By Gissy Michael
The tenth in our series on why women wear what they wear to work. Read parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine.
I live a very uncomplicated life. I go to work, I travel, I meet new people, I unwind when I have the time to, and I’m not married. You don’t spend a lot of time wanting when you’re quite satisfied with life. My life is very comfortable, as is my dress sense.
I’m a very basic dresser. Being a sound artist on the sets of movies requires functionality in movement, which is I how I dress. My usual clothes consist of shirts, jeans, shorts and comfortable shoes. Shoes are the one thing I really care about — about finding something in my size that is also comfortable. Navigating through the maze of wires on the floor is a pain, so shoes are quite important.
The one thing I love the most about my work is the travel. I’ve been doing it for almost 20 years, and I love being on the move. Some days I’m in one city and then within a few hours I’m in another. I keep my packing light and again stick to the basics. I pack accordingly to the climate too. One time, we’d gone to Lahore to shoot a couple of scenes for some movies, and this was in winter, really early in the morning. I had packed almost five layers of clothing against other peoples’ two layers, because I can’t stand the cold, being from Kerala and having lived in Mumbai. I seldom do ethnic wear; I used to wear salwaars in college, but after that, I stopped wearing them because I was most comfortable in my shorts and shirts. I barely accessorise either.
Earlier, I used to get a lot of comments from friends and family for the way I dressed, simply because I didn’t dress up much. They’d buy me dresses and make me try them on and I’d wear them for a day, but after that I’d run back to things that I was more comfortable in.
One thing that does give me some trouble from time to time is my hair. I have really curly, bushy hair. When I head back to Kerala to visit family and friends, they often still tease me about it. I’ve honestly just given up on my hair — I always tie it up when I work and let it be when I’m not working. It’s been a really long time since I used a comb. I don’t even own one.