Fashion is the prevailing style, custom or a popular style of clothes, hair, etc. of a particular time or place. A popular way of behaving and doing an activity also constitutes fashion. The business of making or selling clothes in new and different styles is also fashion. The fashion industry embraces both clothes made by individual designer for a small and wealthy clientele-also known as haute culture and garments produced on wider commercial basis-sold in high street shops, chain stores, departmental stores or by mail order.
India’s fashion heritage is rich in its tradition, vibrant in colours and extremely attractive in look and style. In fact, Indian fashion varies from village to village and city to city. The country’s ancient fashion garments generally used stitching although Indians knew sewing also. Most of the clothes were ready to wear as soon as they left the loom. The traditional Indian dhoti, the scarf or uttariya, and the popular turban are still visible and continue to be part of Indian fashion. For women, the dhoti or saree with a stanpatta forms the basic ensemble, which again consists of garments that do not have to be stitched, the stanpatta being simply fastened in a knot at the back.
The fashion industry in India keeps on changing. A rapid stride was made in this regard towards the end of the previous century when the Indian beauties were crowned Miss World and Miss Universe in quick succession. The attires of these beauties need special designing. Their dresses included costumes from head to toe and matching ornaments. These modern and rich dresses were liberally adopted by the young ladies from the upper strata in the fashion cities of Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and elsewhere.
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The changing fashion has resulted in the hem-lines of skirts moving up and down over the years. Before the Second World War and even some decades later, the length of the skirt that covered upto the knee was considered obscene. However, towards the end of the century, the length shortened above the knee. This ultimately reached drastic proportions with the mini skirt expressing most of the feminine thigh. The men also started sporting longer hair-equal to trendian women.
The present-day youth are in the haute culture of wearing mix of western and Indian trends because of coming up of sprawling call centres, BPO centres, IT parks, mega markets and mall culture. Perhaps the setting up of the multinational company’s offices in India is one of the reasons of fashion boom in India. Men’s fashion draws a lot from films. The young boys not only imitate the glamour of men’s clothes but also their hairstyle. In fact a young boy imitates actors and famous cricket stars like Tendulkar and Dhoni. TV serials and advertisements are the other source which is closely watched by the youth. The branded names in men’s wear sold at famous shops in big arcades, malls, plazas and markets attract the young boys and girls in large number every day.
Fashion designing offers vast opportunities for learning the skills from famous institutes like National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Indian Institute of Fashion Technology (IIFT), Pearl Fashion Academy (PFA), etc. Many Indian universities offer diploma, graduate and postgraduate courses in fashion and cosmetic designing. Such learning helps improve the creative skills and provides a cutting edge technology in designing. The Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) holds the fashion extravaganza to offer a platform to the exponents of Indian fashion industry and to give them right opportunities for displaying their skills and marketing their creations to the outside world for a high profit. There are also perennial features like the Lakme India Fashion Week that show glitz, superb designs and new designers to display their skills on the ramp shows. The vogue designers like Pooja Nayyer and Anju Modi provide inspiration for creative styles.
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With the evolving fashion and style and the changing face of Indian retail, our consumers are gearing up for a rapid transformation. Their spending too has been on the rise. Most of the organised retail businesses have reported an increase in their sales and consequently higher profits.
Good designers should be genuine, practical and give incentive in making the custom made outfits, designer dresses and costumes. The maker should create ideas according to the seasonal changes-winter, summer and spring. There should be an attractive combination of traditional, modern, local and foreign-creating every possible wearable product-and providing a wide range to the consumers. It is fashion which has revolutionized the retail brands in clothing, jewelry, cosmetics, footwear, etc. As a matter of fact it has brought a retail boom in India and continues to act as a driving force in all kinds of new markets, malls and stores.
The media plays an important role in the fashion boom. Various kinds of fashion magazines provide latest designs and styles in colour photographs along with details of stuff used, measurements, price range, shades available and the places from where they can be used. TV programms give live telecast of major fashion shows conducted not only in India but also in all parts of the world. These programmes provide a good look at the fashion world in all the seasons so that the people can make their own choices while shopping. The stars shown in flamboyant dresses make an indelible impression on the consumers. This accelerates the fashion industry and enables it to prepare to compete with the best in the world. Fashion has become such an important part of the present-day world that even in colleges there are frequent ramp shows for boys and girls.
Fashion industry in India is now facing a tug of war between the designers for copyright protection although there are imitations by some designers from other designers’ work. There should be strict law to prevent such copying. The other important requirement is to ban shows and telecasts of such shows which show nudity in the name of fashion. Besides, there should be legislation against consumption of dangerous medicines like autorexia and bulimia which some models consume to remain slim. Fashion designing is a creative art and it should be promoted as such.