Women in Fashion Street
Bikini-clad models with the ‘I came with the waves’ look on a pristine beach no longer inspire. Instead, fashion designers have begun connecting with their clients by shooting their ‘look books’ in the dirtiest, most common areas of Mumbai.
Most have grown up here, and are familiar with the mill compounds of Lower Parel, the slums and chawls of South Central Mumbai, the quiet, shady bylanes of Colaba where old darzees sit stitching the most outstanding achkans, the peak hours at Churchgate and CST, and the dusty industrial streets of suburban Oshiwara. Not strangely, then, the trend for fashion catalogues (look books, fashionistas call them) by designers participating in the upcoming Lakme Fashion Week has been to go natural and local. Whether this change of art and heart will result in better sales for the designers is not known, but the look books certainly, well, look different. “The models and creations seem to leap out of the pages,” a fashion editor said.
Arjun Khanna, who shot his catalogue in buzzing Oshiwara, explained the trend: “I’ve always been fascinated and intrigued at how the fishing village, the local tailor, my boutique, the video library, the market, etc. come together in perfect harmony in our environment. All of these make very subtle but strong statements in style and fashion. I always wanted to broaden this perspective.” Joining him are GenNext designers Rajesh and Anirban who went to the defunct Raghuvanshi Mills’ compound in Lower Parel and chose an ordinary girl for their shoot.
The idea was to loom larger than the structures standing behind and Lower Parel seemed perfect,” they said. And Pria Kataria Puri, who recently dressed pop diva Madonna, introduced her Bombay Glam collection in the bylanes of Chimbai village and Colaba. “Bombay is the cocktail city of India. I chose to highlight the labour class that plays a very important role in our lives right from what we wear to what we eat and how we live.”
