JOIN USA woman’s look is not complete with just the right clothes and perfect shoes – a dash of fun-sized accessories is needed to add that finishing touch. Catering to these fashion conscious women is ‘Accessory Funk’, a start-up for handcrafted hair accessories and trinkets. Started by Radhika Bhatia in 2013, ‘Accessory Funk has’ has many satisfied customers who go gaga over the uniquely designed hair pieces.
It was at the age of 16 that Radhika started outsourcing accessories along with a friend of hers. “Like every girl, I wanted to doll myself up so I started buying a lot of accessories,” she says. But once the accessories got monotonous, she decided to design her own, at the age of 17. Here began her journey – this lack of availability of unique and refreshing accessories led her to start ‘Accessory Funk’.
She says, “The concept of ‘Accessory Funk’ was born from two aspects – the pieces that I create and the funk that I have in me. It was created with a custom girl in mind, in order to give her the experience of having something unique and personally handcrafted just for her.” Creativity with colours, her collection includes designed hair-bands, earrings, wreaths, bracelets and very recently dreamcatchers. “This also led me to design bags and clothes for my friends and family,” she adds.
Moving away from the conventional hair accessory styles, her designs have taken inspiration from nature and have colourful flowers, butterflies, leaves, feathers and more. “The USP is that it matches the expectations of the audience, is affordable and custom made,” she says. Each tiny part is handcrafted with much love and care, and this is what sets her apart from the rest. Hand selected quality materials, embellishments and vintage items add to the personalised pieces of her accessories. “It is a complete individual experience of creating a masterpiece through communication, sensitivity and professionalism,” she says.
She likes to pick up the simplest of things and transform them into something beautiful and extraordinary. Not a systematic planner, she says, “New ideas come to me when I sit down with all the raw materials.” The daily teen television dramas too form a major role in inculcating new styles in her work. “Girls who are familiar with the ‘Gossip Girl’ series will have no difficulty in recalling the stylish protagonist Blair and her friend Serena, who were famous for sporting all the latest fashion and interesting hair accessories. The two girls from the series inspired me to focus only on making hair accessories. I take utmost care of my hair and love dressing myself up all the time.”
She says her accessories cater to people who want to make a style statement, but not with their jewellery and apparels; instead with unconventional hair pieces.