Styling South Asian Youth Cultures

Fashion, Media and Society

Lipi Begum, Rohit K. Dasgupta, Reina Lewis

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781838609177
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Fashion Design

For South Asia, fashion and consumption have come to play an increasingly important role in the lives of young people and in the formation of youth cultures. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have all, in related and distinctive ways, been producing confident young fashion consumers, who are proving to be an important market for fashion.This book explores South Asian youth cultures and fashion across the countries of this region and their diasporas from a transnational perspective. Through visual and textual analysis of film, photography and digital cultures, as well as ethnographic fieldwork, the expert contributors look at how gender, sexuality, class, the media and faith intersect with and style youth cultures. By establishing the heterogeneous nature of South Asia and its youth cultures, they also dismantle grand western narratives that tend to understand the region's diverse cultural modernity through the lens of homogeneity.

1

STREET STYLE VS. STYLE
ON THE STREET?

Two Interpretations of Indian Street Fashion

Arti Sandhu

In 2013, while conducting field research on Indian fashion and designers in New Delhi I had the opportunity to attend Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week¹ (WLIFW S/S 2014, October 2013). The venue for this bi-annual fashion event was the expansive exhibition and convention centre Pragati Maidan. In spite of its central location – accessible by arterial main roads [sic] and various means of public transport – Pragati Maidan suffers from traffic congestion and general infrastructural issues that are characteristic of all urban centres in India.

Despite being aware of the platform India fashion week would offer for showing off trendy and experimental fashion, my personal style choices ended up in the fairly practical and understated realm. This was due to the fact that I had decided to make use of the Delhi Metro to commute to and from the venue, and hence needed to dress suitably for public transport and the transition from public to private space and vice-versa. Navigating several traffic crossings in South Delhi without any sidewalk access, pedestrian crossings or designated traffic signals, along with ongoing construction sites all around, further affirmed the appropriateness of my clothing choices. However, on seeing a number of women belonging to the labouring classes working on these construction sites – lifting bricks, shifting rubble, mixing concrete – dressed in once vibrant but now dusty ghaghras and short cholis, wearing flimsy rubber chappals on their weathered feet that were adorned with dull silver payals, I could not help but reflect on my own discomfort in wearing a more flamboyant ensemble in a similar public street setting.

Immediately outside WLIFW’s venue at the entry ticket counters a nervous group of young fashion bloggers giggled and chatted about the styles of well-known fashion personalities – models, fashion editors and designers – as they hastily walked past. This group of mostly female bloggers openly spoke about their own hopes of being ‘spotted’ by other more prominent fashion bloggers, journalists and ‘street style’ photographers based on what they had chosen to wear that day.

Once inside, the transformation from Delhi’s heat, dust, traffic, and unruly and uneven streets to a place where one could realise one’s potential for taking fashion risks was instantly noticeable. Notable fashionistas hung about designer stalls, eating at Delhi Smoke House Grill’s makeshift cafe, sampling coffee and doughnuts at the newly launched Dunkin’ Donuts stall, while at the same time regularly taking selfies and posing for photographers in these spaces or during their ‘ciggie’ breaks outside the main hall. The queues for the back-to-back runway shows additionally presented a new assortment of fashionable industry professionals and guests each day, many of whom had made the effort to style themselves in accordance to the designer show they were waiting to attend.

The overall styles worn at WLIFW were a stark contrast to the basic everyday clothing worn by the urban classes in public spaces such as at metro stations and local markets. At WLIFW neon see-through Louis Vuitton bags, Zara skorts, men in skirts and lungis, Péro designer saris worn in interesting drapes, Kallol Datta’s amorphous dresses, Oxford shoes, Cambridge satchels, kedia tops, jodhpur pants, colorful stockings, tribal jewellery, and copious layers of draped scarves were all the norm.

INTRODUCTION

The vignette above highlights how certain protocols emanating from established fashion capitals are now universal norms of a globalised fashion industry. In addition to designer runway shows, personal style statements by fashion enthusiasts and industry professionals en route to catwalk shows – classified as contemporary ‘street style’ – not only garner significant media attention in London and Paris, but also in non-western fashion centres and at events such as New Delhi’s bi-annual fashion week.

