Blue Steel, baby, that’s my look

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Fresh bagels, Starbucks™ coffee, foot massages…??? Turbanhead must’ve had the all-access pass to the North Dakota headquarters. All I see are grey socks and an ant farm. And all I got were a gaddawful hangover and some suspicious bruising.

I am truly honored by the invite to blog. ItÂ’s my first time, so please be gentle.

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p>Since fashion-lovers responded so warmly to my sartorially-obsessed MIA review, I thought IÂ’d start things off with the news that Ashish Soni is presenting a collection at New York Fashion Week next month. The first Indian to be invited to do so.

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Soni, like all designers, needs money to buy fabric, stitch up samples and hire those lissome young things to stalk a runway. Our man in Delhi, however, seems a bit more enterprising than most when it comes to getting his show on the road:

At an informal press briefing today, Soni announced that his show in New York would be jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Textiles, the Ministry of Tourism and Air-India. And what’s more, all this, as part of the Incredible India campaign. The total sponsorship package would amount to ‘‘around $200,000’’, informed the designer.

We haven’t tapped the huge potential that we hold in the field of textiles,’’ explained Tourism Minister Renuka Chowdhury at the press briefing. ‘‘So when Ashish approached us with his blueprint which would help showcase Indian textiles abroad, we decided to make him an ambassador for the Incredible India campaign,’’ she said.

Exactly how would this help tourism? ‘‘Well, the huge international media presence will ensure that the world gets to see a younger, contemporary and more vibrant side to India,’’ she reasoned. [link]

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I understand involving the Ministry of Textiles, but this Incredible India campaign seems to distract the Soni from his design duties –

Soni is currently designing a number of products like yoga kits, mats, towels and T-shirts with the logo of Incredible India…The Chatwals, Sant and Vikram, are handling Soni’s after-show party at their Dream Hotel in New York.[link]

On one hand, being invited to show at NYFW is quite an honor. Almost as much as being asked to blog by Sepia Mutiny.

But it looks like Brand India is gonna overshadow his design skills, doesn’t it? And the fact that his afterparty will be in the carefully manicured hands of Vikram Chatwal isn’t doing much to squelch my fear that this will be another Anand Jon, the 2002 Fashion Week of America’s “International New Star,” and a man given to pronouncements like, “”I meditate every night and when I wake up, I check my e-mail.” See his Hilton-sisters lovin’ bio here.

In his bio, Soni states,

“for the Indian designers to make it abroad, it is essential to realise that you cannot sell a salwar kurta abroad. So the challenge is to design something where you do not loose that essential Indian sensibility and yet are able to cater to the Western asthetics”.

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Soni has a much lauded career in India, and is apparently the youngest designer to launch his own line there. His past collections aren’t available for viewing online, (if someone has a paid subscription to Bharattextile.com, please send pics!) but this image from the 2004 India Fashion Week looks like his hair and makeup team was inspired by the Coneheads. Here’s hoping that he doesn’t lose that Indian sensibility while feted by Western aesthetes.

22 thoughts on “Blue Steel, baby, that’s my look”

  1. But it looks like Brand India is gonna overshadow his design skills, doesnÂ’t it?

    What design skills? Yoga themed apparel – please — this is old school by now. Soni is trying to ride the wave started by someone. Even the stodgy Wall street journal picked it up, this is passe but the time Soni sells anything. I suspect he will have to downscale to Walmart, Tarjay if he is lucky. I wish this second rate idiot spend more time learning about fashion and not try to ride the coat-tails of exotic/Brand India etc. etc. You can only ride the exotic train for so long (Ritu Berry), unless you sell in India. These derivative incestuous hacks don’t want to build for Indian markets or develop them, just want to the eat the left overs in the west. I don’t see successful Indian companies in software and pharma etc. tout – exotic India themed products. Think Global you f*king idiot… sheeshh.. the chatwal morons are joining hands. Nothing good will come out of this.

