“Indian Fashion Geeks”

         

What is ‘Fashion’?

Is it a typical trend or style that has been going through ages? Is it anything and everything that catches our eyes or it’s the way, any individual likes to be portrayed to the society? Yes, the answer to this very question puts each one of us in dilemma. May be, the real answer to this has not been deciphered yet as each one of us carry our own centralized concept towards the term ‘Fashion’. For some, ‘Fashion’ does not concentrate only on the latest and popular trends; rather it gives a broader glimpse of the social phenomenon around.

In the famous words of Oscar Wilde, “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six minutes”, in the context of women who are the trend setters according to some, saying goes on like “Dress shabbily and they remember the dress, dress impeccably and they remember the woman”. Vogue, Appearance, Fancy, Trendy, Stylish are some very common terms striking our heads when we emphasis on the topic, but did we ever think that ‘Is every damn exclusive appearance of every individual with different color combination and weird looks, fashionable one?’ ‘Can every trend and fascinating clothes and accessories be your choice?’ may be for some it would, while others still might prefer and carry their way. Every ‘Geek’ in the business calls and finds himself stylish and fashionable, catching the eyes of society, but the real description to such weirdness might leave others in weird situations.

Indian Fashion

No doubt Indian Fashion Industry gives an emerging platform both to the designers as well as the fashion models. But, it’s equally true that along with all this progress, there is huge emergence of fashion geeks with a complete mismatch, right from their attire to hairstyle, footwear and jewels just looking forward to accommodate themselves in the list of trend setters and eye catchers. Still, the fashion industry of India focuses on ancient clothing design traditions with tremendous influence and changes from the west; as a result what comes up in hand is complete trend and attire disaster. Everyone today dresses to get the ‘WOWWW’ factor but what vanishes from their mind are the ‘AWW’ factor, complements adds spice to our day but what if the same complements are sarcastic. And the fact is, yes, today half of the population around do catch many eyes and do get ravishing complements according to them but difference between a comment and complement varies from one being to another. Clothing and dressing in India differs from region to region depending on the ethnicity, geography, climate and cultural traditions and so does the fashion trend of the area. It’s said that the only constant thing relating to ‘fashion’ is change, but that ‘Change’ is only acceptable to the society, till it does not create a funny and laugh seeking image in front of others. Style is something that must display who you are without words rather than giving words to others to comment on your show up. Indian Fashion and people to a great extent are highly influenced by Bollywood and experiment trends to personalize their style.

With international developments like ‘India Fashion Week’ gaining appreciation and annual shows by fashion designers being held in major cities, the Indian Fashion Industry seems to be growing at a rapid pace. Decorating the body is yet another glimpse of rich cultural Indian tradition adding various meanings to the personality. Indian designers are appreciated are appreciated all over the world and many western brands are even joining Indian Fashion Weeks finding great potentials. Indian models have been recognized with crowns like ‘Miss Universe’ and ‘Miss World’ and designers like Ritu Kumar, Manish Malhotra, Rohit Bal, Tarun Tahiliani have become faces of ‘Indian Fashion’. In the upcoming five to ten years of time span, Indian Fashion Industry is expected to increase its net worth from Rs 200 crore to Rs 1,000 crore according to a report on the industry. But the vital question still remains, ‘What future can the Indian Fashion Industry look forward to, when more than half of the population lies in the strata of ‘Fashion Disaster’, experimenting things just to catch attention and copy ‘Bollywood?’.

Bollywood’s Impact on Indian Fashion

With movies being the mainstay for entertainment and almost a religion in the nation, Bollywood to huge extent influences the daily life and culture of people in India. Ladies attired in the finest designs, modeled from Bollywood concepts would be found in any wedding ceremonies and functions creating heavy impact (positive or negative, a difficult choice). Since long, the Indian Film Industry has been ruling the choices and experiments of Indian Fashion lovers, any outfit adorned by an actor or actress in a hit movie, immediately becomes the demand of the people and raises the market value. In bulks, these designs are manufactured and named after the character of the movie like masakali suit (Delhi6-2009),anarkali suit and many more. And surprisingly, people tend to purchase it and put it on, irrespective of even giving a second thought to the idea and whether, the attire would match their personality or not. Although today, the old trend of designing and using clothes influenced by other hemispheres has declined, thus creating fan following for the same but it has not completely vanished. Earlier people went after new exclusive Bollywood designs and attires, but now Bollywood uses simple and elegant attires, according to the ongoing choices of its people, thus fearing experimentation.

The case with ‘Fashion Geeks’, blindly following Bollywood, still remains unchanged from whatever to whom so ever they like in the movie, the only motto is to wear the dress and follow the star, even if it turns up messy and funny. According to designer duo Meera and Muzaffar Ali, “Costumes (today) are left to stars’ whims and their sycophant designers and colors that suit a cameraman”. Forget Bollywood, even television shows and reality shows today are becoming trendy affair for the Indian crowd, even today after Ekta Kapoor dominating and suddenly vanishing, the reality shows hosted by Bollywood stars open doors for followers to go to stores and invest on the same outfit.

