{"id":3502,"date":"2006-06-20T23:41:48","date_gmt":"2006-06-21T04:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=3502"},"modified":"2006-06-20T21:54:14","modified_gmt":"2006-06-21T02:54:14","slug":"if_this_were_a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2006\/06\/20\/if_this_were_a\/","title":{"rendered":"Fix Up, Look Sharp"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If this were a face-to-face conversation, our sassy Barmaid would be telling me about her Ritu Beri <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sepiamutiny.com\/sepia\/archives\/003501.html\">entry<\/a> and I would follow up with&#8230;<\/p>\n\n<p>It&#8217;s funny that you should mention Beri&#8217;s rubbish ideas on Indian design, Barmaid, particularly the bit about how it is limited.  Just the other day I was partaking in some retail therapy and I happened upon my most bank-breaking pleasure, a little Queen West shoppe called &#8216;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.torontolife.com\/guide\/fashion\/for-men-play\/delphic\/\">Delphic<\/a>&#8216;.  Of course I had to go in for a teensy look, maybe try on a little of this and that, drool over some sneaks.<\/p>\n\n<p>I took a tentative step through the door and what did I see?  A lone mannequin wearing a twisted &#8216;Little Black Dress&#8217;, the shape of which looked eerily familiar.  I mean <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dhoti\">really<\/a> familiar.  My eyes then darted right and on the rack there was a coat.  A grey coat.  With painful-looking needlework that I have only before seen in the kurtas I used to wear (back when I lived in a warmer climate).  But the pattern did not resemble anything I had ever seen before, here or in that yonder homeland.  Delicately I moved the lapels aside to reveal a name:  <a href=\"http:\/\/rashmivarma.level.ca\/index.html\">Rashmi Varma<\/a>.  Ahhh, it made me feel good.<\/p>\n\n<p>The nice shop lady informed me that Varma spends her time between Toronto and Delhi, where most of her pieces are made.  I asked to see all the RV items they had, held up top after top to see if I could find even a hint of that proverbial &#8216;mango&#8217;.  And you know what?  Nothing.  Just beautiful, expressive pieces like the Bihari dress, or the Kantha trench, or (my personal fav) the Dogri jersey pants.  Hammertime.<\/p>\n\n<p>Yes I do have faith in Indian fashion, perhaps not in Beri&#8217;s world of regurgitated design but efforts made in cloth have never been limited to haughty architects who like to point fingers while their own blinders are fastened in place.  Hmph!<!--more--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If this were a face-to-face conversation, our sassy Barmaid would be telling me about her Ritu Beri entry and I would follow up with&#8230; It&#8217;s funny that you should mention Beri&#8217;s rubbish ideas on Indian design, Barmaid, particularly the bit &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2006\/06\/20\/if_this_were_a\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3502"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}