Styling South Asian Youth Cultures: Fashion, Media and Society

265 Pages·2018·34.626 MB·English

by  Reina Lewis, Lipi Begum, Rohit K. Dasgupta

Lipi Begum is Programme Leader in Fashion Management at the
WinchesterSchoolofArt,UniversityofSouthamptonandformerlecturer
inMarketingandBrandingattheLondonCollegeofFashion,Universityof
theArtsLondon.ShehasworkedasaUnitedNationsglobalconsultantfor
theready-madegarmentsectorinBangladeshandhasdevelopedfashion
educationglobally.SheisaFellowoftheRoyalSocietyofArtsandcurrently
OpenSpaceeditorfortheInternationalJournalofFashionStudies(Intellect).
Rohit K. Dasgupta is a lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies at the
InstituteforMediaandCreativeIndustries,LoughboroughUniversity.He
istheco-editorofFriendshipasSocialJusticeActivism:CriticalSolidaritiesinaGlobal
Perspective(2017);RituparnoGhosh:Cinema,GenderandArt(2015)andMasculinity
anditsChallengesinIndia(2014).Mostrecentlyhewastheleadinvestigatoron
the Wellcome TrustUKfundedproject ‘Mobile-ising for Sexual Health’.
ReinaLewisisProfessorofCulturalStudiesatLondonCollegeofFashion,
University of the Arts London. Her books include: Muslim Fashion:
Contemporary Style Cultures (2015); Rethinking Orientalism: Women, Travel and the
Ottoman Harem (2004); Gendering Orientalism: Race, Femininity and Representation
(1996). Edited volumes include: Modest Fashion: Styling Bodies, Mediating
Faith (2013); Gender, Modernity and Liberty: Middle Eastern and Western Women's
Writings: A Critical Reader (with Nancy Micklewright 2006); Feminist
Postcolonial Theory: AReader(with Sara Mills 2003); Outlooks: Lesbianand Gay
VisualCultures(withPeterHorne1996).ReinaLewisco-editstwobooks
series: Dress Cultures with Elizabeth Wilson; and Cultures in Dialogue
with Teresa Heffernan.
‘This is a very much needed collection with a great range of highly
original ethnography and a helpful spread across the region ... The
material is fascinating and ready to be picked up by comparativists
working in China, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and so on.’
– Caroline Osella, SOAS, University of London
SeriesEditors:ReinaLewis&ElizabethWilson
AdvisoryBoard:ChristopherBreward,HazelClark,JoanneEntwistle,
CarolineEvans,SusanKaiser,AngelaMcRobbie,HiroshiNarumi,
€
PeterMcNeil,OzlemSandikci,SimonaSegreReinach
Dress Cultures aims to foster innovative theoretical and methodological frameworks
to understand how and why we dress, exploring the connections between clothing,
commerceandcreativityinglobalcontexts.
Publishedandforthcoming:
BrandingFashion:BridgingtheSelfandthe NicheFashionMagazines:ChangingtheShapeof
SocialConsumer Fashion
byAnthonySullivan byAneLynge-Jorle(cid:2)n
Delft Blue to Denim Blue: Contemporary Dutch Sinophilia: Fashion, Western Modernity and
Fashion ThingsChineseafter1900
editedbyAnnekeSmelik bySarahCheang
DressingforAusterity:Aspiration,Leisure Styling South Asian Youth Cultures: Fashion,
andFashioninPostwarBritain MediaandSociety
byGeraldineBiddle-Perry editedbyLipiBegum,RohitK.