    From WSJ

    Makers of yoga apparel are reporting robust business. At Lululemon, a Vancouver-based yoga clothing company whose wares have been featured on “Desperate Housewives,” sales have doubled every year since it started in 1998, reaching $60 million for the 12 months ended July 31. Marika Group Inc., a San Diego-based exercise clothing company founded in the 1980s, says wholesale sales tripled this past holiday season from the same period of 2003. Danskin’s yoga line, launched in 2001, now represents 20% of all activewear sales. Some critics say retailers are simply trying to cash in on the yoga craze — 16 million practice it in the U.S. — since the apparel doesn’t look much different than many other kinds of exercise clothes. “Yoga clothes aren’t that distinctive,” says David Wolfe, creative director of retail consultants Doneger Group in New York. That isn’t stopping mainstream fashion retailers and designers from moving into yoga clothes. Last fall, Los Angeles-based American Apparel Inc. introduced stretch cotton tops and pants designed for either yoga or street wear. Gap Inc., San Francisco, now sells yoga pants, including a style with a popular rollover top around the waist. Adidas’s yoga clothes have gone upscale with British fashion designer Stella McCartney’s line of pricey, slouchy sweats and a sports bra with a strap that ties around the waist. The clothes are advertised as a hybrid of “sport and style.” Consumers who are moving yoga clothes into the mainstream are mainly teenagers and young women, among whom designer sweatpants, such as the colorful terrycloth styles of Juicy Couture, are already in vogue. Young women also are the fastest-growing segment of newcomers to yoga, according to a poll that Yoga Journal magazine conducted last November. The number of 18-to-24-year-olds who practice yoga rose 46% from 2003 to 2004.
  2. These derivative incestuous hacks don’t want to build for Indian markets or develop them, just want to the eat the left overs in the west. .

    fuck. that’s exactly what I wanted to say, yet froze thinkin’, this being my first post and all, I should be more open-minded and fair and many other traits that my personality hasn’t seen in decades.

    snaps gloves off

  3. Welcome Cicatrix! Really, what is up with the conehead look?

    And This guy sure talks big:

    Referring to the increased awareness and the emerging fashion consciousness in the country, Ashish believes that we will soon have Indians as one of the most fashionable people in the world. “The rate at which the fashion scene is growing in our country, we have reasons to believe that we are soon going to emerge as one of the most fashion conscious people in the world.” Undeterred by the presence of international fashion giants like Armani and Versace, Ashish feels that Indian designers score over their western counterparts as they know not just the psyche of the domestic consumers, but are also aware of the limitations in terms of climate, colour and sizes. “The western designers do not have an Indian consumer in mind when they create their products. Their colours and cuts are not for everyone, whereas we pay attention to those details,” says Ashish, admitting that a certain amount of competition does exist between the desi and the videshi designers.

    He can talk the talk, can he walk the walk? 😉

  4. On one hand, being invited to show at NYFW is quite an honor. Almost as much as being asked to blog by Sepia Mutiny.

    HEY!

    recalibrate them there standards, missy! 😉

  6. Thanks so much for finding those pics Amardeep.

    See, that season he envisioned a little Buddhist monk… who wakes up from a deep meditation in the forest…and decides to go to a party. It’s about desire and restraint, about bringing a touch of the monastery to the champaign lifestyle. Look at those chains that bind her! spiritual, no?

  7. Whoa, Amardeep, those are some scary pics.

    Lady Cicatrix–nice post. Reminds me of an issue of Conde Nast that went to Bollywood and did glam photoshoots with stars–in European designed fake Indian haute couture. Very annoying considering. I’m not that big on the idea of haute couture myself–my ideal fashion magazine would have a lot more concrete, detailed information about manufacturing and texture, and a lot less glam–but I hope all kinds of non European, non North American designers will keep trying to crash the party—despite the bizarre conehead tries of some.

  8. ok… my comment doesnt apply to this guy… i dont like his stuff… too bleak for me… but somebody tell me this … why do women have all the fun in India … wear the cool threads … and men get nothing – some shapeless kurta with embroidery on the nape – or some really heavy looking clothes with silver trim – hey we got form… we got shape, we got pipes… we like color too… what gives… any suggestions..?

  9. here’s what I want… a deep purple crepe cotton kurta with two horn buttons and a pumpkin colored cotton pants… and peshawari shoes with clasps … well I got the shoes…

    hay-loww lay-dies..!

  10. Welcome cicatrix!!

    And as for fashion(warning: ignoramus ahead)…I just don’t get the multibillion dollar ramp fashion scene. Hardly any of the clothes are wearable — though the lady in brown lehenga(or whatever you call it) looks like an exception — and I somehow feel there is something quite missing abt these perfectly toned bodies, flowing dandruff-free hairs, gently swaying their hips down the ramp. I can’t put my finger on it though. I guess I am more drawn towards that one clipped/missing front tooth, that slight squint, that twitch in the smile…whatever. My kind of fashionistas are the photo-models on billboards by not-$o-expen$ive zari saree shops bk home in India. Exotic, rich, goodlooking sarees draped on models set amidst sand dunes — yet if you stretch yr imagination, you can visualise your mom, cousins wearing them if you’d gift it to them on a special ocassion.

