Writing 2022 with a blade of grass

The reasonable question, ‘so what’s happening in Indian fashion?’ makes my mind go blank. Whether it is from apologists of fashion who know what is happening but dangle a bait anyway or from satirists emphasising fashion’s irrelevance — even philosopher Slavoj Žižek did that last year in an interview — the question provokes perplexity. Because it means pushing back the procession of bridal lehengas looming in the mind to fluidly describe the experimental, original, risqué work that co-exists in fashion.

Notice the hubris? Lament the regressive tide increasingly apparent in art, culture and comedy, following the course of politics, and then switch right back to writing on all these issues, business as usual. Gripe about the pandemic’s ravages and fashion’s supposed non-essentialism in the face of climate change, then argue for its growing importance as an interlocutor of our times.

Kriti Sanon in a Manish Malhotra lehenga
 

My New Year detox begins with first dodging the influence of visual narratives as ‘what’s happening in India’. Or in Indian fashion. Especially on social media. The visuals create a deceptive cocktail of romantic nostalgia. When examined carefully, many just remix insular old ideas. For instance, the saturated coverage of the reign of red lehengas worn by actors Patralekha and Katrina Kaif for their recent weddings turned into a shindig on ‘women’s fashion’ and all its attendant “problems”. Those who derided their pretty sameness saw celebrity brides toeing time-worn ideas, unwilling to wear individuality. Those who applauded, hailed the girls for remaining true to tradition. Few noted that the bridegrooms — Rajkummar Rao and Vicky Kaushal in this case — too played willingly stereotypical parts in the syrupy, botanical sundowners.

Keep silent, keep the peace?

The Old is New demon made stooges out of us in 2021 (and the year or two before). Sociologists may call it the moral price of an era as the right eclipses the left, but my discord is more mundane. It is about the conspicuous silence of fashion media when a group of decorated damsels in luxurious palaces wearing silken brocades, twittering over jewellery are sent out as “fashion” in videos on Indian couture. When influencers who unbox new products every day for a fee remind us to pay homage to our grandmother’s old saris and call themselves sustainability advocates. When a beautiful, young, tall girl from India is crowned Miss Universe after multiple rounds of body-beauty contests under the guise of empowerment and we are supposed to clap in the name of patriotism. Those who dissent are called entitled feminist “expletive”.

Priyanka Chopra
 

The pretense of Old as New isn’t as easy to duck perhaps. It even convinced the global, multi-hyphenate Priyanka Chopra Jonas to promote the Bulgari Hindu mangalsutra as emblematic of a financially independent woman’s purchasing power. Thus attempting to turn one of the oldest symbols of patriarchy into a feminist accessory. Then the same Chopra-Jonas broke old ground to admirably roast her husband Nick Jonas for The Jonas Brothers Family Roast on Netflix. Earlier this month, she slammed a reporter who called her the “wife of Nick Jonas”.

That was the time to ask why PC Jonas sold us an enslaving wedding ornament for women in the first place? Or why are we interested in the halwa Katrina Kaif made as her first bahurani cookout? Why do fashion designers believe that consumers will buy into their tokenism for inclusivity-diversity-disability-durability just because they rope in a constellation of short, dark, gay, plus-sized and salt-haired models?

Many such questions sit unasked in my notes:

Are Banarasi weaves in fashion because tradition is the newest trend or because of new design interventions?

Are crafts organically sustainable, or is this just a poorly investigated correlation?

Are Ayurvedic beauty potions selling more because they are marketed in pretty ‘recyclable’ bottles?

Make room for solutions

These ideas confused me particularly in the last year. But they also open the potential of cultural reporting beyond the Old is New tyrant. To write sharply, freshly, with a blade of grass in 2022.

By arguing for handloom weaving as a practical subject for schools. By questioning brands and designers who call their products sustainable without conforming to globally established guidelines that range from supply chain inspections to sourcing and manufacturing checks to gender parity and wage fairness. By calling out every couturier who perpetuates gilded maharani culture.

Let’s highlight new and emerging designers this year who create non-conformist fashion and represent youth culture beyond the Great Indian Wedding. And applaud genuine faces of newness like British diver Tom Daley who was seen publicly knitting between athletic events at Tokyo and knitted himself an Olympic- themed cardigan. Look beyond mainstream media’s selective engagement to highlight less publicised ideas like Shillong-based YouTuber duo CatxLizz who uses music and recycled fashion to comment on social issues.

Kim Kardashian arrives for the 2021 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
 

Dwell on the seductive relationship between publicity and anonymity through Kim Kardashian’s stark black Balenciaga dress for the Met Gala in October. It completely obscured her famous body and revenue generating face. Look for the new, new. Like Raw Mango founder Sanjay Garg’s recent collection Sher Bagh, handwoven in Banaras and conceptualised with Anjali Singh of SUJAN. Garg inverts the traditional shikargah (hunting lodge) vocabulary in Indian textile design by eliminating the hunter. Arguing thus for wildlife conservation.

Sustainability: not a white-collar indulgence

Writing in 2022 with a blade of grass will also mean challenging the impression that sustainability is the prerogative of the fashion industry. It is not. Nor is it a white-collar indulgence just as recycling is not only about buying vintage or repeating an expensive outfit on Instagram. So, unless goals of conservation, reuse and reassembling move beyond class issues or elitist trends, and fashion becomes humble enough to reach out to other industries for co-existence, cross pollinated action and awareness, our writing will indeed slip into lament. At the moment, most cultural reporting is in a state similar to what the greatest gymnast of all times, Simone Biles called “the twisties”. A mental hiccup that left her unsure, as she told Time magazine, of her whereabouts, while she was mid-air, high above the vault at the Olympics.

As a blade of grass intern, I turn for inspiration to Rest in Power designer Virgil Abloh who passed away in November. The Louis Vuitton artistic director and founder of Off-White tried to create a race-equal ecosystem. He also said: “I am not made for a podium. But I will design a podium that ushers in systemic change.”

Shefalee Vasudev is editor-in chief, The Voice of Fashion.