Supriyaa Exports: Indian Latest Fashion

Saturday, 16 November 2013

Indian Latest Fashion

Fashion isn’t just about stars wearing a label on the red carpet. It’s also about that one piece in your wardrobe you have in common with your aunt and your neighbour. That iconic leitmotif in which the fashion vocabulary of a generation is written. In the past 25 years of Indian fashion,
there’ve been trends that originated on the ramp and permeated down to the local darzi. We spoke to insiders and fashion historians and came up with our list of Indian fashion’s greatest hits.

India is a country with an ancient clothing design tradition, yet an emerging fashion industry. Though a handful of designers existed prior to the 1980s, the late 80s and the 1990s saw a spurt of growth. This was the result of increasing exposure to global fashion and the economic boom after the economic liberalization of the Indian economy in 1990.

The Kurti

No matter how often they deny it, all Indian designers want to go international. But when they do, their collections differ wildly from what they show at home. Lengths, shapes and silhouettes are never the same, because what works locally usually doesn’t work in an international market. Except when it comes to the kurti. Adapted as beach wear, a barbeque party staple and termed as the ‘Indian embroidered tunic’, the kurti, which was reinvented.

The Sari

The sari is back in fashion. Not that it ever really went out. But it did get banished to the neglected recesses of women’s closets, only to be aired at weddings or formal functions. And then it came out, in a slinky, glamorous reincarnation.

The Anarkali Suit

If, a few years ago, someone had mentioned the word ‘Anarkali’ to you, your mind would have conjured up images of a beautiful Mughal courtesan. But today, what comes to mind is an inverted pomegranate-shaped silhouette that is ostensibly the Indian version of a ball gown.

Popularised by Hindi television shows, worn by every socialite on carpets of varied colours, hawked on fashion e-commerce websites as the fastest-selling item of the day, the Anarkali has moved into India’s wardrobes as a resident staple, at least for now.