Rhea Gupte of FUSS: Model turned blogger shares her story

By Amrita Paul, SheThePeople.TV

For model Rhea Gupte her fashion blog, FUSS, is an extension of her personality and her aesthetic inclinations and abilities. One quick visit to her website, and one cannot help being enamoured by the photos, often commissioned by reputed fashion brands, which are shot across various picturesque locales in Goa, where Rhea is currently based out of. There is an air of mystique and a sense of nonchalance which do not give out how meticulously planned and executed the photographs actually are.

Rhea says, “I started blogging just as hobby and to have a place to put down my thoughts about fashion and personal style. I started FUSS with a very clear intention of working on it full-time and dedicatedly as a space to share my creative projects, personal style and also to have an online portfolio.”

work on something you are passionate about

The concept, styling, modelling, editing, creative direction for most of the shoots is done by Rhea. And juggling it all comes quite naturally to her as she prepares a lot before starting on a project.

“The location, the styling, the mood, the concept, these are things that first come to mind. It is then helping the photographer I am working with understand that vision. And then collaborating on the day of the shoot with the photographer as a model and also directing in terms of the frames I want to capture. I work with very talented photographers and I am happy to take their inputs, I never shy away from trying something that pops into their mind too apart from the fixed set of things I definitely want to do. When I am editing the pictures, I just take all the pictures and look through them for three four days and keep condensing the set to my favorites. Photo selection to me is the most important step as it represents all the hard work done and that representation should be the best. Post that I compose the images the way I want them to be presented on the blog and also write about it. So it is a very planned and organised process. I really enjoy every part of it and so it doesn't seem difficult to manage at all,” she adds.

For Rhea, the idea behind starting a blog was never to aspire for some sort of popularity. Instead she wanted to keep creating content that she would be proud of. And within 7-8 months of starting her blog, big brands started knocking on her door. But, till today, her blog isn’t merely a business venture as it is very close to her heart.

starting a blog was never to aspire for some sort of popularity

She says, “I am confident about my abilities and I can see them grow and improve, which makes me very happy. However, I am extremely critical of my work. I am always looking for ways to improve, to do things better, to streamline processes, make the aesthetic stronger. I don't understand the concept of feeling like you have 'made it'. I feel there is so much to do, so much to improve on. No matter what level I reach, there will always be more to learn and more to make. Improving is very important to me so I don't think I will ever feel like I have made it.”

Rhea, hopes that in the next five years, she should have “gained a lot more knowledge, read a massive number of books, traveled to a lot many places, gotten at least five times better at what I do, if not more.”

And her advice to aspiring fashion bloggers would simply be to work on something they are passionate about. She says, “Make your blog your own. Know what your strengths are and convert your own strengths into your business rather than following a pattern bloggers have already created. All blogs don't need to be the same and yours can be anything you want it to be.”