BA2 CLASS READING - FASHION IN SOCIETY -FASHION IN INDIA GROUP SEMINAR PRESENTATION - this reading is extracts (...) from the set text.

FASHION IN INDIA. VANDANA BHANDARI. 2007.

India's rich and varied textile and dress heritage enjoys world renown. Some of the most prominent historical elements are decorative textiles traded on the ancient Silk Road, the luxurious silk and exquisite jewel-embedded embroideries of the Mughal Empire (1483-1757), and the dyeing, weaving, and decorative techniques of various subgroups. This heritage has influenced the modern fashion industry through colourations, fibers, weaves, embellishments, and garment styles. Today the essential qualities of Indian traditions merge with modern fashion. ...

The primary traditional dress for Indian women has been the sari (a wrapped and draped garment) worn with the 'choli (a short, tight blouse). Saris continue to be common for weddings and celebrations, but increasingly the 'salwar kamez' (a trouser and tunic combination, originally from North India) and 'dupatta' (long stole) replace the sari for work. The salwar kameez, worn in South Asia for more than a century, translates easily into modern styles, and several designers have developed variations fusing the traditional forms with modern tastes. ...

Movies are the dominate entertainment form in India. Bollywood (the Mumbai-based Hindi movie industry) and other Indian movie sectors bring Indian stars to the South Asian diaspora. Appreciation of Bollywood, and thus its influence, now extends globally. Styles worn by movie stars can dictate fans' taste in fashions and is now big business. ...

Neeta Lula, a movie designer, summed up the role of the Indian movie industry in fashion when she said, "The onus on the designers is greater. Your appeal has to be global; every detail has to be in keeping with international trends ... Bollywood is a fashion catalog and trend forecaster" ('The Economic Times', October 15, 2005). Movie and fashion designers cross over between the two industries. Designers produce their own retail fashion lines, capitalising on the symbiotic relationship of movie celebrity culture and fan taste. ...

Fashion magazines have been popular in India for decades. ... In the early twenty-first century, Western fashion magazines increasingly entered the Indian market, taking advantage of ready advertising focused on the growing luxury market. In addition, magazines remain important among Indian consumers as subscriptions. 'Marie Clalre' entered the market in 2006, and in 2007 'Vogue' launched its Indian edition with positive results ...

Fashion marketing in India uses lifestyle identities. The new generation of urban teenagers, in sync with the latest international styles, is enmeshed in a visual culture supported by postmodern imagery offered by MTV, Channel V, and Fashion TV. ...


For much of the late twentieth century, Indian attire mixed traditional dress items with Western ones, especially in men's dress, and in the first decade of the twenty-first century this continues. In small towns a man's conventional buttoned shirt is worn with a draped 'dhoti', and at weddings a turban appears with a man's formal suit. In the rapid flow of style change, modern fashions based on a fusion on Indian and Western styles have emerged. Whereas for a few decades before the 1980s ethnic menswear was restricted largely to use as nightwear and for ceremonial occasions, in the 1980s a new syylish formal look emerged for fashionable Indian men. The 'kurta-pyjama' got the designers' stamp and now Indian men use the 'kurta-pyjama' with draped 'dupattas' for casual and formal wear. ... Designers such as Monisha Jaising and Rajesh Pratap create looks that incorporate Indian ethnic elements in Western garment styles.


While Western styles have become more acceptable in India, traditional Indian styles have infiltrated Western fashion. Indian fashion - its styles and textiles - have fused with Western ones to provide contemporary fashions for Indians, as well as for the global marketplace. (Bhandari in Welters and Lillethun, 2011, pp.551-555).

REFERENCE

Bhandari, V. in Welters, L. and Lillethun, A. (eds.) (2011) The fashion reader. 2nd end. Oxford: Berg.