Indian Fashion: Tradition, Innovation, Style

225 Pages·2015·31.04 MB·English

by  Arti Sandhu

INDIAN FASHION
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INDIAN FASHION
Tradition, Innovation, Style
ARTI SANDHU
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Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway
London New York
WC1B 3DP NY 10018
UK USA
www.bloomsbury.com
Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2015
© Arti Sandhu 2015
Arti Sandhu has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be
identified as the Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from
action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the
Author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN HB: 978-18478-8780-1
PB: 978-18478-8779-5
ePDF: 978-1-4725-9084-8
ePub: 978-1-4725-9085-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vi
Preface viii
List of Illustrations x
A Note on Hindi and Indian Terms in this Book xiv
Glossary of Terms xv
1 Introduction: Indian Fashion 1
2 A Brief History of Dress, Difference and Fashion Change in
India 25
3 Contemporary Fashion Practice in Urban India 49
4 Reel to Real Life: Re-Fashioning India from Bollywood to Street 73
5 Desi-Chic: The Image and Ideals of Fashion in Indian
Magazines 101
6 Darzi to “Designer”: Crafting Couture and High-Fashion for
India 125
7 Conclusion: “Wrapping it Up” 161
Bibliography 171
Index 183
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is dedicated to my husband, Simon Holland, whose patient and selfless
support over the years made it possible to complete. Also included in this dedication are
my parents, Amrita Sandhu and Deshvir Sandhu, who never questioned my decision to
study fashion design at a time when it was a relatively new field in India. Together they
have served as devoted research assistants throughout my field research in Delhi. In
addition to diligently mailing me Indian fashion magazines across the world over many
years, Amrita Sandhu has also provided the majority of the images in Chapter 2.
Many invaluable discussions on fashion with Asha Baxi were central to the inception of
this book’s research. I am indebted to Shefalee Vasudev for sharing her deep insight on
fashion in India as well as assisting me in approaching various members within the fashion
industry. Several people generously gave their time and thoughts across numerous inter-
views and informal chats through the course of my research that have helped enrich the
content in this book. I am deeply grateful to these wonderful and dynamic fashion profes-
sionals: Yatan Ahluwalia, Aneeth Arora, Sonu Bohra and Jasleen Kaur Gupta, Meher
Castelino, Neeraj Chauhan and Alpana Mittal, Anjali Chawla, Kallol Datta, RK Deora, Anita
Dongre, Swarup Dutta, Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna, Sanjay Garg, Gaurav Gupta,
Amit Hansraj, Hemani Kashikar, Sangita Kathiwada, Vinod Kaul, Azeem Khan, Tarun
Khiwal, Heena Kochhar, Narendra Kumar, Ritu Kumar, Ritu Kumar (O’Layla), Neeta Lulla,
Gaurav Mahajan, Nida Mahmood, Manou, Rahul Mishra, Anju Modi, Pavitra Mohan, Puja
Nayyar, Nazarul, Ekta Rajani, Nihal Rajan, Rajdeep Ranawat, Wendell Rodricks, Harilein
Sabarwal, Priya Sachdev, Nitin Saxena, Mehul and Kaushik Shrimanker, Mandira Shukla,
Sujata Assomull Sippy, Geetika Srivastava, Manasi Scott, Rajiv Takru and JJ Valaya.
Additional thanks to Vineeta Nair, Savitri Ramaiah, Vinayak Razdan and Shalini Singh,
and all those who generously contributed towards the book’s images – as outlined in the
image credits. My field research in Mumbai would not have been possible without my
sister Tarana Singh’s determination, endless enthusiasm and driving skills. I would also
like to thank FDCI for allowing me access to attend Pearls Infrastructure Delhi Couture
Week (in 2010) and Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WLIFW, in 2013).
The thoughtful and thorough review notes provided by the anonymous reviewer on the
initial manuscript as well as those from earlier anonymous reviews at the proposal stage
helped strengthen the premise of the book. In addition, the text’s edits and feedback
provided by Lilian Mutsaers, Maren Nelson, Debra Parr, Shefalee Vasudev, Simon Holland
and Param Sandhu—who were subject to various stages of the book’s rough drafts—
were an invaluable and important part of its evolution. Furthermore, this project could not
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vII
have been completed without Columbia College Chicago’s faculty development grants
that funded various segments of field research and the supportive environment within
the Fashion Studies department, chaired by Debra Parr, that allowed me the time and
resources required for the preparation of the final manuscript.
Finally, I offer my deepest thanks to the publishing team at Berg and Bloomsbury,
headed by Anna Wright, for supporting this project from the very beginning and providing
me with the reassurance that helped bring it to fruition.
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PREFACE
When I began my studies in Fashion Design in 1997 at NIFT (National Institute of Fashion
Technology), New Delhi, I did so with the hope of being part of India’s then emerging
fashion and design culture. It was an exciting time to be a design student—interning with
designers, experimenting with craft techniques, seeing fashion shows unfold—especially
India’s first formal fashion week in 2000, and reflecting on what personal design philoso-
phies of an Indian designer could entail. Fashion design in those days had begun to