The central aim of this chapter is to investigate the concept of street style as it relates to contemporary Indian dress and fashion, and the different interpretations that can be drawn while examining this phenomenon within India. In doing so, the chapter first examines the aforementioned displays of personal fashion that occur off the actual street at fashion weeks and other fashion related events by cosmopolitan Indians belonging to the upper middle and elite classes.² Here the discussion not only highlights how these sartorial displays align with the parameters of contemporary global street style, but also how such localised interpretations allow for the establishment and assertion of a unique Indian fashion identity. Following from this, the chapter offers another interpretation that can be made when one studies the clothing worn by those belonging to lower or labouring classes and rural communities that inhabit India’s real streetscapes. Such instances of unstaged and unintended style on the street are often considered more authentic representations of Indian street style or fashion by local designers and industry professionals, which points to the constructed and contested classification of the term. Taken together, both interpretations highlight the resurgence of orientalist viewpoints in the way fashion is designed and visually promoted on blogs and fashion magazines (Sandhu 2014) – all of which invariably leads to the othering of a significant portion of India.

INDIA’S GLOBAL DESI STREET STYLE

A survey of personal style statements at India fashion week as well as those documented on blogs like Manou’s wearabout, Santu Misra’s devil wore and on the pages of various Indian editions of international fashion magazines like Elle, Vogue, and Marie Claire³ points to the first interpretation of the term ‘street style’ that can be made in the context of India. Usually comprising quirky and experimental ensembles worn by trendy upper-middle-class or elite Indians, such street style can be observed at art fairs, literary festivals and other fashion events, featured on personal blogs, or reserved solely for display at exclusive private parties (Tewari 2014).⁴

The format of these sartorial presentations bears semblance to the display of personal style by well-known fashion personalities and industry professionals in western fashion capitals like London and New York. Made popular by its documentation by equally hip photographers like Scott Schuman for the blog Sartorialist, for example, this type of street style is a marked shift from earlier linkages to subcultural style statements that were more obviously about resistance to dominant culture (Evans 1997). Rocamora and O’Neill (2008) note how displays of contemporary street fashion and its documentation are now extremely commonplace, where interestingly

not only do [fashion] journalists offer selective definitions of the fashionable city subject, but they simultaneously construct and define their own roles. Although concessions are made to the creative style and the authorship of the people, readers are reminded that true expertise remains the attribute of fashion journalists.

(Rocamora and O’Neill 2008: 194)

There is also a shift away from the representation of ‘the people, the real and the street’, as ‘[t]he figures they depict are far from ordinary … while the settings are confined to fashionable districts’ (Rocamora and O’Neill 2008: 195–196).

The general pattern and composition of this interpretation of Indian street style follow aforementioned formats emanating from western fashion centres. This is firstly evident in the style of documentation by fashion journalists and photographers using ‘straight-up shots’ (Rocamora and O’Neill 2008) with emphasis on highlighting the juxtaposition of various garments and brands, along with a list of items (purchases) worn. Through these images the journalist’s role is elevated as an arbitrator of good taste and style. This type of street style also lies firmly in the domain of those who have adequate fashion pedigree, hailing from India’s elite or upper middle classes, or have aspirations to the same.

Other similarities are evident in the way these cosmopolitan style statements juxtapose international high-street brands – such as Zara and Forever 21 that are recent entrants into the Indian market – with thrifted [sic] items or edgy pieces from emerging local designers. The general lack of elaborate Indian traditional couture garments in contrast to the predominance of high-street branded clothing does not disqualify these personal style statements from being worthy of recognition from the leading fashion magazines I mention above. This is because of the cultural capital associated with many of these brands, which in some cases has accumulated over a number of years even prior to their availability in the Indian market, as well as due to the fact that they retail at price points (and locations) that are accessible only to upper-middle-class and elite shoppers.

Another key point of difference is that most of these displays occur completely off-the-street. This can be attributed to the chaotic and congested nature of Indian streetscapes⁵ and the absence of prestigious shopping districts such as Avenue Montaigne in Paris or Fifth Avenue in New York. In addition, a significant portion of India’s elite can afford to lead lives out of view of the wider population of India – in that they reside in gated communities, shop in exclusive malls, and socialise in clubs, bars, hotels, etc. that restrict general public entry.