‘Fashion’ and ‘trend’ are terms now very common to even a child who might not be aware of the fact what to eat and what not, but he would undoubtedly know that he has to look fashionable and carry clothes of his choice. Now, for a child what might be fashionable may be a real disaster, just to catch the eyes of people around and show up in unique way. Same goes with ‘Fashion Geeks’ who in the try of being unique and classy from the crowd, end up with complete attire mismatch and pathetic experimentation's. Not every individual holds the ability to be sober, elegant yet unique, breaking the limitations of stereotype Indian Fashion.

"BIG FASHION BUZZ OF SMALL SCREEN"

"Fashion", the sound of the word itself brings into our mind and ear terms like vogue, appearance, craze, form, trend, fancy, style etc. Fashion on one hand may be defined as a unique method of doing something, or it may be even called a popular or latest style of clothing, presenting oneself or behavior. In the famous words of Oscar Wilde, “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.” In the context of women who are the trend setters of fashion according to some, saying goes on like “Dress shabbily and they remember the dress, dress impeccably and they remember the woman.”

In today’s world nobody...including even a small kid doesn’t deny d fact that yes he is fashionable. No matter how small is he but like others he even wants to catch the eyes of people around n set an unique place for himself. Today the crucial question is not, is  the fashion being followed good n acceptable to most but rather it is, the fashion we are trying to carry forward is good to me or not. If I am accepting it...it’s perfect in all senses. Yup! To a very limit even I agree to the fact that if I like my style, my dressing, my appearance. Why the hell should I bother what others think about it or rate it and that’s the reason today every field, every platform, every group is busy building up their own world of 'Fashion and trends'.

Coming back to India, Bollywood and Television are two biggest trend and fashion givers to their audiences. Bollywood definitely is known abroad too for its unique and at times weird fashionable trends but Indian Television limits itself somewhere just within its own target but on a grand level.  There is just no less to be spoken about, right from famous Komolika (Urvashi Dholakia), Parvati(Saakshi Tanwar) or Tulsi(Smriti Zubin Irani) style to the Kurti trend by Kritika Kamra or the Navari Saree trend by Ankita Lokhande and Rajasthani style trend seen in most of the television's daily soap like Balika Vadhu etc. These fashion trends are the ones that attract the viewer’s highly and to a surprise they wish to follow it making it one of the latest fashion trend in the markets too. Audiences not only follow the ongoing latest fashion trend but some of them also wish to follow the fashion trend of their favorite television stars. Clothes to accessories and to the smallest 'Bindi' on the forehead, viewers get inspired and hence strongly follow their favorite television icon.

Fashion TV in India has contributed towards enhancing the viewer’s knowledge and experience in the world of fashion, for over a decade. It’s now working on continuing to satiate its viewer’s increasing love for fashion. Covering everything from fashion trends, to glamorous lifestyles and global events, the channel gradually is becoming the mecca for the swish set of the country and the guide for those aspiring to add a touch of glamour in their lives. The channels tagline “I Love Fashion” is being very well enhanced by its viewers.

The latest ongoing show 'BIG BOSS 7' which has captured small screen and attracted thousand viewers has most of its contestants either from fashion or modeling backgrounds or are connected to big screen in some or the other way which is totally incomplete without fashion. Atif Azim, a born Bangladeshi Model gave his latest appearance with girlfriend Candice Pinto at Blender’s Pride Fashion show with JJ Valaya's design. Candy Brar, a 29 year old model from Chandigarh won 'Glad rags title in 2004, Kushal Tandon again a model turned small screen actor began his modelling career at an early age of eighteen in 2003. Talking about Ekta Kapoor, who is more popularly called the "Queen of Television" for her ever long running Sas- Bahu serials is even criticized extremely for her awkward and busty dresses and fashion, the surprise being her serial characters get the inverse reaction!

With more money and celebrities on television, fashion designers are finding another outlet for their creativity. Television is the new runway. This would be believed, by judging the number of fashion designers who're taking to the small screen to showcase their creations as well as styling skills. Rohit Bal styled Amitabh Bachchan for the fifth season of Sony's Kaun Banega Crorepati, Simi Garewal sported looks by Anamika Khanna on Simi Selects India's Most Desirable on Star World, while Hrithik Roshan, who made his television debut on Star Plus' Just Dance, was styled by Surily Goel. "Every celebrity from Shahrukh Khan to Salman Khan to Hrithik Roshan is now on television. It just shows what a powerful and wide reaching medium it is today. The power of television lies in its ability to reach out to the masses, across small-towns and rural India and thus designers acknowledge a publicity platform par excellence.

Overall, everyone acknowledges that television enjoys a mass reach like never before but still it is very far away from being a fashion trendsetter. Unlike American shows like Sex and the City and Mad Men, no Indian show has yet inspired fashion, right from the runway to the streets.