Namrata Zakaria

hermes-s-lawsuit-may-do-more-damage-that-one-imagines

Sun Apr 28 13:34:09 IST 2024

When Hermès was hit with a class-action lawsuit last month for “antitrust” activities, it didn’t see it coming. Most of the luxury world has all eyes on this suit, filed by two interested consumers who claim they were denied a purchase, and whether it would go to trial. Many brands are gleeful. For long, brands have wondered how Hermès, a luxury leader, has managed to hold on to its strategy of rarity and snob value at the risk of losing a sale. Some industry watchers are worried, as American judges are famously pro-consumer.

In March, the plaintiffs Tina Cavalleri and Mark Glinoga filed a suit in San Francisco, California, stating Hermès was indulging in the “unlawful practice of tying”.

This means it made its customers purchase smaller products such as shoes, scarves, ties and costume jewellery before being allowed to purchase one of their two mega products, the Birkin bag or the Kelly purse. Both the Birkin and Kelly have been the subject of various books, blogs and films, thanks to the almost mythical marketing Hermès employs to promote them. The waitlist for a Birkin and Kelly can go into several months or years, giving rise to a famous saying, “You don’t choose an Hermès bag, it chooses you.”

The suit states the company is engaged in unfair, anti-competitive business practices, and the two complainants have also invited other consumers who have been denied a purchase to join their cause: their freedom to buy a crazy expensive handbag if they wanted to.

Hermès, last week, hired a well-known antitrust legal firm, Latham & Watkins, to represent them. They are yet to comment on the suit, adding to the intrigue. But last year, the brand told Businessoffashion.com, “Hermès strictly prohibits any sales of certain products as a condition to the purchase of others.” The CEO Axel Dumas, however, accepted that stores are encouraged to vet buyers and sell the sold-out bags only to real clients, in a bid to thwart the growing resale market for their products.

It is also interesting to note that this suit comes less than one year after Hermès’ stock rose to more than €2,000 per share, raising its market cap to €210 billion. Hermès, not the world’s largest-selling label (it appears well after Nike, Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Adidas), has for the first time surpassed Nike’s market cap.

I am honestly intrigued. If the suit goes to trial, Hermès will be forced to disclose trade practices it has long held secret. Hermès is said to focus on traditional manufacturing techniques and training its artisans for up to 10 years, across its 21 ateliers in France, instead of making assembly-line products.

But Michael Tonello (who authored the riotous Bringing Home the Birkin, exposing the luxury label’s faux waitlist by shopping for Birkins at the smaller stores instead), wrote on his Instagram: “I began reading some of the Hermès PurseForum (one-stop shop for inaccuracies and untruths) and Reddit groups, back around 2005. Each of them were like a country club for Hermès cheerleaders… “Every Hermès bag is entirely handmade, hand-sewn (‘saddle-stitched’) by a single craftsman at a bench.” And, I’ve yet to find anywhere in print where Hermès makes that claim. And they won’t, because it’s not true… But you can find that verbiage in most publications and stories about Hermès.”

Hermès, and eventually luxury brands after the trial, will be forced to disclose methods they disguise for the convenience of myth-based marketing. This may turn on their head stories of the exclusivity, quality and long-held beliefs of discretion that luxury labels are known for.

It will also shift the focus of power in the industry. Who controls the keys to the success of a luxury brand—the producer company, the purchasing customer, or the sales staff who decides whom to open the doors of the private viewing room to.

This suit may change the luxury game forever.

the-curious-case-of-brands-refusing-to-dress-celebrities

Sat Apr 20 11:33:12 IST 2024

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak may have aimed for an everyman image when he wore a pair of Adidas Samba sneakers in an interview to promote his tax policies. But no one saw the ridicule coming from the irreverent British public. The widely popular shoe on their widely unpopular PM has caused fans of the Samba to troll him openly.

The country’s GQ magazine ran an article with a headline that read, “Can Rishi Sunak leave the Adidas Samba alone, please?” The Daily Mail said: “Rishi Sunak roasted after wearing Adidas Sambas to ‘try and appear normal’.” Journalist Ed Cummings tweeted: “Thinking of the Adidas Samba community in this difficult time.” Another troll suggested it was a gift from Nike to sabotage the competition.