    I wonder, how many of you ladies, dudettes and aunties (I HAD to use that word somewhere ;), actually look at those clothes and feel the urge to have it in yr wardrobes? From where I come, the ladies in my circle went max upto the part where they tried to copy the zari/embroidery in their own salwaarkameezes, saris.

  11. hy do women have all the fun in India … wear the cool threads … and men get nothing – some shapeless kurta with embroidery on the nape – or some really heavy looking clothes with silver trim – hey we got form… we got shape, we got pipes… we like color too… what gives… any suggestions..?

    I’m not saying it’s equal, but desi men’s fashion is WAY more varied and colorful than any other national costume. You can’t beat a nice sherwani or well cut Nehru jacket–or, dare I say it, an elegantly bordered dhoti. I’m a big fan of guys in well-tailored suits, but still.

  15. Welcome cicatrix! It’ll be great reading you, I am sure of it.

    So here’s a question for the girl who may end up becoming the resident fashonista — who is this Satya Paul character whose saris I fell in love with at ISP; but were way beyond my sari budget? I’d love to hear your take on him.

  16. how many of you ladies, dudettes and aunties (I HAD to use that word somewhere ;), actually look at those clothes and feel the urge to have it in yr wardrobes

    You brought up a lot of interesting points Suhail. I think the point of haute couture is to present this gasp-inducing fantasy..an image of something really far from reality. It isn’t meant to be worn (except by those with really model-like bodies and jet-set lives) since the point is to generate publicity for the ready-to-wear lines.

    Of course, most of the time, it jsut looks plain stupid. But I’ve seen (pictures, natch. I shop at Goodwill) some Alexander McQueen collections that looked mainlined from an imagination far far superior to my own.

    I’m a vicarious fashionista Jhaan 🙂 Like any good aunty (just wait Suhail!) I always tut-tut over the price of clothes and insist on finding a sale, somewhere. I’m also a slob, so there go my dreams of being discovered as the next Chloe Sevigny. I just look at faahhbulous pictures and occasionally get beaten up at sample sales.

    I don’t keep up with Indian fashion because I jsut don’t understand why the designers all claim to be proud of their ‘Indian sensibilities’ yet babble about ‘fusing’ it with a Western modernity or some shit. The results look FUGLY. The Indian elements are watered down and insipid, and the western parts are badly cut, crude, or coy.

    I know some desi women like to look hyper-femenine, but I’m not one of them, so maybe that’s why I don’t get it. I’ll take funny/sexy/weird over pretty/pretty/pretty every time.

    That being said, thanks for directing me to Satya Paul. I just looked him up.This stuff is gorgeous! Too bad about the dust-ruffle millinery but I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt until I see more.

  17. Well, IMO I always thought of Ramp shows as the unwearable art that inspired the designer to make his/her more wearable (aka “in store” )collection. Most designers (and I have not persued EVERY single collection out there, so help me God) don’t have the ramp clothes in store. Most people would look really absurd if they walked around in ramp clothes. ALthough that conehead chain ring look would not warrant a second look in the East Village – unless I happened to walk past 🙂

    My ex used to shoot NYFW stuff and my aunt is an ex desi Model.

  18. Most ramp clothes aren’t meant to be worn by people, except Indian film heroes. The clothes are the purest expression of the designers dream. People dont’ buy clothes anymore just because they fit well and are comfortable. They buy clothes because they buy into the designers vision of beauty, serenity, cachet or exclusivity. Almost always, ramp clothes are loss making entities for the design house. The money is to be made in perfumes and prêt-à-porterish garments that are more realistic renditions of the theme. In any case, for the end consumer the real joy is in buying expensive fashion stuff at 70% off, comfort be damned…

  19. More!

    Like you, cicatrix, I would much prefer to look a little bit funky in my desi-garb than anything else. That’s why Satya Paul’s ecclectic eye-catching patterns appeal to me – he’s a man after my own heart. Alas, I am not usually in the market for $500+ saris; although I may splurge one day, and get one of the lower end $200 ones. 😛