ExperimentalFashion:PerformanceArt, DasguptaandReinaLewis
CarnivalandtheGrotesqueBody
Thinking Through Fashion: A Guide to Key
byFrancescaGranata
Theorists
Fashion in European Art: Dress and Identity, editedbyAgne(cid:3)sRocamora
PoliticsandtheBody,1775–1925 andAnnekeSmelik
editedbyJustineDeYoung
Veiling in Fashion: Space and the Hijab in
FashioninMultipleChinas:ChineseStyles MinorityCommunities
intheTransglobalLandscape byAnna-MariAlmila
editedbyWessieLingandSimona
Wearing the Cheongsam: Dress and Culture in a
SegreReinach
ChineseDiaspora
FashioningIndie:PopularFashion,Music
ByCherylSim
andGender
byRachelLifter Wearing the Niqab: Fashioning Identities among
MuslimWomenintheUK
ModestFashion:StylingBodies,MediatingFaith
byAnnaPiela
editedbyReinaLewis
ReinaLewis:[email protected]
ElizabethWilson:[email protected]
Atthepublisher,PhilippaBrewster:[email protected]
Styling
South
Asian
Youth
Cultures
Fashion, Media & Society
edited by
Lipi Begum, Rohit K. Dasgupta and
Reina Lewis
Publishedin2018by
I.B.Tauris&Co.Ltd
London(cid:129)NewYork
www.ibtauris.com
CopyrightEditorialSelectionq2018LipiBegum,RohitK.Dasgupta,ReinaLewis
CopyrightIndividualChaptersq2018KaustavBakshi,LipiBegum,RohitK.Dasgupta,
SunilGupta,SandyaHewamanne,RaisaKabir,SnehaKrishnan,TerezaKuldova,ReinaLewis,
ArtiSandhu,SarahShepherd-Manandhar,CharanSingh,PaulStrickland,PriyaSwamy
TherightofLipiBegum,RohitK.DasguptaandReinaLewistobeidentifiedastheeditors
ofthisworkhasbeenassertedbytheeditorsinaccordancewiththeCopyright,
DesignsandPatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview,thisbook,oranypart
thereof,maynotbereproduced,storedinorintroducedintoaretrievalsystem,
ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,
recordingorotherwise,withoutthepriorwrittenpermissionofthepublisher.
Everyattempthasbeenmadetogainpermissionfortheuseoftheimages
inthisbook.Anyomissionswillberectifiedinfutureeditions.
Referencestowebsiteswerecorrectatthetimeofwriting.
DressCultures
ISBN:9781784539177
eISBN:9781786725622
ePDF:9781786735621
AfullCIPrecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
AfullCIPrecordisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress
LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:available
TypesetinJoannaMTbyOKSPrepressServices,Chennai,India
PrintedandboundbyCPIGroup(UK)Ltd,Croydon,CR04YY
CONTENTS
List of Images vii
List of Plates ix
Contributor Notes xi
Acknowledgements xv
Style, Fashion and Media in South Asian Youth Cultures 1
Lipi Begum, Rohit K. Dasgupta and Reina Lewis
1. Street Style vs. Style on the Street?: Two Interpretations
of Indian Street Fashion 30
Arti Sandhu
2. Style-ish Girls and Local Boys: Young Women and
Fashion in Chennai 49
Sneha Krishnan
3. Rituparno Ghosh, Sartorial Codes and the Queer
Bengali Youth 65
Rohit K. Dasgupta and Kaustav Bakshi
4. In/Visible Space: Reflections on the Realm of Dimensional
Affect, Space and the Queer Racialised Self 86
Raisa Kabir in conversation with Lipi Begum and Rohit K. Dasgupta
5. Faces of Subversion: Queer Looks of India 96
Sunil Gupta and Charan Singh
6. Designing for ‘Zippies’ and the Madness of Bhootsavaar:
On Commercially Inflected Artistic Nationalism and
Branded ‘Subcultures’ 102
Tereza Kuldova
vi STYLINGSOUTHASIANYOUTHCULTURES
7. Trouser Wearing Women: Changing Landscape of Fashion
among Free Trade Zone Factory Workers and Contemporary
Political Tensions in Sri Lanka 124
Sandya Hewamanne
8. Changing Fashions of Bhutanese Youth: Impacts on Cultural
and Individual Identity 146
Paul Strickland
9. Matching Clothes and Matching Couples: The Role of
Dress in Arranged Marriages in Kathmandu 165
Sarah Shepherd-Manandhar
10. ‘Of Course It’s Beautiful, but I can’t Wear It!’: Constructions
of Hindu Style among Young Hindustani Women
in Amsterdam 183
Priya Swamy
11. Bras are not for Burning: The Bra and Young Urban
Women in Delhi and Bombay 202
Lipi Begum
Index 223
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1 Camel traders wearing their traditional attire at the
annual cattle fair in Pushkar. From the blog post titled Camel
Traders of Rajasthan, 11 August 2014, wearabout.wordpress.com.
