“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” Oscar Wilde
Komal Pandey, one of “the social media’s hottest content creators” as described by Hindustan Times, is a blogger, a YouTuber, a model, and a fashion influencer. Fashion blogging is considered to be documenting one’s own style and not just modeling, according to Komal.
Being a topper in school, she joined Bhagat Singh Delhi University and took Bcom for college. During her college days, Komal was after a guy who was not much interested in her. The four-year-long relationship broke, making her desperate and devastated. Falling and failing in love, she failed in her last semester of the course too. It was a loss of a year.
Converting the pain and passion she had put into a relationship, to her true passion made a striking success in her life. At that time of moving on, she took a few steps toward her dream of doing something in the fashion or media industry. Fashion was something that made her happy. Coming from a middle-class family, entering the fashion world was very much out of the box and making money out of a career that does pay off regularly, was rather strange. Despite all these concerns, the 20-year-old Komal started her blog and started ‘Instagramming.’ Kick-starting the ‘alienated’ career, her blog named ‘The College Couture’ looked toward recycling fashion. It is about reusable and affordable fashion. She states that repeating clothes is perfectly okay.
Within six months, her Instagram account had 55,000 followers. Komal got an offer to make a video for PopXo. Working with the organization for nearly two years, she made several videos and learned much from them. Without letting go of the opportunity that gave her a boost, she resigned from her job of making videos for another company and started to do things for herself which made her happier. Komal became a full-time content creator and collaborated with a lot of brands and earned much from being her boss. After some time, she joined another organization but later left that too.
Two years back, she started a video series titled ‘Fashion Therapy’ where she was taking up old clothes and styled them in many extraordinary ways. Conceptualizing such interesting ideas, she stands bold in her unconventional style.
She has shared her weight loss journey on YouTube which reveals herself to be too thin once, putting on weight later and then losing it in a moderate, impressive body condition. Komal did face bullying during her school days and her family too was very concerned about her weight at once.
Komal Pandey makes high-quality stuff as she is very passionate about her profession. Moving from one another platform to work, she always wanted to go for the next best. Komal also moved out alone and considered it to be the greatest part of adulting. Her style stands out from the ‘normal’ and is not something that appeals to everybody type. Sonam Kapoor had revealed that Komal Pandey’s account is one of the fashion accounts in India that she loves to follow.
The influencer was criticized for her fake positivism and body positivism. She was ‘alleged’ to lose her glow and look fake. Komal had posted a video saying that “Even if you’re not hurling abuses, it’s not a nice thing to do.” She asks to keep opinions inside one’s pocket. Any comment that disagrees with her seems to be titled unsolicited, as pointed out in the criticism. She has tagged a plastic influencer for following extreme diets and proving to be a wrong model with her words against hers itself. She titles herself to be someone with a body-positive attitude but strives to fit the so-called appearance expected from girls. The fight against body shaming and such practices goes in contradiction, which is pointed out and roasted.
In a video covering “What I eat in a day”, she states that no dairy products are consumed by her. Whereas in another video collaboration, she says that Ghee is more healthy than any other oil. Here, the double standard gets a slash on social media. Many nutritionists had also given reviews on her eating routine video with mixed feedback.
People said that she had lip surgery and got her cheeks lifted in aplastic surgery. Komal Pandey did come up with a video in reply to these getting spread but was not accepted well.
A video posted a year ago intended to normalize showing skin. Exposing skin is popularly called sexy or bold; which is slapped here in her one-minute video showing her in different outfits, with her skin exposed. This too was shamed saying that the purpose of clothes is to cover one’s body.
She is always criticized for not having a ‘proper’ fashion sense and not featuring wearable fashion. She is slut shamed for having caky makeup which is considered too much, by her audience. A complaint that comes up is regarding her irrelative content. It could be that her stuff doesn’t suit every body type. Komal was once challenged by one of her followers to make an outfit from a garbage bag. She took up the challenge and gave a strong reply by posting pictures dressed up in the costume designed from the trash bags and made into Haute couture.
Komal Pandey continues to be a brave fashion influencer though she is always shamed for her body, shape, and style. She has shared her journey on social media from 2015 to 2019 which shows the growth of her “weird fashion.” She doesn’t get down with all criticism that happens around her but continues to share her content with courageous creativity. Her Instagram pictures embrace both a classy casual look and heavy ethnic wear combined. She fits into any style so well.
Styling summer dresses in the most effective manner, she portrayed 6 ways for the same. Following current trends, a JaveRun with her niche was done perfectly. Highly creative stuff like Marilyn Monroe wearing a saree and outfits according to IPL team colors reached many.
Siddharth Bhatra, her boyfriend, is a great supporter and uploads videos on his channel featuring her. Hitting one million followers last year, the story which showed her crying out of joy proves their success in her pathway. Every single tip from wearing a saree when there’s no matching blouse to looking sexy without short clothes, her content is always varied.
