Mumbai fashion weeks need a revamp. Not Dharavi & Girgaon

The Print

a day ago

It's time we adulted and acknowledged the power of same-sex passion/fashion. We keep calling it 'Bridal Week', when, in fact, it could be successfully sold as Bridegroom Week in a category of its own. This year, there was a major credibility issue seeing new p apaji Siddharth Malhotra as a showstopper with the nubile singleton Jahnvi Kapoor on his arm. They aren't a couple even in our fantasy! Akshay Kumar and his deep curtsy in that boring sherwani? If only some bold designer had hired Ranveer Singh as the ultimate bride—ghunghat, veil, mehendi, the works! He's already rocking high heels and make-up.
As one uninspiring fashion week segues into the next, fashion fatigue shows up—on the ramp. Not one original idea or breakthrough silhouette can be found, as one tired collection after the other is sent out by the same old, fully thakela designers, desperately (and unsuccessfully) trying to reinvent themselves. To add an element of newness to the predictable posturing, this edition saw the addition of a celeb Panditji—a designer astrologer at the venue. Smart! Our obsession with shadis and bridal wear needs someone like him around, just in case a few rishtas happen organically during the catwalk.
Lo ji… Dilli ke LG Saab also fell for the fashion bait. Vinai Kumar Saxena showed up as the chief guest at the FDCI Manifest Wedding Weekend. The evening ended on a powdery high note, where desi fashion's darlings strutted their stuff—the same old stuff—but who cares? More ornate lehengas? Check. More bling? Check. More embellished bralets? Check.
Embrace the rainbow, designers
Fashion needs a serious reboot in India. What we are being served is Cowardly Couture. Major designers, bloated and pompous, have run out of ideas. Fluffy-haired seniors show off their perfect blow-dry and dart around officiously. Our Red Carpet obsession is killing freshness. And our so-called couture is mainly borrowed from the West, and hopelessly derivative.
Socialite celebrities ape their famous global counterparts and end up looking comical. Cadaverous Cool is not attractive, ladies. Indian heiresses (beauties, all) who starve and starve and starve, to better slide into international haute couture and pose inside grand European palaces, need to ease up. Those gowns and corsets and bustiers and whatnot are created for the likes of Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner. Our ladies are gorgeous, glamorous, and ummm… ridiculously wealthy. They don't need validation from the French or Italians. Just be you, babe, eat some dhansak!
My admiration goes to the beautiful young Koli community ladies from a fishing village close by, confidently wearing neon Crocs with their traditional kashta nauvaris. That's style!
Our khoobsurat young men in fashion are the most short-changed segment. Male models work equally hard to get those fashion week gigs. They spend as much as their female counterparts on grooming, fitness, beauty products, and make-up. It takes a lot for some of the small-town guys to get ramp-ready. But it's the starlets-as-models who walk away with the fame and fancy fees.
It's always about the bride! It would translate into more business all around if India changed its position on same-sex marriages and legalised gay rishtas. There'd be a boom—and not just in fashion. The market is ripe and ready to support what is already accepted in 34 countries.
What about an official Gay Fashion Week, designers? Why hide behind terms like 'gender fluidity', or tread super-cautiously around apparel specifically created for this vast and unrepresented segment of Indians? With the 79th Independence Day coming up, let's get the tricolour to embrace rainbow colours.
Also read: India is becoming a Republic of RWAs. It's the most powerful elected body
Dharavi from 30,000 feet
Gautam Adani doesn't like looking out of the window of his PJ when he flies into Mumbai (ummm… not really HIS city, if you get the drift). Addressing students at IIM Lucknow, the billionaire expressed his distress.
'Dharavi is Asia's largest slum…Every time I fly to Mumbai, the slums below disturb my conscience, as no nation can truly rise when so many of its people live without dignity,' Adani said.
Awwww. So sweet! Didn't know Gautam Seth was such a softie at heart. But hello, boss… Dharavi and the dignity of labour go together. Has India's second-richest man (I'm not saying it, Forbes is… and please don't ask who the first is) ever set foot in Dharavi to see what a dynamic and incredible 'city within a city' it is?
There is no place in the world quite like Dharavi, which houses around 12,000 micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), with an estimated annual economic output of over $1 billion. Dharavi's diverse businesses span various segments from recycling to leather and pottery. It is a self-created economic zone exporting products globally. Perhaps a walk in this 'slum' after flying in the clouds is overdue, Mr Adani?
Yes, Adani's redevelopment plan for these very 600 acres in the heart of Mumbai must have merit. He has called it his most 'transformative' project. Adani is 'reimagining' Asia's largest slum into 'townships', and the Dharavi Redevelopment project is estimated to cost Rs 95,790 crore.
Bless Mr Adani's kind heart. So glad his view from 30,000 feet will improve by 2032.
While on the subject, Mumbai's glorious and culturally vibrant Girgaon may soon go the Dharavi way under the guise of 'redevelopment'. The area is home to historic chawls—Mohan Building is 121 years old. It's where Bal Gangadhar Tilak first began the Ganeshotsav, back in 1893. Even worse, Girgaon's cultural milieu, which attracted the likes of Raja Ravi Varma, is likely to disappear altogether.
The prospect of Girgaon turning into Gurugram… perish the thought, I say. I mean—Gurugram? Every Mumbaikar's worst nightmare. Noooooo!
Shobhaa De is an author, columnist, social commentator, and opinion-shaper. She has written 20 books. She tweets @DeShobhaa. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)