Meet Yashita Dewan- a “free spirited” fashion designer and photographer from Nepal. Born and raised in Kathmandu, she went to Mumbai, India, after completing high school, to pursue her love for fashion. While studying fashion designing at Mumbai’s NIST College of Fashion, she got all the exposure she needed and apart from getting to meet heartthrobs like John Abraham, A-list stars like Deepika Padukone, Upen Patel and Jesse Randhawa walked the ramp in her creations. She always managed to come up with unique and interesting designs, scoring the highest grades in her class. Her mentors always encouraged her and lauded her efforts, giving her the confidence boost she needed to succeed in all her tasks.

Not only is she talented, but she is also blessed with good looks and she has modeled for brands such as Pepe Jeans, Ettam and Jealous 21. At big malls in Indian cities such as Mumbai and Siliguri, her image appears in posters representing those brands. Add her participation in Wills’ Lifestyle Fashion Week in New Delhi to her list of achievements. In our very own Kathmandu, she undertook a couple of projects  like modeling for ECS and Naari magazine and she has also been featured in The Himalayan Times and The City Post. Additionally, she caught the attention of some high profile people in the Nepali entertainment industry, leading her to get acting offers from the likes of Bhushan Dahal and Aastha Band (which she subsequently turned down citing personal reasons). It doesn’t end there though. There’s more to her than what she has been able to showcase, but that will be changing pretty soon.

Currently residing in Kathmandu, she definitely has a lot of plans of starting something new here. She admires Alexander McQueen for his work and her own designs are always chic and classy. While describing her personal style statement, it can be said that she’s all about keeping it simple but sleek. She is not afraid of experimenting with colors and she confesses that shoes and perfumes are her guilty pleasure. “While talking about fashion, a lot of people think that it’s all about showing skin. It’s not. There’s a fine line between being sexy and vulgar. You don’t have to show skin to be sexy”, she declares, with a look of distaste at the current fashion scene in the country. Looking at her pictures, one can easily understand what she means. Although a fashionista from head to toe, she is not at all about indecent exposure – and that’s what sets her apart from most of her contemporaries. Since she loves photography as much as she loves fashion, a lot of her pictures are self portraits and they exude innocence and beauty. It’s refreshing to see that there are people like her who stand by their ethics and values at this day and age.

This beauty with brains has all that it takes to change the fashion scene in Nepal. She assures us that we will be seeing more of her in the near future, working actively at what she does best – fashion and photography.  Her fans and well wishers are eagerly waiting to see more of her creativity. In the mean time, for those who don’t know much about her, you can check out her webpage www.fashionplate.deviantart.com .A former fashion editor for ECS Living magazine herself, you can read her article at www.living.com.np/webex_detail.php?w_id=340 .

For someone who lives and breathes fashion, she lives by the philosophy that can be summed up in Coco Chanel’s words, “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” Lastly, she is definitely someone to look out for and for all we know, she may very well turn out to be the next Prabal Gurung.