The Sambas—a typically slim, gum-sole shoe with Adidas’ trademark three stripes—are currently London’s most popular shoe. It’s been called the shoe of the year or of the season, depending on who you are reading.

If that’s not bad enough, Sunak has taken it on the chin and apologised for wearing the seriously cool sneaker and ruining the credibility for everyone.

Even though it appears that every brand is chasing a celebrity, any celebrity, to wear their clothes, dressing up public figures is a rather sticky idea. Primarily because the celebrity needs to be someone whose image matters too. Victoria Beckham, in her WAG days, showed up in LA in 2007 wearing a fuchsia Roland Mouret dress, a personal purchase. When the designer learned of this, he is rumoured to have famously said: “Get her out of my dress”. This was, of course, years before Victoria would launch her own label (amid criticism of copying Mouret’s designs). And much before the Beckhams became front-row gold for designers in the US and across Europe.

Former French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld said no designers wanted to touch Kim Kardashian because of her “cheesy reality person” background. Kardashian, now a billionaire entrepreneur and still a reality-star, is muse to Balenciaga and Dolce & Gabbana, plus is now the name that can launch a thousand brands.

Her former husband Kanye West is seeing a reversal of fortune. After posting anti-Semitic comments and losing all his brand endorsements (including his blockbuster collaboration with Adidas), West is the superstar all labels must absolutely avoid in order to survive. Last October he appeared at his Yeezy Paris Fashion Week show wearing a T-shirt with the phrase ‘White Lives Matter’ on its back. The rapper faced criticism from fans as well as other celebrities for echoing the new Nazi and white supremacist statements.

Plus-size celebrities such as Ashley Graham, Rebel Wilson, Rachel Bloom and others say they often had to buy their own dresses to wear at red-carpet events. Several brands don’t make dresses in larger sizes, they stated.

Beyonce famously accepted her CFDA Fashion Icon award in 2016 saying high-end labels refused to dress her band Destiny’s Child early on in their careers because they “didn’t really want to dress four Black, country, curvy girls”.

Often designers only want to dress A-list celebrities. Stylists in Mumbai often tell me how they struggle to source clothes for actors who are not stars as yet. They end up sourcing from younger, lesser known labels, where both often lose out on coverage opportunities.

I remember, not too many years ago, a pretty petite actress was walking the runway or shooting campaigns for as many as six fashion labels in one year. The next two years, no designer would touch her.

On the other hand, when brands once spoke about their ‘discerning’ clientele, all their big bucks come from the arrivistes.

@namratazakaria

sad-only-few-female-led-films-have-brought-in-numbers

Fri Apr 12 16:30:17 IST 2024

At the time of writing this, an all-women-led film—Crew—has clocked in Rs104 crore at the worldwide box office. It is only the fifth film this year to have reached the prestigious Rs100 crore club. It is also one of the very few films frontlining women to have reached this milestone. In fact, you can count these films on one hand.

Crew, starring Tabu, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Kriti Sanon, is 10 days old and still counting its collections. The Rhea Kapoor-Anil Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor-Shobha Kapoor production has scored a double whammy, their previous all-girl romp Veere Di Wedding (2018) made Rs138 crore at the worldwide box office. Sonam Kapoor’s Neerja (2016) made Rs131 crore, while Alia Bhatt’s Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022) made Rs209 crore. Kangana Ranaut’s iconic 2013 film, Queen, also a blockbuster, fell short at just Rs95 crore.

It is a sorry state of affairs that such few female-led films have brought in the numbers. It is also discouraging to know that fewer films with women protagonists will thus be made.

There’s a scene from Crew—otherwise a laugh-out-loud comedy—that made me tear up. Sanon’s character, ‘Divya Rana from Haryana’ (among the more backward states of India) is trained to be a pilot. Unfortunately, she’s pretty, and only gets recruited as an air hostess. She takes the job, but spends years lying to her proud parents. So, she goes to work dressed in a pilot’s uniform and changes into a flight attendant’s uniform once she reaches the airport.

