographs: Pooja Vaidya/Facebook