Street fashion turns funky
By Anita Arora

GONE are the days when street fashion meant a pair of casual jeans and a white or black T-shirt. With youngsters turning increasingly expressive in their sartorial tastes, being ‘dressed-to-kill’ has acquired a new meaning.

The scrubbed-clean look has really caught on for these twenty-somethings. Just as females are staying free from make-up and accessories, the men are getting themselves clean-shaved and cropping their hair real short. Tassles, frills, embroidery and jewellery are reserved for formal occasions.

What has emerged is an imaginative mix of personal style and attitude, be it in a pair of khaki pants and shirts, kurtas and jeans or plain trousers and tops. Amidst these, there are five definite trends, which fashion pundits are beginning to recognise:

Indian kitsch: The accent is on vibrant colours with a good deal of mixing of prints. In what appears to be a throwback from the seventies, designers are quick to capitalise on this trend, if only to revive the Hare Rama Hare Krishna filmi look.

For instance, Ritu Kumar and J.J. Vallya are cropping pants and shortening kurtas with bold floral prints and paisley motifs around the collars and sleeves. The traditional salwar-kameez is also being given a new spin in their hands with large, colourful prints.

Vijay and Shobhana Aurora have gone a step further by mixing polka dots with typical Indian motifs in traditional ethnic wear like churidar-kurtas and ghagra cholis. Outlandish as these colour combinations might seem, the Indian youth have taken to them in a very big way!

Neutral white: For a change, white is also beautiful. In keeping with the squeaky clean look, virgin white (and neutrals) have become firm favourites of a generation that has made a virtue out of minimal and deconstructed dressing.

The best examples here are Rohit Bal’s latest collection of loose-fitting, long-sleeved shirts teamed with drawstring trousers in cotton blends as well as Rajesh Pratap Singh’s white shift dresses for women with subtle resham (silk thread) embroidery and sequins.

Manuviraj Khosla too has captured the spirit of the times with a recent range of white tracksuits for men and white cropped trousers for women. Their sporty look and feel would go very well with the body-conscious fitness freaks prowling around.

Pillar-box red: This is one colour that has always been a hot favourite with the street smart, but for some strange reason, could never been exploited to its full potential. Reassurance comes now with designers like Kiran Uttam Ghosh proving that red is really not loud.

In her latest show at the India Fashion Week in Delhi, the Calcutta-based designer came up with some unusual combinations — such as a pair of black trousers with a red cropped top. This might sound simple, but the combination was so striking that it worked.

Red incidentally, has also become a popular for the lips. Gitanjali Kashyap and Aki Narula are especially making a celebration of this, as the lips of all their models are painted pillar-box red these days. The trend has lent instant glamour to roadside fashion.

Animal prints: Designers are also lending respectability to animal prints — something that had been rejected as too down-market and unsophisticated sometime back. Ushering in this revival are names like Malini Ramani and Aparna Chandra.

In fact, both Gitanjali and Aparna have gone to town with jackets, tops and stoles in animal prints with dashes of shocking pink. The dominant shades are black and white though — thereby standing out from the faux leather and fur outfits that litter designer stores.

Malini has taken things a step further by making tiger print-inspired gold sequined tops, which are just great for late-night outings. There are others as well like Rohit Gandhi and Vimal Puri who are making a song-and-dance of zebra print coats.

Leather and denim: Just as soft fabrics like crepe and silk typify traditional Indian wear, leather and denim have always been associated with western outfits — jeans, jackets, boots.... Monisha Bajaj, Rana Gill and Malini Ramani are some designers who have popularised this range of casual wear.

This time around, Rohit Bal has stepped in with an innovative range of funky men’s attire in white leather and fur. In a practical sense, they may not have made an impact as yet but as a fashion statement, white leather is a strong indicator of street fashion in the times to come.

( MF)