This reminded me of so many young women I know who left home in one wardrobe and went to work in another. Women in burqa, women in salwar kameezes, women in jeans and shirts. Women from diverse social and religious backgrounds who had to hide what they wore, and who they are, from those at home. A public toilet became their safe space, there they could get into their Wonder Woman gear and get ready to take on the world.

Perhaps, this is also why such few women make real-life or reel-life heroes today. Simply because they are not able to wear what they want to wear.

So much of the rest of the film, still an escapist heist-in-high heels gambol, echoes the same sentiment without once spelling it out. The three actors are colleagues who haven’t been paid their salaries. Each one’s back story is a compelling middle-class tale of working women who fend for their struggling families. They chance upon some manna from heaven, and indulge in a minor crime. They end up getting caught, and have no one to rely on but their own devices (their looks, their wit and their unshakeable sisterhood) to get themselves out of a sticky situation.

Never mind there are two rather popular heroes in the film—man of the moment Diljit Dosanjh, and the mass icon Kapil Sharma. It’s a dramatic irony that both mega stars are relegated to bit roles, just so the girls can go out and do their thing.

The girls dress their parts beautifully. Tabu in kaftans and capes (and one deliciously buxom dress in the poster) exudes badass big sister energy. Kareena in her unbuttoned blouses, belts and boots is the original hustle rani. Kriti, in itsy bitsies, is the millennial who makes her looks her modus operandi.

And there’s that seminal, sensational, remix ‘choli ke peeche kya hai?’ What lies behind the blouse, it asks. A heart, it replies. But also a smart as a tack mind, the girls echo.

@namratazakaria

like-alexander-mcqueen-alessandro-michele-is-no-ordinary-creative-talent

Sat Apr 06 17:20:53 IST 2024

It took five long years since the death of fashion genius Alexander McQueen for the world to fall in love again. By happy coincidence to a man with the same name. Alessandro Michele was named creative director of Gucci just a month shy of McQueen’s fifth death anniversary. By the time his first fashion show headlining for Gucci had rolled out, we were all shik-shak-shok.

Michele made our heads spin. His debut was a menswear show, a much harder market to break into. But his vintage-inspired, gender-fluid florals for men were groundbreaking. It heralded a new language in fashion, one that’s still an ongoing conversation. This was 2015, also the year when the US Supreme Court had announced that homosexual marriages would be legal across the US. Michele was for the new man, the new woman, and a new world.

Gucci’s profits went up by 50 per cent in two years. Under Michele, Gucci began to clock in €10 billion each year. Along with CEO Marco Bizzarri, Michele reimagined Gucci’s branding, advertising (they famously had a campaign that featured no white models at all), and stores. In December 2022, when Gucci couldn’t recover from the sales slump that followed the pandemic, Michele was sent out in the cold. I’m sure I shed a few tears, just as I did when news of McQueen’s passing broke.

This was the second time Gucci found itself without a creative director. In 2004, Tom Ford and Domenico De Sole, famously known as the Tom-Dom team, brought Gucci back from bankruptcy. Gucci now has ‘safe’ Sabato De Sarno as its head, but its profits are refusing to return.

Last week, Michele was announced as Valentino’s creative head. Valentino is much smaller in size than Gucci is, but it takes Michele back to his Roman roots (Valentino Garavani, 91, was a famous gown-maker out of Rome who retired in 2007. His is the first store in the city’s Via Condotti just beneath the Spanish Steps.) Valentino’s revenue is humble at €1.4 billion in comparison, just before it was hit by a slowdown, too (the group has not yet announced last year’s results). He also returns to his good friend Jacopo Venturini, the chief merchandiser at Gucci who is now CEO at Valentino.

Michele and Valentino are strange bedfellows—he is a kitschy streetwear guru while the label is posh, old-world romance. But if Kering, Gucci’s owner, can allow a shake-up at Gucci, surely Valentino owner Mayhoola can do the same at Valentino. Michele is an expert at rediscovering lost motifs from the archives and giving them a fresh twist.

