Small Screen’s Big Fashion

“Every celebrity — from Shah Rukh Khan to Salman Khan to Hrithik Roshan — is now on television. It just shows what a powerful and wide-reaching medium it is today. Naturally,this is an opportunity that fashion designers like me can’t miss,” says the Mumbai-based Goel. The power of television lies in its ability to reach out to the masses,across small-towns and rural India. It is,as designers acknowledge,a publicity platform par excellence.

Riyaz Gangji,who has styled looks for shows such as Dance India Dance and Comedy ka Maha Muqabla,says,“In Mumbai,people see my label’s outlets and they recognise my name. But who will know me in a place like Jalandhar? It’s not feasible for me to go to every town and city in order to market myself,but with television,that gets taken care of.”

Delhi-based designer Nida Mahmood,who styled the looks for UTV Bindass’ Meri Toh Lag Gayi…Naukri,agrees. “Every television show is an opportunity to showcase one’s talents.” A television show also offers unique challenges. For instance,when Mahmood was considering the styling offer for Meri Toh…,she was given a choice of picking from any of the five main characters. “I picked a guy,because I had long wanted to create menswear and this was a great opportunity.”

In fact,Gangji says that he’s found television to be such a good medium for publicity that he often shaves his price a little. “That’s the least I can do,considering how effective the small screen is,” he says. Goel,too,believes that some concessions are due when it comes to styling for television. “The work always comes in bulk,so it’s fair,” she says.

Interestingly,however,these concessions are limited to the star-studded reality shows. Fiction shows,because of their considerably smaller budgets and lack of celebrities,don’t find much favour with designers. “We need to keep in mind that each designer has his or her own brand value and that cannot be compromised on. So it’s much easier for big-budget reality shows to hire fashion designers to do the styling,” says Mumbai-based Sonya Vajifdar,who styled Chitrangada Singh when the actress appeared as a judge on the Kingfisher Model Hunt. The setting of fiction shows — with their emphasis on ‘family-oriented’ plots and rural backdrop — offer little scope by way of experimentation. “You have to be very careful not to show anything too glamorous,because the audience across India needs to identify with these characters,” Vajifdar says.

While everyone acknowledges that television enjoys a mass reach like never before,it’s still a long way from being a fashion trendsetter. Unlike American shows like Sex and the City and Mad Men,no Indian show has yet inspired fashion,right from the runway to the streets. “That power is still held by cinema in India,” says Goel,“In India,people are yet to look at TV as an agent of change in terms of fashion or other cultural aspects. They’re still looking at it primarily as a mode of story-telling. But given the way the small screen is evolving in India and the number of people who are increasingly influenced by it,I don’t think we’ll have to wait too long before we get shows which are as trendsetting as Mad Men.”