THAT ’80s SHOW

The signs have been there in the last two seasons. If Marc Jacobs worked the power shoulders to effect in his spring-summer 2010 collection,Rick Owens’s take on the dropped crotch pants last season had fashionistas clamouring for more. In India,kitsch master Manish Arora put his own twist to the pouf skirt with his circus collection,while Rajesh Pratap Singh broke away from tradition and made boyfriend jackets the ‘it’ thing a couple of seasons ago. Almost all Indian designers have done some variation of the clown pants (or dropped crotch pants) — from playing around with the length to introducing indigenous prints like kalamkari—and the jumpsuit has never been more popular.
“It’s hard to carry on any extreme for long,so trends oscillate naturally,” says designer Anamika Khanna. Her spring-summer collection works the Eighties inspiration in different ways. The ensembles have a strong Indian element,even if the silhouettes are western. Embellishments include denim effects with Indian embroidery.

“They are clothes for a thinking woman. There’s a dishevelled elegance,grunge and edginess—a look for a woman who treats expensive things with nonchalance,but values the arts nonetheless. It’s mostly about a studied attitude,” says Khanna,a Kolkata-based designer. A case in point is fashion’s latest it-girl,actor Sonam Kapoor. Be it a Marc Jacobs tunic paired with black leggings and over-sized aviators,or a Marios Schwab 3D Crystal Print dress,the actor carries off each look with remarkable élan.

“Fashion has always been a lot about nostalgia,of comparisons between the sentiments of two generations,vastly different,yet anchored together by some commonality. The reason why the Eighties are back in vogue is probably because we are tiding over the recession. It’s a phase when we can long for that abandon,but no longer actually live it. So an image of a time when everything was possible is attractive,and also inspiring. It’s ideal and unreal,” says Verma. On a recent visit to New York,the young designer had been quite taken in by the skyscrapers and the architecture of the city. “I had been reading Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and this trip made the idealism in the novel seem more tangible. The buildings were like phallic symbols in a man-made world and the potential of individual enterprise seemed unlimited,” he says. His clothes,accordingly,are replete with Art Deco symbolisms,textures of black and prints of nature imagery like lightning and thunderbolts.

Raipurani,on the other hand,says when they chose to do a resort collection,they were looking for ways of escape from the moribund economic crisis. “The best way to do that is to go on vacation,to do as you please,to dress as you want to. Things are moving for the better,so out with the fitted silhouettes and in with the free-flowing and the luxe,” she says. Of course,while you are at it,don’t forget the drama. “We used Zeenat Aman in Dum maro dum… as a reference point,because she brought alive the hippie ethos so beautifully. Even though the film was shot in the Seventies,she came to symbolise the carefree aspirations of the Eighties. It was over the top,but it worked. If you are thinking of a free soul in the Indian context,that’s an obvious reference,” she says.

Pop art and culture is the most obvious reference point for designers reinterpreting the 1980s. This was the time of pre-liberalisation India,when Amitabh Bachchan’s angry young man image was still an influence. The bell-bottom pants and slim shirts became more streamlined,but the emphasis undoubtedly,was on the hero who made his own destiny. In the West,a Black-American singer was re-defining pop,while a Material Girl was telling Papa not to preach. If defiance made heroes out of Michael Jackson and Madonna,designers are seeking to explore the same devil-may-care humour to get over these trying times. In his spring-summer collection Lush,Vineet Bahl has used common leitmotifs like candy stripes and pop art prints. “There’s a hint of celebration in the air. People are cautious,but the starkness is going out of the scenario. So there’s colour,there’s comfort,but also lightness in the mood as well as the fabrics and the silhouettes,” he says.
But even as you give in to the nostalgia,you’ve got to admit that a lot of the Eighties fashion was quite cheesy. The golden rule: innovate. Bahl,for instance,avoids the outrageous brazenness of the Eighties and layers fabrics like tulle,chiffon and georgette to create a diaphanous texture. The colours move from pastels to candy to jewel tones and the mood is definitely feminine and flirty.

The move,fashionistas say,is a sign of maturity. “Fashion is,of course,cyclical. Which means every trend that comes back might either be more refined than before or more garish. It depends on how creative and or how flamboyant the current crop of designers is. The Eighties were all about glitz and rebellion,overt sexiness and attitude; perhaps not the best of fashion,but undoubtedly,a decisive and influential generation,” says stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania. “It all depends on the trickle-down effect. What might seem to be ghastly as a fashion sensibility was probably an important social stance back when it began. The trick is in how you work it out to speak for your times,” says Verma.

Designer Rahul Khanna of the label Cue,agrees. “It’s difficult to pin-point exactly when the trend became a tour de force,but it’s easy to see why,and how it’s being taken forward. Unless you can make it more suave,more sophisticated,it’s rather like aping blindly and that ends up looking more like a costume than something you can wear in your day to day life,” he says. Khanna and his partner Rohit Gandhi have cut out the aggression from their collection,retaining the sass and infusing it with sophistication. “We have worked on slim ties and short collars on suits for men. For women,there are glitzy sports shoes,sequinned short dresses with exaggerated shoulders. But everything is more contemporary,” he says. Go ahead,pick your candy stripe.