How has Indian fashion evolved?

Somewhere between the ‘we are a civilized society now’ there is still a girl who wears her make up in the public washroom. There is a girl or a boy who schedules a lover’s tryst in the same clandestine spot. And as much as the progression has led to even a mission to Mars there is still this struggle of having a strong mission without the household itself. Known as the land of the Kama Sutras of ardent sexuality and passion. Yet the freedom to sexuality is still fought for. There is every reason to look at Indian fashion in the context of sexuality because of the lifestyle we have inhabited.

INDIAN FASHION IS ALWAYS EVOLVING

To plainly put it, Indian fashion is as flexible as the positions in the Kama Sutra itself. Because as surprising as it is given the country’s vastness there is no written code of sartorial to be followed. Yet ironically ,’this’ and ‘that ‘type of cloth is still being labelled. What people fail to recognise is that, the idea of home-grown decorum and modesty is deeply misplaced. The Indian fashion of what we call modesty might have its root elsewhere.

Because the confusion with Indian fashion is confusing freedom of sexuality, expression with breaking the modesty, cultures we have imbibed. If only they knew the origin of the modest culture is not what they might expect. If the general Indian fashion equates the baring of the skin with breaking the modesty or has to do with the west, then the truth might shock you further.

Talking in regards to the Indian fashion of baring the skin and modesty; women of the Vedic time wore a ‘pratidhi” or a breast bad. With little mention we time and again see that our culture collides we what we term ‘anti-culture’. Such as women of the 7^th or 8^th century Gupta periods. Known and seen as wearing just a breast band and a lower garment, exposing a fair amount of skin.

Even the blouse that we consider as a garment to seem modest is an establishment from the British itself. Hence talking of culture in regards to Indian fashion can be very challenging. As the country itself isn’t foreign to foreign rules. We have been in contact with the Greeks, the Romans, the Arab, the Mughals and possibly a lot more. Hence the culture of Indian fashion has always been revolving.

In the present time with exposure to technology, trade, commerce, the fashion of Paris is in India too. So is with the major fashion booming countries in addition to rising fast fashion culture.

It is hence safe to say that Indian fashion has never been in a phase of permanence. It has evolved, come and gone and will remain so. Fashion as an art can be as interesting as the many art forms it can take. To know and read more about such, know CallosAngeles.