Shows and Show-Offs

I would have never guessed then that I would be watching fashion shows for a living.

Perhaps the most successful moment at the recent Wills India Fashion Week was the show by Abraham & Thakore,designers with such a refined aesthetic that one should call their creations “products” rather than just clothes. As they sent out raiments for the global Indian — a modern reinterpretation of saris,shantungs,ikat and kurtas that are still fresh and new despite everyone and their imitator attempting it — one wonders why this was the duo’s first fashion show ever.

“I just feel like we had something to say,we may not want to do it again,” says Abraham,two days and a flooded inbox later,breaking my heart.

Several designers fight shy of a fashion show. Many find them ostentatious and vulgar and succumb to brand-building. Others exploit the theatrics of the stage so wonderfully,such funny stuff gets us gushing in the name of envelope-pushing.

Whisky companies do it to get people drunk and lech at the models,which is also fun. My first encounter with Rohit Bal was at one such show over a decade ago where he drunkenly found himself on a seat next to mine and we discussed Carol Gracias’ contours as she slithered on the five-foot-high runway. Then he kissed me on the lips (but he kisses everyone on the lips,I discovered soon) and I remember nothing about the clothes on display.

Shows have come a long way in India ever since the fashion weeks started. Models have stopped dancing on stage,sexiness these days is a pout before a pirouette. Shows are now serious business generators and sophisticated publicity tools. And everything must happen as it does in Europe or New York (except in the case of Bollywood showstoppers).

The difference between an exhibition and exhibitionism is a line that’s easily blurred. I rediscovered this as a fashion display actually made it to the front-page news last week — Mayawati’s multi-lakh (or is it crore?) garland. The Dalit queen empowers her disenfranchised followers by gross demonstrations of opulence — jewels,marble statues,giant cakes — she could be our answer to Marie Antoinette. Fashion is most exciting when it is politically relevant,and never has bad taste been so hyped.

Unless you sat for Reynu Taandon’s show at Wills.

mratanow@gmail.com)