Michele and his friends at Gucci (he had worked there for 12 years before he was appointed creative head) also brought on a massive brand punch, even the entry-level products were given a touch of quirk to invite newer buyers. The same approach could be just the shot in the arm that would swing the profits in favour of Valentino. Gucci, under Michele, became an innovative, artistic, visionary brand. All these terms are alien in the Valentino dictionary thus far. Gucci also collaborated with Adidas and Disney, and it would be fun to see Valentino be young and relevant again.

Mayhoola, the Qatari investment group that also owns Balmain, has deep pockets. But bringing in a star designer like Michele is unusual, as it plans to exit soon. Kering invested in Valentino last year taking a 30 per cent stake with it. Michele will then be back in the Kering fold, this time taking a hopefully super successful Valentino with him.

Like McQueen, Michele is no ordinary creative talent. He is a significant moment in time, a cultural signpost. Unlike McQueen, he is lucky to have got a second chance.

the-allure-of-the-white-shirt

Sat Mar 30 16:21:55 IST 2024

“Florals for spring? Groundbreaking,” famously scoffed Meryl Streep as fashion editor Miranda Priestly in the epic film The Devil Wears Prada. Perhaps her team should have taken a cue or two from India where we celebrate Holi, or the first day of spring, wearing white (and later dousing it with coloured powder).

Nothing spells summer out loud than the quietest item in your closet: the white shirt. With temperatures scalding at nearly 39 degrees in Mumbai, the most sensible thing I did was scavenge all my white shirts from wherever they had been buried all of the festive months. I attempted to count how many white shirts I owned, and made it to well over a dozen. It’s a humble number, I assure you, as the white shirt is possibly the most timeless piece in your wardrobe.

Its origins can be traced to ancient civilisations. In Rome, men of high social worth wore linen tunics of a natural white colour. Renowned British Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie found a white linen shirt from a First Dynasty tomb in Tarkhan, an Egyptian cemetery located 50km south of Cairo. It dates back to 3000 BCE, making it the world’s oldest preserved white garment. Petrie’s discovery even has pleats on the shoulders and sleeves, and was form-hugging, to slim the wearer’s frame.

In early Europe, the white shirt became an important status symbol of the wealthy aristocrats. The pure white colour indicated a higher class, signifying the wearer could afford to wash his clothes often. In the days before air-conditioning, white shirts allowed the wearer to be cooler. But even by the late 19th century, the white shirts separated the distinguished rich gentleman from the working class. Interestingly, women began wearing shirts around this time, too. In 1860, American and European women began to wear the Garibaldi shirt, which was red at first, symbolising the freedom fighters under Italian revolutionary Guiseppe Garibaldi.

The white shirt today is the most democratic item. It has been shown on the runways of Louis Vuitton, Dior, Alexander McQueen, Valentino, Hermes and other ultra luxury labels down to Savile Row’s impeccable tailors. High street giant Zara makes a lot of its profit selling white shirts, and ensures they have a few copycat designs on their rack all year round. And the clothing bazaars of Mumbai are lined with hangers showing off pristine white cotton shirts for “Only Rs100”.

That said, a good quality white shirt is perhaps the hardest item to construct. It may look simple, but to find one that’s form-fitted, well-tailored, is made of high quality cotton or linen, is comfortable, and looks stylish—it’s a tall ask of an item of clothing that is considered the most basic. After all, the more minimal an item is, the more glaring its flaws become.

In India, we have found the most clever uses for a white shirt. It’s absolutely flawless when worn over black trousers (my favourite silk white shirt is worn with chiffon black flare pants from Shanghai Tang). White shirts over blue jeans are never boring. We also wear them over our gorgeous handloom cotton saris (perfect with a blue shibori dye) and sneakers, a vivid skirt or lehenga. I have seen so many formal white shirts worn over Benarasi lehengas or farshi pyjamas. They are beyond state borders, too; Haryanvi grandmothers wear them over their salwars while smoking beedis, and Malayali men wear them over their crisp mundus. White weddings have also seen shirt-inspired gowns or tuxedos for brides.

