From Fashion Designers to Image Consultants and Soft Skills Trainers
RITU PUNJABI
Ritu Punjabi from Pune had an International Diploma in Fashion Design from the Cavendish College of London. However, when she started working as a designer, she felt women simply copied the styles of celebrities, or friends and family or blindly followed fashion trends. Due to lack of technical knowledge in body shape, personal style and color analysis she failed to explain why it wouldn’t work for them. She just knew she didn’t want to design for the sake of it.
In 2012, she came across ICBI’s advertisement in the newspaper which became a game changer for her and immediately signed up for the complimentary body shape analysis seminar. After attending the seminar, she realized this is what she was looking for! Helping women dress with purpose! And hence started her journey of becoming an Image Consultant.
Today, she has consulted individuals as young as 18-year-old beauty pageant aspirants to corporate executives to HNI Business Owners. She is empanelled with many companies where she trains men and women on professional development, personal branding and executive presence, year on year. Having a background in Retail has helped her work with leading apparel stores in Pune to help them build exceptional customer experience. She is also a proud trainer at ICBI since 2015.
ANSHU GUPTA
Anshu Gupta was a successful Fashion Designer and Illustrator and had spent 11 years in the industry. She had her own clothesline and had been organizing exhibitions across various cities. Having been fascinated with “Fashion and Beauty” since childhood, this is something which came naturally to her. An expert in choosing the right dress, colour combination and style, it took her no time to build up an elite clientele. But, over the years she realised she had so far been focussing only on the outer beauty or appearance of people. She felt that something is missing, something was incomplete. Anshu was looking for something beyond fashion as she had always wanted to be able to make a difference in people’s lives.
This is when ICBI happened to Anshu, around 12 years back. She was quick to gauge that Image Management would equip her with the requisite training and tools to bring out the best in her clients. She realised that even though she was curating beautiful outfits, it was important to understand an individual’s body shape, personal style and roles & goals to be able to suitably dress them up. She now offers them a more holistic approach, where she blends their inner core with the outer appearance.
Anshu actively works with the Fashion and Beauty Industry and some of her prominent assignments are:
- Grooming Aishna Marwaha, one of India’s youngest models and Winner of the Photo Contest for kids “Show Off Clicks” by leading Bollywood actress Sushmita Sen.
- Official Image Consultant for Ms. Vidisha Baliyan -Miss India Deaf 2019.
- Official Image Consultant for Beauty Pageants like Miss Exquisite 2016 Beauty
- Pageant and Mrs. India Beauty Queen 2015 (MIBQ2015)
- Jury panelist for Miss Exquisite 2016 Beauty Pageant
- Trained Ms. Kanika Bali, Miss India Deaf 2011 and “Miss Deaf Asia 2012”.
Anshu’s work is not restricted to the Fashion industry alone. She regularly conducts training sessions for various corporates, conducts makeover sessions for individuals and provides Personal Shopping Assistance. She has featured in makeover shows and talk shows on Television and Radio, and her articles on Image Management related topics are a regular feature in various print and online magazines. She is the recipient of various awards like “IMPA Leadership Award for Social Impact”, “IMPA Leadership Award for Business Excellence”, MS Talks- I Inspire Award – “The Image Consultant of the year- 2019”, etc.
Today Anshu is a celebrated Image Consultant and operates under the brand “Anshu Image Coach”.
Upasna Lalwani Harkhani
After the completion of her fashion and textile designing course from a reputed Institute, Upasna decided to launch her own label named “D Urban” which catered to the needs of Indo-Western wear for women in Kolkata. Even with the success of her designing career Upasna knew that deep down she needed to understand the issues which surrounded the society as a whole – the concept of image, etiquette and making one comfortable in their own skin and body. How could she overcome this problem that she faced with her clients every day?
She knew that every individual was unique in terms of their body shape, face shape, colouration and had a personal style which they did not know of? There was a lack of awareness. Thus, started her career at ICBI in 2011 and there was no looking back. She has helped hundreds of clients in a span of 10 years and is a pioneer in building self- confidence and esteem.
She designs clothes as per the body shapes of clients, conducts one on one consultation, facilitates corporate workshops, personal shopper assignments for domestic and international clients, does styling for events, conducts personal makeup classes, mentors and guides individuals.
She has worked with leading brands including Yes Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, ITC, Lexus Motors, Oriflame, VLCC, AMRI group of hospitals, Shoppers Stop and many more.
Her dream of discovering personal style for her clients came true after all. She believes that by being comfortable in their own skin people can be a better version of themselves. Her aim is to keep her clients up-to-date with the current trends and help them create a stunning image. A good personal image helps someone standout as a well-groomed person with an authentic style that compliments their body type and personality that speaks a ton about them. She assists them in creating a persona that leaves the people they meet awestruck.
Upasna is a proud member of the ICBI community and continues to dazzle the world with her amazing designs of both the body and the soul and make people discover their personal style through one on one interactions and personal attention.
ASTHA BATRA
Astha grew up all her life with only one dream- becoming a well-known fashion designer having her own label and a fancy store. She completed her fashion design degree but then had to take a break due to marriage, children and the usual reasons to go on a sabbatical. She kept doing some designing work from home. But she soon realised that it was not really working out. She wanted something more constructive and wanted to devote her energy to reach her dream. She also felt that she still did not have enough confidence and knowledge to start her own label.
She then came across ICBI. Growing up with the passion to always dress up impeccably, having the knack of good communication skills and staying well-groomed all the time, the Image Consulting and Soft Skills Training Program felt like it was made just for her.
In no time after the course she felt so empowered with the heaps of knowledge related to body shape, Face shape, personal Colors, personal style for different individuals and various soft skills topics like goal setting, time and stress management, vocal and verbal communication, body language, etiquette etc. She knew that the knowledge she now possessed would give her an edge as a designer.