Image courtesy of Manou. 39
Figure 1.2 Fashion designer Anand Kabra on Day 2 of
Lakme(cid:2) India Fashion Week 2010, wearing a T-shirt from
Topman, shirt from CK Jeans, self-designed waistcoat and
pants from Fabindia. From a blog post dated 9 March 2010,
wearabout.wordpress.com. Image courtesy of Manou. 44
Figure 3.1 Rituparno Ghosh playing Rudra in Chitrangada
(2012). Image courtesy of Shri Venkatesh Films. 74
Figure 3.2 Rituparno at Kolkata Fashion Week 2009.
Image courtesy of Abhishek Datta. 78
Figure 3.3 Rituparno with actress Deepti Naval in Memories
in March (2012). Image courtesy of Shri Venkatesh Films. 80
Figure 6.1 Kalki Koechlin for Hello India, 27 May 2015.
Image courtesy of Hello India. 107
Figure 6.2 Nitin Bal Chauhan, New Delhi, 2012.
Image courtesy of Arash Taheri. 110
Figure 6.3 Rishi Raj, a stylist, Bhootsaavar, 2013, Crescent Mall.
Image courtesy of Nitin Bal Chauhan. 115
Figure 6.4 Ritika Singh, a singer, Bhootsavaar, 2013,
Crescent Mall. Image courtesy of Nitin Bal Chauhan. 117
viii STYLINGSOUTHASIANYOUTHCULTURES
Figure 8.1 Foreign road workers in Bhutan, 2016. Image
courtesy of Paul Strickland. 148
Figure 8.2 Western influence on youth fashion: dressed
for going out at the weekend, 2016. Image courtesy
of Paul Strickland. 150
Figure 8.3 His Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and
Queen Jetsun Pema, 2011. Image courtesy of Yeewong Magazine. 152
LIST OF PLATES
Plate1Sita,RaisaKabir,2014.35mmfilm,typeCprints,papermontage,
64 cm£45 cm, from the series (In)visible Space. Courtesy of Raisa Kabir.
Plate 2 Ungendering Prayer, Raisa Kabir, 2014. 35mm film, type C prints,
papermontage,64cm£45cm,fromtheseries(In)visibleSpace.Courtesy
of Raisa Kabir.
Plate 3 Maryam, Raisa Kabir, 2014. 35mm film, type C prints, paper
montage, 64 cm£45 cm, from the series (In)visible Space. Courtesy of
Raisa Kabir.
Plate4 Girl inHijab, Raisa Kabir, 2014. 35mm film, typeC prints, paper
montage, 64 cm£45 cm, from the series (In)visible Space. Courtesy of
Raisa Kabir.
Plate 5 Nikita, Raisa Kabir, 2014. 35mm film, type C prints, paper
montage, 64 cm£45 cm, from the series (In)visible Space. Courtesy of
Raisa Kabir.
Plate 6 Raju, Raisa Kabir, 2014. 35mm film, type C prints, paper
montage, 64 cm£45 cm, from the series (In)visible Space. Courtesy of
Raisa Kabir.
Plate 7 Raju detail, Raisa Kabir, 2014. 35mm film, type C prints, paper
montage, 64 cm£45 cm, from the series (In)visible Space. Courtesy of
Raisa Kabir.
Plate8Yasmin/GirlwithHijabdetail,RaisaKabir,2014.35mmfilm,typeC
prints, paper montage, 64 cm£45 cm, from the series (In)visible Space.
Courtesy of Raisa Kabir.