I think I may need to buy a dozen more this summer.

the-yays-and-nays-of-fashion-week

Sat Mar 23 16:35:01 IST 2024

Season after season of fashion week, I struggle to find exciting things to say about the event. Don’t get me wrong, I love fashion. And I think Indian fashion has never seen better days. It is aesthetically coming into its own textile-first and craft-friendly space, inviting consumers from India’s giant middle class, and intriguing mega corporations to invest in small businesses, too. It’s just that the fashion week model lives only for emotional reasons; we want to congregate and celebrate in unison. We want to be reminded that we all come from one space. We want to exchange ideas and cigarettes. So, we fashion week.

Last week’s Lakme Fashion Week x FDCI in Mumbai was all those mixed emotions once again. As I pondered over the shows of Rajesh Pratap Singh and JJ Valaya—two stalwart designers whom I have long admired professionally and as people too—I wondered why they even come to a fashion week. Both have been making the same collection over and over again, and while that can be said of so many others too, at least the others have grown their brands in newer and more news-making ways. Singh and Valaya show when their shows are sponsored by someone, and that is the only way they like to communicate to their audience or the press. I have decided to respect designers who respect their own brands.

Gaurav Jai Gupta is doing such wonderful things with his label Akaaro. The textile designer has long been a champion of handwoven and handloomed textiles, especially marrying a beautiful steel thread in his metallic saris and making it his undeniable signature. Gupta has struggled with his tailoring, and I have seen him take baby steps and even falter with shapes. But this season’s collections swept the proverbial rug from under our feet. Called ‘Moonrise’, he used fabric waste to create new clothes, and boy, what a party he had coming up with those designs. Blends of cottons, linens, silks and metallics—Gupta’s Akaaro is so ready for a modern India. I also loved his saris that were draped like couture gowns.

I have been closely watching Amit Hansraj for over three years now—ever since he launched his own terrazzo tiles-inspired label Inca. Hansraj has been a merchandiser with a few leading fashion boutiques and is known to be a great tastemaker in insider circles. During the Covid lockdown, he scratched his entrepreneurial itch with Inca and made easy and elegant kaftans and shirts playing with marble prints. This season he took shibori pants and a shirt and turned them into a sari shape.

Anamika Khanna’s AK-OK was another homage to the queen energy both Khanna and her strongly opinionated consumers exude. An international label, Measure, came from Dagestan, on the border of Russia and Iran, showing us how elegant and edgy modest dressing can be. Designer Zainab Saidulaeva wears a hijab and came here during the holy month of Ramzan to show us her best skills, and won our hearts.

As men’s fashion has come to be such a strong player in India, it would only make sense to have a show presenting only men’s fashion. Three extremely talented and very young labels showcased here—Rishta by Arjun Saluja, Jaywalking and Countrymade. Saluja’s origami shapes have been well-known in his women’s wear for over a decade. Jaywalking is a new streetwear label by 30-year-old Mumbai boy Jay Jajal. Sushant Abrol’s Countrymade marries artisanal work with military shapes and has built a strong following in just four years.

Yes, the fashion week’s glass is only just half full. I’m going to top it with ice and say cheers to that.

indian-ready-to-wear-is-a-small-space-ready-to-go-big

Sat Mar 16 16:16:42 IST 2024

The last thing the luxury business needed was the winner of the best actress award at the Oscars to go up to receive her statuette and say, “I think my dress is broken.” Emma Stone’s sartorial snafu was caused by none other than the mega brand she was wearing, Louis Vuitton.

The wardrobe malfunction has come on the most glamorous night of the modern world—the Oscars. Its red carpet is also where the liaison between fashion and films began, when Giorgio Armani famously dressed Richard Gere for American Gigolo. But luxury labels are witnessing a slowdown in sales. After the post-pandemic boom, where the allure of glamour outweighed all common sense, with people aching to dress up and go out, shoppers have pulled back. It is ironic as the US economy is on a healthy footing; Bloomberg has reported the GDP forecast for 2024 at double of what it was last year.