Despite being closeted, highly curated and off-the-street, the medium and label of ‘street style’ is an exciting platform for sartorial self-expression for urban fashionistas in a post-liberalised era – a time period that has witnessed significant socio-cultural and economic shifts as a result of the financial reforms initiated in the 1990s by the Indian government. These reforms directly led to the rise of an increasingly globalised and cosmopolitan elite and middle class, who are now in a position to lead lifestyles on a par with many of their global counterparts. Understandably, this also had implications for fashionable dress in urban centres – where we see greater acceptance of western clothing as well as easy availability of global brands alongside Indian designer wear. The boom experienced within Indian fashion retail in recent years as well as the rise of a local fashion design industry has meant that New Delhi and Mumbai are now counted amongst the world’s top global fashion cities (Global Language Monitor 2014). Also impacting fashion and strategies of self- and collective-fashioning amongst the urban classes is the overall sense of positivity experienced as a result of India’s economic gains that have led to a sharp rise in patterns of conspicuous consumption. The mushrooming of numerous shopping malls, private clubs, luxury resorts, etc., in all major urban centres alongside online formats of fashion blogging further aid the consumption and display of material possessions including fashion goods, and have led to a significant change in the way fashion is worn and performed in urban settings. The overall shift away from India’s older nationalist ideals that emphasised austerity has also meant that there are now fewer stigmas attached to openly showing off material possessions and related lifestyles. In tandem with these attitudinal changes, all forms of visual media actively promote idealised constructions of upper-class lifestyles where luxury products, designer and branded items are seen as markers of success.

While there is much criticism within India from various social commentators about this shift in mentality and the general public image it has created, Fernandes notes that a distinctive feature of India’s prospering urban classes (in particular, those she and popular media platforms refer to as the ‘new’ middle class)⁶ is their position as a ‘new class’ of entrepreneurs ‘who are potential leaders of the Indian nation with a new global outlook’ (Fernandes 2000: 92). This is evident in the way all forms of visual and print media openly celebrate their individual achievements and collective contributions towards the nation’s economic success. Fernandes sees this group additionally charged with the role of cultural mediation between India and the rest of the world, which hinges on their ability to

negotiate India’s new relationship with the global economy in both cultural and economic terms; in cultural terms by defining a new cultural standard that rests on the socio symbolic practices of commodity consumption, and in economic terms as the beneficiaries of the material benefits of jobs in India’s ‘new economy’.

(Fernandes 2000: 91)

This results in the culmination of the very popular media construction dubbed the global Indian or global desi – an idealised representation of cosmopolitan Indianness that many urban Indians can relate to and aspire to (Sandhu 2014).

Most media publications tend to portray the global desi as the ‘ideal Indian consumer who is young, hip, and conscious of his or her sense of locality and simultaneously aware of global trends, while being socially mobile and financially able to indulge in them’ (Sandhu 2014: 106). This is immediately noticeable in the way street style is performed and documented, as today’s fashionable global desis’ individual fashion statements are indicative of their acquired fashion capital and cosmopolitanism, either as a result of their social standing combined with experiences of travelling overseas, styling for magazines and blogs, etc., or their aspiration for these lifestyle markers.

Fashion for the global desi as promoted by leading fashion magazines is characterised by a heightened interplay between local and global trends, designer brands, and dress practices. This confluence, which is a natural outcome of contemporary globalisation and can be observed in other non-western centres (Jones and Leshkowich 2003), is more complex and multi-layered than a simple case of ‘East meets West’ or westernisation of Indian clothing; especially as liberalisation brought with it a renewed sense of anxiety about the preservation of Indian identity in the wake of global influences (Sandhu 2014), which I discuss in a little more detail later in this chapter. The heightened emphasis on class, status, and the consumption and display of material goods means that branded high-street and designer clothing and accessories that are now available in India take on extra prominence in the performance of global desi street style. A point of difference, which I have already mentioned, is that while leading examples of western street style as promoted by the global fashion pre...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Images
• List of Plates
• Contributor Notes
• Acknowledgements
• Style, Fashion and Media in South Asian Youth Cultures
• 1. Street Style vs. Style on the Street?: Two Interpretations of Indian Street Fashion
• 2. Style-ish Girls and Local Boys: Young Women and Fashion in Chennai
• 3. Rituparno Ghosh, Sartorial Codes and the Queer Bengali Youth
• 4. In/Visible Space: Reflections on the Realm of Dimensional Affect, Space and the Queer Racialised Self
• 5. Faces of Subversion: Queer Looks of India
• 6. Designing for ‘Zippies’ and the Madness of Bhootsavaar:On Commercially Inflected Artistic Nationalism and Branded ‘Subcultures’
• 7. Trouser Wearing Women: Changing Landscape of Fashion among Free Trade Zone Factory Workers and Contemporary Political Tensions in Sri Lanka
• 8. Changing Fashions of Bhutanese Youth: Impacts on Cultural and Individual Identity
• 9. Matching Clothes and Matching Couples: The Role of Dress in Arranged Marriages in Kathmandu
• 10. ‘Of Course It’s Beautiful, but I can’t Wear It!‘: Constructions of Hindu Style among Young Hindustani Women in Amsterdam
• 11. Bras are not for Burning: The Bra and Young Urban Women in Delhi and Bombay