Rick Roy and Mini Mathur’s Instagram series about taking clothes from her wardrobe and blowing new life into them, will have you wanting to do the same. Here’s where to start
Pic/Aishwarya Deodhar
Rick Roy walks in to meet us with a giant tote bag full of glittery jackets and embellished sunglasses. He picks a pair with gold flowers dangling from either side. We gasp, “Are those Zara earrings!” and he laughs, “Yes, just reusing everything I have as much as I can.”
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Next comes actress and television host Mini Mathur draped in a blue saree that she has paired with a denim crop top. She’s carrying a bag made of “pull tabs”—the ones that sit on top of a soda can that you lift to break and sip. “I bought this from New York—I helped the designer in his endeavour to recycle these tabs, by paying a lot of money for it!” laughs Mathur. It is this love for all things fashion and quirky that has led to this pair’s new Instagram series, In and Out of the Closet with Mini & Rick. The two sip champagne as they recycle and reuse clothes from Mathur’s wardrobe at her Lokhandwala home, to create new looks. Roy is known for styling Vidya Balan in Tumhari Sulu, and for the characters of Never Kiss Your Best Friend. Mathur, we all remember as one of the OG MTV VJs, hosting the Indian Idol and last seen in the web series, Meet The Malhotras.
Rick Roy and Mini Mathur want you to look at the old pieces in your wardrobe with new eyes. Pic/Aishwarya Deodhar. Location Courtesy/1BHK, Oshiwara
“We have been planning this for long, but managed to it only now. I wanted Rick to come and cast a fresh eye on my clothes,” says Mathur. We ask her if she has a walk-in wardrobe, and she smiles, yes. Roy adds, “It’s a very large room that is a walk-in wardrobe, everything is in order and very organised. Her sarees are colour coded! So it’s not about finding stuff for her; It’s that she has a lot of randomly bought garments and accessories, and we’re trying to create different looks from these.” Mathur explains the pressure of celebrities having to dress differently every time they step out. “But I re-wear everything. All it takes is time, patience,
and new eyes. I needed someone to tell me, pick this, that, and have a look ready.”
Mathur and Roy first met when they worked at MTV, and Roy was styling Malaika Arora for Style Check. “I had quit because I was pregnant, and the first show I did after that was the very first season of Indian Idol. I didn’t want to wear their loud embroidered costumes. I was still so MTV! So, I asked Rick to come on board. He must have been one of the first to use Benarasi fabric to make a corset, which I wore with a skirt. The Indian Idol team had back then thought it was too hot for TV.”
For this Insta series, the two want to keep it simple and hope that their audiences can take away confidence to redo their own wardrobes. “My DMs have been full after we did the saree episode. I asked why aren’t people wearing this most-comfortable outfit? I wanted it to come out funky and grunge— what would be the pin-stripe version of a saree? How would you power dress the saree? Rick said, ‘Let’s layer it’.” Roy feels that the six yard has become a costume, relegated to special occasions and festivals. “We did it [styling] in a non-preachy way, added a sleeveless shirt as choli, and a shrug.” They hope their followers will find the gumption to embrace their individuality, no matter how weird the look may seem to another. The pair urges you to reuse, thrift and hand out fashion that’s no longer working for you. Rick says, “I know this is an unpopular opinion, but clothes are just clothes. Don’t get emotionally attached to them.”
How to kickstart your wardrobe makeover
In the saree episode, Mathur wore a Raw Mango saree paired with a Cos blouse and YSL heels
Rick: Don’t hold on to things. Give them away, to friends or family. Don’t think, “Oh I will fit into this one day or that you will use it again.” Handing away what you don’t need is a nice way for your wardrobe to remain fresh.
Mini: Buy a few pieces, but good stuff. Buy classics—in blue, black and grey. Once you have classics in your wardrobe, you can reuse repeatedly by styling them with a variety of accessories.
Mini: Good stitching, good fit is a must when you buy clothes. Don’t buy different colours of a design that fits you well. That doesn’t help you evolve.
Rick: Accept your body shape and size, and dress according to it. Don’t wear a crop top if it doesn’t suit your shape. Be comfortable.
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