Businessoffashion.com says there is a renewed focus on ready-to-wear as customers have overdosed on couture and handbags. The Prada group’s results echo this, showing an 82 per cent rise in sales at their RTW label, Miu Miu.

Interestingly, the label that is probably the hardest hit is Gucci; its sales are down by four per cent. Gucci, once the biggest driver of the Kering group (it accounts for more than half of Kering’s revenues), is now its biggest liability. The new Gucci, under Sabato De Sarno, appears to be inspired by ready-to-wear, but with the price tag of couture. Its advertising and coordinated covers on Elle and Vogue magazines (this month’s Vogue India has Tripti Dimri wearing Gucci) have not created much impact. Moreover, it signed on movie star Alia Bhatt last year to anchor itself to its growing Asian audience, but Bhatt is not known for her sartorial savoir faire, unlike Louis Vuitton’s Deepika Padukone.

India’s ready-to-wear market is growing. The new generation of Indian fashion designers are staying away from bridal wear and designing clothes they would like to wear themselves. They are finding an audience that is younger and chicer. They may not be big spenders, but they are repeat clients, which bridal wear nearly rules out. Ready-to-wear fashion can also allow for multiple and regular purchases, instead of that one-time massive sale.

Designer ready-to-wear is usually priced between Rs10,000 and Rs30,000.

Dhruv Kapoor, who makes men’s as well as women’s western wear, has been showing at Milan Fashion Week for a few seasons now. Moonray, the new ready-to-wear offering from Chanakya, has two stores in as many years already. Pero, a stylish and whimsical label by Aneeth Arora, has swept much of Europe and Japan since its inception. It has finally begun to showcase at fashion weeks in India, hoping for a bigger slice of the RTW pie. Anamika Khanna launched a more accessible line, AK-OK, two years ago.

Couture giant Rahul Mishra relaunched his ready-to-wear collection at Paris fashion week six months ago, signalling his plans to take it global. Mishra’s new label is called ‘A Few Rahul Mishra’, and is the result of a joint venture with Reliance Brands. He had launched RTW in 2006 when he made his debut, but it was not as well received as it is today. Two months ago, a multi-brand store ordered 300 pieces from ‘A Few...’ and placed a re-order two weeks ago.

The bridal purchases are still taking place at the designer’s flagships. But multi-brand outlets like Ogaan and Ensemble are thriving with RTW sales, opening newer stores in cities like Kolkata and Ahmedabad respectively. Indian ready-to-wear is a small space ready to go big.

understanding-dress-codes-from-jamnagar

Sat Mar 09 16:25:32 IST 2024

I have had the most fun at the Ambani-Merchant wedding (okay okay, pre-wedding), and I didn’t even have to go to Jamnagar and line up for hours in the private jets’ queue. Ensconced in the comforts of our own homes, we were treated to a minute by minute account of the three-day festivities. That’s what I love about the Ambani family, they invite everyone to gawk—whether you are their guest, or just an ordinary gawker. This is, after all, the age of Instagram, and in the words of Sabyasachi, you are either a voyeur or an exhibitionist.

The youngest son of Mukesh and Nita Ambani, Anant, married his longtime sweetheart, the very beautiful Radhika Merchant. Like the festivities of other two Ambani children—twins Akash and Isha—this one was expectedly ostentatious, peppered with dancing A-listers from Bollywood, international musicians performing, and global billionaires. Two things stood out magnificently this time: first, that it was hosted at Jamnagar, home to their precious oil refinery and their gorgeous new animal sanctuary. Second, a wedding is made especially amazing by amazing clothes. Not for nothing does Indian couture equal bridalwear that equals a Rs1,000+ billion industry.

Let’s start with the bride, since she is the MVP in this squad. Radhika’s early look was a young and girlie fringe dress from Ashish couture. For her sangeet, she wore a custom Versace gown previously seen on Blake Lively in 2022. Her final outfit, a pastel lehenga sari in kashidakari embroidery by Tarun Tahiliani, paid homage to Mughal miniatures. Radhika was styled by the stylist-and-filmmaker Rhea Kapoor, who really deserves a national award for her cool quotient. Isha looked her best self, in Miss Sohee, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Manish Malhotra numbers as well as a gorgeous Alexander McQueen corset with Kanika Goyal pants. Shloka’s Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla lehenga had borders in multiple zardozi styles (AJSK zardozi is the finest in the country), and a dupatta with animal print borders. Sandeep Khosla was his irreverent self, wearing a crystal monkey harnessed to his shoulder.

