None of what you will read here is by the book. But to find Fashion’s India, or the many ways in which fashion in India resurges, resonates and rocks regardless of the most scripted events, weddings or celeb appearances, we must leave the book behind. 

Enter Salt. This story’s first ingredient, of much meaning in anything to do with cloth in India. Since cloth has connects with colonial impositions, post-colonial experiments, decolonisation explorations as well as a resilient relationship with Khadi, “salt” because of the Salt March is well within the domain of those who research on roti, kapda, makaan. But here is an accidental finding—a packet of Tata Vacuum Evaporated Iodised Salt, a kilo of which costs ₹25, carries on its plastic packaging, images of cooking tools from the Indian kitchen. Flat and rounded ladles, turning spoons, spatulas, sieves…Culturally resonant, the link with an Indian way of life clear. Packaging is one half of any big fashion story, so do pass the salt. 

Similarly, a sort of “Indianness”, could be ascribed to several enduring ideas across the decades. Actors Mumtaz and Rajesh, visibly high on cannabis and love singing Jai Jai Shiv Shankar, Kanta Lage Na Kankar in the 1974 film Aap Ki Kasam. Cut to many decades ahead and Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan gyrating to Badri Ki Dulhania, embrace you with the same frothy, unambiguous “Indian” vibe. Waheeda Rehman’s poetic romance with Guru Dutt (it is the latter’s centenary year), a Garden Vareli ad from the Eighties, a Bharat Mata poster from among many interpretations of post-Independence street art. Or, fashion’s curiosity in the return of Zeenat Aman, the glamour goddess of the Seventies now in her seventies. Aman has not only been a showstopper at fashion weeks lately, but she was right here amidst influencers, bloggers, editors and the implosive fashion media at ‘Studio Mix’ by Shantnu & Nikhil in Delhi last week. The designer duo’s party, an ode to the Seventies was a nod to a new fashion category called Shantnu Nikhil Luxe. All of it is the blurry remix that makes Fashion’s India. 

Now bring in actor Taapsee Pannu in plain saris with contrasting sleeveless cholis on a sexy bod in the newly released film Phir Aai Haseen Dilruba or Kartik Aaryan’s Marathi dialect in Chandu Champion—the latter an Independence Day release. Then there is Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla’s Disco Mujra riotously fun, high on steroids, design and glamour show for their labels ASAL and Mard at India Couture Week. Or Gen Z favourite actor Janhvi Kapoor dressing up in a yellow sari with a green blouse on a visit to Tirupati temple to mark her late mother Sridevi’s 61st birthday. Everything is distinctly Indian in its feel, tactility, vibe, messaging and mirth. 

Why India Stays “In Fashion”

That’s the India that stays in fashion. It is the ground zero of “Indian fashion”. As a visual idea, it sparks an immediate connect, even an emotion. It has screeching colours, a form, it feasts on multiple flavours, it has a language, even when it does not speak. It is resilient and that’s why it is progressive. It is like Janus—the two-faced Roman God of transitions, gates, beginnings. 

That very notion of Indianness in fashion as progressive and transitionally open—to completely unpredictable influences—makes it a documentary delight. If you are among those who believe celebrity dominance, sponsored events (and the resultant sponsored, manipulated content), or power weddings the primary domain of fashion—you might consider following Janus’s gaze the other way. There is an entire universe waiting to be noticed and felt. Where does Janus look if he looks ahead (and not at the past)? This is after all, a fashion apologist’s defence of fashion in India. 

Amit Aggarwal to Johargram; “Entwined” To Sabyasachi 

It is pure coincidence then, that among the most convincing arguments to look the other way, one is provided by designer Amit Aggarwal’s collection called ‘Antevorta’ that he showed at India Couture Week. Inspired by the Roman Goddess (quite a proliferation of Romans in an article on Indian Independence Day, right?) for Antevorta, who is mythologically present at birth and symbolises the future, Aggarwal moulded polymers and corded textiles, he shaped dresses into cocoons, he created textiles from industrial nylon and organic cotton on the loom. They looked like glass. “The collection intricately weaves together philosophical, mythological, religious, scientific, and cosmological influences into a temporal narrative,” said the press note adding that it was an exploration of Time. “By envisioning time as five distinct yet interconnected entities, we extend our narrative beyond the realm of fashion,” said the couturier. He craned his neck out of the predictable idea of India as well as out of mere fashion. 

That’s Indian fashion. It is not mere fashion. It is always straining outside its armholes (or wormholes as Aggarwal may call it?) into new territories. Even as its forever cradle, its bedrock, Sridevi’s saris now templated by Janhvi, our persistent fascination for Banarasi brocades, love for the returning Zeenat Aman, or veteran designer Pranavi Kapur’s year after year “gift an Indian textile” campaign for Independence Day keeps us rooted. 

All said and done, Indian fashion continues to grow shoots. Even as you read this, designer Ashish Satyavrat Sahu from Jharkhand wants you to know that his brand Johargram held a Tribal Fashion Show for the third time in a row in Ranchi. If you are coursing along with this writer and have cottoned on, you know by now that Indian fashion’s biggest highs are not just about fashion anymore. It is a widening river, gushing to meet new tributaries. That’s why “Entwined”, a show by Apparao Galleries currently on view at Delhi’s Bikaner House describes its fibre and textile contemporary artworks as “narratives bound in nature and life.”

That’s why when Raw Mango founder Sanjay Garg spoke at Museum of Fine Arts in Houston earlier this year in May, alongside an exhibition of the brand’s creations, he contextualised Indian aesthetic and design without fashion’s compelling clichés. That’s why couturier Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s newly envisioned ‘The Curiosity, Art & Antiquity Project’ speaks of the 3900 odd artisans it employs directly or indirectly in the same breath as sustainable luxury, rarest of rare materials and techniques.

That’s why Independent writing especially in fashion is more complex than it ever was. That’s why its blurry, but bright and salted. 

Banner: Taha Shah for Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla at India Couture Week in New Delhi, on July 24, 2024. Photo by Money Sharma / AFP; Dancing Girl, Oil on canvas by Muhammad Baqir, shot by Sanjay Garg; A creation by Amit Aggarwal at India Couture Week.