India’s Role In The World Of Fashion

In today’s fashion world dominated by Paris,Milan and New York, India has enthralled the top-notch couture masters, around the world.

The weaves, the hand-woven silks and cottons with intricate traditional designs, ancient block printing techniques and tie-dye, unique embroidery patterns with bead-work and mirrors; all etches and eternal pattern on ther global fashion.

There was a time when fashion was looked doen upon by many a middle-class Indian as degradation of Indian values. A fact chiefly influenced by the post-independence belief in Swadeshi and everything Indian. Fashion was essentially a Western import. Fashion was meant for elite, and the bohemian.

But as another generation was exposed to the vision of the twenty-first century, and India opened up to the West, a need was felt to establish a unique Indian identity. Thus was born the idea of taking traditional Indian fabrics and styles, blending western cuts and lines to appeal to a larger section of the Occident as well as masses in India. So much so that fashion has moved out of select circles and gained acceptance even in the most conservative households of India.

The evolution of fashion in India had fashion houses overwhelmed . Their experimentation in the transference of designs of Indian origin has produced orientation fanatasies giving the Indian outfits a uniquely glamorous look around the globe.

Fashion in India has evolved from the over-used angrakhas, chogas, ghagra-cholis, achkan, sherwani and much more. Indian fashion is alive and vibrant amongst classes and masses; whatever the decade or the century, it is here to say.

History of Fashion:

A close examination of Sanskrit, Prakrit, Hindi, Arabic and Persian sources throws up a rich body of material. The ral difficulty in interpreting this material and relating it to surviving archaelogical and visual evidence naturally leaves some matters obscure, but others open to controversy.

A pertinent question that needs to be tackled is whether, in the indigenous Indian Tradition, stitched garments were known or used at all. Repeated statements have been made that the art of sewing was not known to the early Indians, and that it was and an import from outside.

The earliest researchers of Indian costumes, like Forbes Watson, have stated that the art of sewing came to India only with the coming of the Muslims. Such statements need not be taken seriously.

Such views were formed not on the basis of any historical or scholarly inquiries. Instead, they were based simply on ‘observations’ made by those outsiders who came to India late and visibly preferred different kinds of dresses.

From the earliest period of Indian proto-history, the Harappan Civilisation, the evidence about textiles and dress is scant but not unimportant. The survival of an actual fragment of cotton cloth, and the upper garment draped around the body like shawl as seen in a sculpture, offer interesting examples, although it is dificult to give to these pieces any kind of names.

.The viel that women still use so extensively in India, something like the dupatta or odhani of modern times, has its early prototype in the Vedic period, and various words signifying the same article of apparel are used with differences between one and the other that may not be easy to identify.

.Minor diffderences and modifications apart, this dress seems to remain as a standard for women for an uncommon length of time, not only because women’s dresses tend to be more conservative but also because these garments together belong to the ‘timeless’ garments of India.

.The ‘timeless’ Indian dress dress of men consists of garments that use no stitching. The dhoti, the scarf or uttariya and the turban, which have never really disappeared from any part of India, belong to this category, and their marked visibility in India could have led one erroneously to conclude that the early Indians did not use any sewn garments.

.Likewise, dress for women, the dhoti or the sari as the lower garments, combined with a stanapatta or breast-band for coveirng the breast-band for covering the breasts, forms a basic ensemble, and once again consists of garments that do not have to be stitched.

. The breast-garment was simply fastened in a knot at the back. And the dhoti or the sari is worn covering both legs at the same time or, in the alternative, with one end of it passed between the legs and tucked at the back in the fashion that is still prevalent in large area of India.

. The Amirs, Mallicks and other officers of the Sultanate period are described are described as wearing gowns (tatailyat), jakalwat and Islamic qabas of Khwarizm tucked in the middle of the body and short turbans which did not exceed five or six forearms.

. When it comes to head-gears, they are many names that one comes upon, including usbnisha, kirtia, patta,veshtana, veshtapatta,shiroveshtana. The manner of wearing the turban the turban evidently varied as much in ancient India as it did in medieval.

. The range of turban styles that we encounter is reminiscent of the m,any styles in the 19th century, each style having a specific name for it. However, there are close fitting caps that one finds soldiers and some foreigners wearing in Indian sculptures and

Ranjana Banerjee

Fashion Designer from Kolkata (India), Expertise in all kind of Indian Ethnic Women Dresses....

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