Sonam Kapoor, also styled by her aesthete sister Rhea, pulled off many original looks. A gobsmacker was a Ladakhi outfit inspired by the Balti ethnic group’s costume, a tunic-cape ensemble with the local crane motif, and lots of jewellery from her mother and mother-in-law’s extensive personal collection. I love that both Deepika Padukone and Natasha Poonawalla braided their hair in long plaits, using Punjabi-style ‘parandis’ and hair jewels. I also loved Deepika’s red, embroidered Rimple and Harpreet sari. Natasha, meanwhile, wore her ‘gutt’ (plait) with a museum-quality revivalist store called Pankaja S Heritage from Delhi.

Karisma Kapoor also wore hair jewels, a matha patti, with a white mundu skirt, as she danced with Diljit Dosanjh on stage. Kareena Kapoor Khan wore a tonal Manish Malhotra sari when it was her turn to groove with Dosanjh. Nita and Isha Ambani were both resplendent in ivory chikankari by Manish Malhotra. The emeralds on the mother-daughter duo are not mere ice-cubes, they are door-stoppers.

I also loved that international guests wore Indian designers. Ivanka Trump wore Manish Malhotra and got a nod from Rihanna, the biggest international act here. Mark Zuckerberg and his wife wore zoo-themed Rahul Mishra. Rihanna’s clothes were disappointing, she picked a green and pink ensemble expecting a gaudy audience. Not only did it rip mid-performance, she also got panned on social media. The diva made up for it with her kindness though, she posed with Indian paparazzi and policewomen brushing aside her bodyguards’ warnings.RiRi learned a lesson we already knew: Indian fashion trumps the Met Gala, the Oscar’s red carpet and Paris Fashion Week in one fell swoop.

@namratazakaria

is-fashion-trash-yes

Sat Mar 02 14:49:23 IST 2024

The most wonderful thing about the internet is that before things are in fashion, they are a viral trend already. Case in point: The just concluded Milan Fashion Week, where a young Swedish fashion label called Avavav has stolen the spotlight from houses such as Armani, Jil Sander, Missoni, Bottega Veneta, and even Dolce & Gabbana. How did they do it? Cleverly, of course. By making the show less about the collection, and more about virality.

Avavav, under creative director Beate Karlsson, made a great point about fashion ending up in trash cans by having actual trash thrown at the models on the runway. Even as the girls came out for their final walk, show runners from the audience began flinging food waste, plastic bottles and packaged item wrappers at the models. One of the models even tripped and fell, thanks to the amount of waste collected on the runway, leading to a little criticism on the safety of runway models. But also, would you like actual garbage thrown at you even though you were paid for the act? Nope, I don’t think so.

Avavav’s reasoning was personal, its previous collection was called “trash” by online trolls. And it took the hate it received a little too far. I am not sure if this sort of gimmick will take a brand far, more so since this is the venerated Milan Fashion Week, the biggest of all fashion weeks anywhere in the world.

But more importantly, it reminds one of fashion’s often neglected connection with trash. For many, on so many levels, both words are interchangeable. Those in serious and possibly dull professions find fashion frivolous and thus worthy of garbage. Never mind that they will wear only mass fashion off the various high street labels or then cheap chic items sold online. In the words of The Devil Wears Prada’s Miranda Priestly (played by the great, and possibly apologetic fashion queen Meryl Streep), “And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin”. Incidentally, the Screen Actors Guild awards going on at the same night in Los Angeles, had the film’s stars—Streep, Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt—reunite to mouth some famous lines from the film.

