Across India an astonishing range of young fashion designers have seized opportunities provided by fashion shows and the expanding market for boutiques and online retail. In this first systematic overview of the whole phenomenon, the emphasis on the achievements of such young designers as Rahul Mishra, Aneeth Arora and Ruchika Sachdeva is accompanied by the visually vibrant designs of the superstars of Indian fashion - Manish Arora, Valaya, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla among them.
Each chapter begins with a general introduction, followed by profiles of the designers interwoven with interviews conducted by the author especially for this book. A wide range of garments, from luxury bridal and ethnic formal wear to contemporary interpretations of the sari, can be seen, as well as the various textiles and techniques used to make them, from traditional craft, including hand loom weaving and color-resist dyed silk, intricate embroidery and appliqué as well as cutting-edge fabrication and construction methods.
Brimming with scintillating illustrations, this mould-breaking and informed account is written by a fashion insider who knows India intimately. It will be essential reading for students of fashion and design, industry buyers, and all contemporary fashion enthusiasts.
, Among all of these manifestations of modern India, fashion has taken its place as a key mediator of both tradition and modernity. Yet Indian fashion's representation in the international media has so often relapsed into the clichés of Hollywood glitz and bridal wear that many will be unaware of the sheer diversity of Indian fashion and the very particular challenges that designers negotiate in this thriving non-Western industry.
·A key shift in global opinion occurred when Rahul Mishra won the prestigious International Wool mark Prize in 2014. Global media coverage of Mishra's win expounded how it represented a milestone for the international image of Indian fashion. Many international fashion editors found themselves caught off- guard by the diversity of Indian fashion that Mishru's designs pointed towards.
This surprising diversity, often overlooked, holds the key to some of the most fascinating questions defining the Indian fashion industry today: namely, how and in what direction will Indian fashion grow? What is the future of traditional garments, such as the sari. now that young Indian women (and their mothers) increasingly turn towards the tunic and trouser combinations of the salwar kameez or kurta churidar, jeans or so-called Western-style clothing for everyday wear? What role will India's rich heritage of craft tradition play in the evolving identity of Indian fashion? Should Indian designers downplay traditional Indian silhouettes and ornamentation to aim commercially at the Western market? Or should they instead look inwards and cater to the home market for 'intrinsically Indian' clothing? And does sustained commercial success in Indian fashion imply only ever producing lavish ensembles for the all-important bridal market?
This raises the question of what exactly defines 'Indian' fashion in a country so diverse and fast-changing, with such a long history of sartorial fusion. Not least, what of the importance of oil-rich Persian Gulf countries as key consumer markets for many Indian designers - how will these markets grow and influence the trajectory of Indian fashion design? Furthermore, what role will India play in defining a pan-Asian movement of fashion, now that Asian countries rank among some of the most lucrative emerging markets for international luxury brands?
Another question all of this raises is what exactly is the relationship of Indian ethnic wear to Western fashion? It is common to make a sharp distinction between the two, attributing ethnic wear to unchanging dress and Western wear as part and parcel of a globalization-driven modernity. In Dress and Ethnicity: Change Across Space and Time (1995), Joanne Eicher argues that chiefly because a historical perspective in relation to Western dress is well established, in stark contrast to the dearth of dress histories of the non- Western world, non-Western dress is perceived to have undergone little change.
In He-orienting Fashion: the Globalization of Asian Dress (2003), Sandra Nielsen writes that categorization of dress as either 'changing fashion' or 'unchanging tradition' is not only used to preserve boundaries between the West and non- West. but also serves as an important form of differentiation in non-Western countries as part of the ongoing dynamics of post-collegiality and globalization. In this sense, fashion produces tradition as much as it produces modernity.
It is quite obvious, looking at the designers in this book that ethnic dress is a dynamic form of fashion in its own right. subject to fluctuations in trends, creative appropriation and exotic imaginings tied up in notions of authenticity and Indian identity. This constant dialogue between tradition and modernity is a theme that underpins the work of many of the designers included in this book.
Book's Contents and Sample Pages
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