Madras Miscellany

Help people on your way up ! You are going to meet them on your way down !

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Fashion Fiesta


Fashion is the word that has been hogging the limelight these days in India with the "Lakme India Fashion week" happening in India. Who's who of the fashion Industry has been showcasing their talents or skin through some high profile Models, this includes the so-called very stylish Indian Cricketers like Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh and Mohammed Kaif. Though they are novices in the fashion world they survived the day. Here I've to say that the cricketers have never been trendy when it comes to looks and clothes except for 1 or 2. In the olden days Farookh Engineer was considered to be the most stylish cricketer from India although his English upbringing did help him in this regard. In the recent years Ajay Jadeja was voted the most stylish Indian Cricketer.

The one thing that is disturbing is that the other sports in India are not even considered for these kind of events and personally I feel the Tennis fraternity sores over the cricketing fraternity in the fashion world. Let's highlight couple of tennis players who have carried of everything with absolute style. Leander Paes the style Icon of the Indian sporting Fraternity has seen everything. He started of with the tight shorts and lengthy Tee's to now the famous Sleeves Tee's and the Bermudas (which is more famous in India than the traditional dhotis) and different hairdo's from the school boy cut to the Mushroom cut to now the more familiar pony tail with the Ear Stud ala Andre Agassi of the early 90's. Leander keeps reinventing himself in this regard that he undoubtedly is the fashion Icon of the sports persons in our country, he will win the contest Hands down anytime.

Mahesh Bhupathy is also trendy but he is not that experimental in his dressing, he is more of a suit wearing type rather than a Tee and a Jeans, but he's been voted a style icon in the past as well. Of course Sania Mirza with her nose ring and her flowing hair and sometimes the ever-great pony tail and her short skirts does make her one of the hottest in town.
There are sports persons who are not even talked about but laurels to the country should also be considered. Sports persons like Arjun Atwal, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Gaganajith singh, Jugraj singh, Geet sethi, Pankaj Advani and others. Cricketers from the other countries are lured for fashion shows like these but not one Indian non-cricketer. Strange!

I personally believe that these fashion shows are just a waste of time. Everybody know that these so called "Designer wears" are not going to be worn by the normal person who walks on the road rather than the ramps. These designers price their clothes so much that one can just think about window-shopping only.

Coming to the professional Models not many look ravishingly beautiful as Deepika Padukone (Daughter of Prakash Padukone) does and to certain extent Tapur Chatterjea. These two can pull of anything and come across as trendy.
The designers who dress these models don't look good themselves, again except for one or two. The one that come to mind immediately is the Gay designer Wendell Rodriguez oh dear he's probably the worst of the lot. Sabbyasachi Mukehrjea and JJ Vallaya are the best looking.

But then who am I to judge them?


3 Comments:

  • At 4:16 am, Blogger Vijay said…

    Will comment on this post soon... tho varen, and btw , our old friend srinivasan(IITan) is getting married this may 11th in chennai. He is is now is Univ of Maryland as big time research prof. He can be reached at sri@cs.umd.edu
    . If you guys have find time, do attend his marriage and pass on my best wishes !

     
  • At 6:38 am, Blogger Vijay said…

    I cant totally concur with your views. The reason being, indian fashion industry has religiously evolved over the time and has been one of the hot fashion hubs for world fashion. Albeit, many argue that fashion industry is just for the elite society and the industry is posing a big threat to indian traditional values, i personally feel that these fashion shows and the fashion industry on the whole, definitely puts india on a global map. Some facts which might supplement the above statement:

    > It's a 50- 60 Billion dollor industry, generating huge employment oppurtunities
    > MNC clothing companies are setting up textile industries / factories in conjunction with NIFT
    > Has been the launch pad for many super models who bring laurels to india no matter what they do.

    Generally speaking, Clothes designed by fashion gurus are ultimately aimed towards commercialization, meaning - they want everybody to wear it, but for a pricey tag. Commercial textile companies beg/borrow/steal the patents from fashion gurus and offer them in the main stream market for affordable price. Sometimes, fashion industry picks up new/old style from commercial clothing line and adds a hip term 'retro' to it. Its a vicious cyle but with a healthy outlook.

    When it comes to style, tennis starts simple steal the show than cricketers(exception: S.R. Tendulkar). May be because, tennis is more sophisticated and classy in its nature. I cant imagine myself, infact anybody for that matter buying a t-shirt endorsed by zahir khan / kaif. NO WAY !

    Serena's clothing line - 'aneres' ( serena read backwards) is a stupendous success in US and asia, only reason being the brand name. Y cant sania follow the footsteps of serena and start a clothing line - 'ainas'?, i'm sure indian males are now ready to wear spaghetti tops just becasue of the brand name.

    Honestly, i have never heard of some those names of fashion icons which you mentioned, but i tried googling Deepika Padukone, man she looks yummmmm !

     
  • At 4:05 pm, Blogger Sathyanarayanan said…

    I wish i get some comments regarding this particular blog from a girl's perspective. As Ladies are more Fashion Oriented than the Men.

    Is Anyone there?

     

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