Fashion’s real connection with trash is of course the mass stores that we all flock to. One stroll into Zara’s newest collection sees everything made of polyester. All polyester is made of plastic. But apart from the fabric that is itchy, sweaty and highly flammable, there is a lot of plastic trash in our clothes in places we can’t see them. Like buttons, zippers, labels, and elastic, wherever the fabric is meant to stretch (waists, necks, wrists and ankles included).

Polyester and nylon account for nearly 70 per cent of materials used in clothing globally. This figure is supposed to increase by another 75 per cent by 2030, according to the environmental consultancy Eco-age. A recent report by a sustainability not-for-profit called Fibershed finds that the production of polyester has increased 900 per cent between 1980 and 2014, in less than 35 years.

Fashion’s dependence on plastic to dress eight billion and counting people is taking its toll. But it is mostly overproduction and overconsumption that is leading to a world that’s unhealthy for us as well as the ecosystem.

Basically, if textile is not organic or handloomed, it is no different than trash. And that’s the lesson a fashion show must teach us.

how-older-models-are-stealing-the-show-today

Sat Feb 24 15:16:26 IST 2024

The last few months have brought back a long-missed and completely decadent new monster: the fashion show. I think other than fashion weeks, most designers had long given up on the lure that was the runway show, preferring newer ways of presentations like social media videos or just store visits. The fashion show is an expensive proposition, putting one together can cost several lakhs only in the production costs of stage, lights, music, and models. Digital media and more experiential ways of marketing had made the fashion show an indulgent, emotional offering.

Which it still is. The good, old-fashioned fashion show is enjoying a hark-back since Sabyasachi Mukherjee put together a gorgeous salon-style jewellery showcase in Delhi last December. Models walked around like they were in an old-school French atelier, holding number cards in their hands. Guests were given folders with the numbers corresponding to the products being presented. This is how atelier shows in Europe were conducted, decades ago, for a select group of couture buyers and women’s magazine editors. The folders were where the orders for the outfits were placed.

Two fashion shows have experimented with locations: the India Men’s Weekend took place on the jetty at Goa’s Aguad Jail, and Mumbai It-girl Surily Goel had an amazing return-to-form show at literally the Mandwa Jetty, with speedboats ferrying hundreds of gorgeous Mumbai people in their finest resort wear and most expensive sneakers (all Alibaugers will tell you heels are practically banned across the sea).

The return of the fashion show has also brought on another much celebrated rebound: that of the older models. Many of the models I have seen on the runways recently are not the cheap and cheerful models of the fashion weeks, they are our original glamour girls instead. All these girls, well into their 40s now, would give the newer flock a run for their runway. They are all still as svelte and beautiful as they were two decades ago, but have the swagger and the personalities that the younger girls just don’t.

Sabyasachi’s salon brought back Bhawna Sharma from Barcelona, Nethra Raghuraman from Singapore, Indrani Dasgupta from being Mrs Apeejay Group, Lakshmi Menon from Goa, Sheetal Mallar, Laxmi Rana, Sanea Shaikh, Mitali Rannorey and their ilk. These girls are mothers, and wives, and have moved on to many other and more important roles. But they have maintained their commitment to beauty and a fine form. Likewise, Surily’s show had Kavita Kharayat, Deepti Gujral, Hemangi Parte, and Candice Pinto, each one looking as beautiful as they did decades ago, matching looks and strides with the younger Alecia Kaur and Nayanika Shetty.

Designer label Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla almost presciently did a social media campaign called ‘Muse’, bringing together models of yore such as Nayanika Chatterjee, Mallar, Carol Gracias, Arjun Rampal and Dino Morea. Each one spoke about their halcyon days and how the runway treated them.

I am truly amazed at why our runway models would continue to remain ageless. I am well into my 40s and struggle with weight, waistlines, and the faint appearance of wrinkles. It seems impossible to look as one did a decade ago, leave alone two decades (and perhaps 10 kilos) ago. Catwalks don’t pay well either, unlike movie stars for whom their looks are their meal ticket. Neither do models ever have access to privy parties or events.

It has to be self love. An abiding respect for one’s body, rest, and routine. Models know a secret that we need to learn: beauty takes effort and discipline. It’s hard to gain beauty, and thus should be harder to lose.