attract significant attention that had shifted from amusement and ridicule to more serious
appreciation. Since then, over the last two decades, the changes Indian fashion has
undergone are remarkable; not only due to the wider availability of branded fashion and
the presence of a vibrant fashion press with multiple international publications, but also
in the way Indian design has evolved towards strengthening its own unique identity that
is far from being one-dimensional. Many of my colleagues and peers from NIFT have
since gone on to realize hugely successful careers within the field of fashion—some in
the limelight as independent designers, and others through designing and managing
influential Indian and international brands. Also interesting is that as new ideologies and
articulations of design emerge, many within India’s fashion industry are now at a point to
challenge, question and reinvent the norms of what has come before.
Through its focus on contemporary fashion subsequent to India’s liberalization phase,
this book adds to the growing academic discourse on fashion in non-Western settings.
Building upon such discourse, that unpacks the nuances of fashion in India and provides
theoretical frameworks by which it can be studied, serves a crucial role of further
supporting local fashion cultures, fashion systems, design and fashionability—which for
established Western fashion centers happened much earlier over the last century. In this
book, I attempt to (ambitiously) tackle the subject of fashion in India from various angles,
and in doing so offer a broad survey ranging from fashion education, design processes
and themes, the image of fashion in fashion magazines, to the influence of films, TV and
fashion blogs on everyday clothing. Such wide scope that still leaves out various key
topics, which could not be accommodated in the framework of a single book, may disap-
point some readers. However, the need for such a broad sweep was felt due to the lack
of such material and discussions housed in one current and cohesive text. The last such
attempts were Meher Castelino’s extremely informative Fashion Kaleidoscope (1994)—
written outside of an academic framework, and Emma Tarlo’s Clothing Matters: Dress
and Identity in India (1996)—an invaluable account of the history of Indian dress during
and after the British rule, up until the early 1990s. Other texts such as Hindol Sengupta’s
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PREFACE Ix
Indian Fashion (2005) and Federico Rocca’s Contemporary Indian Fashion (2009) though
insightful on the subject of fashion designers, do not attempt to theorize their work in a
broader context. Most recently publications and books on fashion in India have slowly
begun to gain momentum, and it is heartening to note that many of these are emerging
from within India. They range from designer biographies (Wendell Rodricks’ Green Room,
Suneet Verma’s self-titled book) to the thought-provoking glimpse into the subtleties of
the Indian fashion industry in Powder Room (Vasudev 2012) by noted fashion editor and
columnist Shefalee Vasudev, as well as more frequent appearances about the subject
in academic journals, fashion readers and books such as Wilkinson-Weber’s Fashioning
Bollywood (2013). The discussions in these texts, as well as the gaps that they inevitably
leave, highlight the potential for further research within this dynamic field.
Indian Fashion is positioned to appeal to a wide audience: Primarily, as an entry level
text for fashion students interested in global fashion centers as well as Indian design
students interested in a consolidated account of fashion in India written from both an
insider’s and outsider’s perspective. In addition, it is hoped that those who are more fluent
with the field of fashion studies or familiar with India will also find this book engaging.
The book’s framework and style of writing is positioned be accessible to a broad range
of readers through clearly presented ideas logically grouped in chapters and subsections
that tackle various overarching themes, strategies and concepts that emerged during the
book’s conception and subsequent research. The research informing this book is a culmi-
nation of many years (2007–13) of formal field research and a series of focused interviews
(from 2010–13) with fashion professionals that represent various fields of fashion in
India (design, production, styling, journalism, blogging, photography and fashionistas).
Though it could be said that its process began much earlier during my years at NIFT,
and would not have been possible without the networks and connections established as
a result of that experience. As with any set of generalizations, there are exceptions, and
not all authorities will agree with the discussion in this book. It is possible that over time
some of the examples, designers, collections or scenarios mentioned in the book may
become dated, be no longer as noteworthy or change significantly going forward—such
is the nature of fashion. However the key ideas and concepts it builds upon should
undoubtedly remain valuable points of reference.
Overall, this book is intended as an accompaniment to a pivotal moment in the
trajectory of Indian fashion itself, as it reinforces its own systems, tastes, culture, termi-
nology and cycles—locally and globally. Personally it has been a rewarding journey of
discovery and reflection not only on various aspects pertaining to the specificity of fashion
within India, but also about what it means to be a locally rooted, fashionable global-desi.
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