Akshay Tyagi

Photo: Harsh Kamat

Akshay Tyagi is a fashion stylist, costume designer and creative consultant based in Mumbai.

 

A celebrity fashion stylist and costume designer based out of Mumbai, Akshay is no stranger to the world of clothing and design. A fashion and textile graduate of Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Akshay’s work is exceptionally diverse, ranging from creating hundreds of costume pieces for successful Bollywood films like Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui, Maharshi, and Sheer Qorma to styling the leading celebrities on and off the red carpet in global brands, whilst also conceptualizing innovative & exploratory successfully published fashion editorials. Throughout, he is committed to constantly questioning and imbibing his own cross-cultural influences and dynamics, between the West and East, in both design and cultural histories.

When styling, Akshay’s dynamism and desire to take risks has made his work a consistent presence across hundreds of advertisements, editorials and brand campaigns. When creating for films, Akshay’s meticulousness results in costumes that marry an actor’s personality to their characters, facilitating the unique demands of the Indian film industry with its exceptionally high regard for celebrity status. Having worked for over a decade between Bollywood and Tollywood, he has collaborated on over 25 feature films and several short format projects. Some of his recent highlights include curating the wardrobe for India’s leading drag artiste Rani KoHEnur for the internationally televised show ‘Queen of The Universe’ and RuPaul’s DragCon, dressing leading actress Pooja Hegde and Mouni Roy for the Cannes Film Festival, and creating custom outfits for drag artiste BomBae on ‘Canada’s Drag Race’ third season. His latest project ‘The Night Manager’ was the most viewed OTT Series in 2023.

His work has been featured globally in print and online at Vogue India, Vogue Italia, Lifestyle Asia, Architectural Digest, Casa Vogue, Travel + Leisure India and Design Milk, to name a few. He has constantly contributed to Hindustan Times, The Established, Femina, India Today, Mint Lounge, The Voice of Fashion amongst many others. He has collaborated with global brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior, Gucci, and Zegna, and closely worked with designers like Sabyasachi, Gaurav Gupta, Rahul Mishra & Suket Dhir to name a few. Most recently, he was invited to be a panelist at Harvard Business School for their India Conference. 

His list of celebrity clients is vast, and includes, the late Irrfan Khan, Varun Dhawan, Naseerudin Shah, Rajkummar Rao, Hrithik Roshan, Sidharth Malhotra, Ajay Devgn, Mahesh Babu, Aditya Roy Kapur, Allu Arjun, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Sobhita Dhulipala, Tara Sutaria, Kiara Advani, Diana Penty, Kriti Kharbanda, Nimrat Kaur, Lilette Dubey, Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone, and Priyanka Chopra. 

Simultaneously, Akshay has embarked upon a few personal ventures, ‘First Five Steps’, a consultancy focused on promoting both internal and external sustainability practices and has co-founded a recently launched curated, community-driven lifestyle brand ‘Happiness Within’, having designed products to bring more awareness to finding and sharing joy. He has been happily partnered for over 5 years and has 3 cats whom they both love dearly.