Planning and orchestrating a ‘look’ every day is not my thing. It’s time-consuming, tiring and in all honesty, pretty vain. Over the years, I have learned that what works for me best is to have fun clothes that last a lifetime; clothes that are not trend-based, but ones I can wear without too much planning, no matter what the season. Today my cupboard only has clothes with fascinating narratives of how they were made and who made them. I love the freedom of picking out anything and pairing it with other items without falling into a ‘trend-trap’.
We live in ‘social media times’ where we find ourselves obsessing about ‘curating’ ourselves to perfection. This is soul-depleting. Clothes should not be the shackles that impinge on our time. They should, in fact, free us to use our minds to think of new ideas. They should be easy to choose from, so our minds are left alone for their real purpose- imagining a better world.
In my opinion, fashion in India is getting very bifurcated. One side is the mammoth bridal industry that caters to the bridal industry of much pomp and show. The other is quiet minimalism that reflects on craft, technique, and quietude of fashion. Both are required in a market that expects both sartorial needs to be fulfilled. And I am confident that they can both co-exist, however incongruous they may seem. I love clothes that don’t define us and pigeonhole us, but can they be subtle visual narratives of our inner quest? hell ya! This is why I put together this ensemble of Rajesh Pratap Singh’s Tencel dhoti-pants paired with a dramatic NorBlack NorWhite jacket that gives the ease of a cool, unaffected style. Here, let’s not forget the significance of the humble white ganji—a perfect minimalist canvas for us to wear our loved adornments, which I’ve picked from En Inde. You can call this a bohemian style, but real bohemia is a state of mind. Clothes don’t define us, we define the clothes we wear.
From HT Brunch, September 1, 2019
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