occupation: trainer for sexual health advisors

residence: west london, united kingdom

i started collecting in an unusual way.

i was walking through selfridges’ toy section in 1992, i saw a doll and i just froze. she was beautiful! she was the empress bride by bob mackie. i had a heart attack when i saw the price tag was a few hundred pounds. like any self respecting indian, i decided i could make one cheaper at home. all I needed was a barbie doll, some fabric and beads.

and thus began my customising and creating fashions for a fashion doll.

i soon discovered there were other people who liked barbie dolls in the world, there were collectors, there were conventions and other crazy people who were attempting to go blind by beading little dresses.

when i saw there were many other one-of-a-kind doll artists in the world, i needed to find a niche and at that time, not many people were creating indian, arabic, african or tribal inspired dolls, so i did.

i had trained as a fashion designer and when my career took a different path, this became a way of unleashing all my creative energy. when I used to design for real people, they often screamed when i accidentally stuck a pin in them. barbie and ken have no such issues.