I wanted to start with “how the hell could you say so?”, full of patriotism you know. But then why not make it a discussion than an argument? Ok, let me make the things more clear for you. Two days back, with the newspaper in hand, and the early morning sip of coffee, I came across a line,”India’s contribution to the fashion world is only the ‘kurtis’…….Stop copycat couture”. And there began all the twirls within me.
I always felt that the submerging of the Indian fashion with the world fashion vocabulary is something whose beginning is tough to trace. With Indian handicrafts tossing in its ethnic bed and facing the fashion world, emerging and letting emerge, how could one wind up everything with only the Kurtis? I am not a designer, but i am sure that you wont find many wearing Kurtis outside India.
I remember reading somewhere that fashion is dynamic. So if we let something dissolve into our fashion strategies, we can’t call it ‘copycat couture’, I suppose. Now leave the kurtis for sometime. Have you ever thought what Indian handloom, Indian patchwork items and indian embroidery is all about? Ethnic, traditional, fashionable, contemporary, functional………….and a lot more terms would rush through if you experience the splendor. Once you start unwrapping each product of Indian handicrafts and Indian fashion with their uniqueness, I am sure you too will start feeling like me – that Indian fashion and Indian handicrafts are not replicating, but are true, archetypal, original and contemporary in their presence and in their origin.
