What sets fashion trends in India?

Walks, blogs, books and more

Lifestyle

March 3, 2017

/ By / New Delhi



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A glimpse from India Runway Week (Photo by Ahmad Mukhtiyar)

World fashion is crossing borders and making its way onto the Indian style-streets. While designs and styles are unique, a common thread is weaving trends together.

To begin with, there is one platform that governs fashion trends all over the world. It is what is known as WGSN, or the Worth Global Style Network, headquartered in London. It is the world’s best selling fashion forecasting and trend analysis platform and the guidebook for all leading designers and other experts in the fashion and lifestyle industry.

It is here that every fashion story starts. This one included.

Trend setters, fashion designers and lifestyle experts from around the world study fashion, analyse current fashion runs and quite literally ‘forecast’ what’s going to be ruling, possibly all show-windows at stores, fashion shows, luxury and fad labels and even wardrobes around the world. And yes, the list of course includes India.

Fashion trend setters pick elements from these forecasts and blend it with their own designs, thus producing something unique yet in alliance with what is going on in the fashion sphere around the world.

And, this is true for designers and also stylists, and other fashion influencers from within the industry, who blow a breeze of fashion so soft yet fast, it hits a consumer without them even knowing.

“For a fashion shoot, I styled for an e-commerce brand in India. I watched a lot of international fashion shows from one season and tracked fashion bloggers from around the world. This gave me a sense of what was going around in the world and in accordance to the international style, I styled and designed the project in hand,” says Aayushi Grover, a fashion stylist based in New Delhi.

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words; but, rather apparently, a fashion photograph is worth a thousand fashion followers, especially if it is going viral online.

Grover, who has to her name the credit of styling models for leading e-commerce brands in India, tells us that many style statements that one finds ruling the Indian fashion scene are somehow influenced by western trends.

off-shoulder

There is a visible western influence in Indian apparels that are making runway statements

“Not too long ago, we saw a wave of off-shoulder blouses that women would wear with sarees or lehngas. It was something inspired by the off-shoulder blouses or tops that were a hit in international fashion scene, gradually making an entry in India and eventually fusing with traditional Indian fashion,” Grover explains.

This fashion convergence and influence is however for the governing powers. Not everyone ‘studies’ fashion history, visits the WGSN or forecasts trends before getting ready for another day in life. In fact, for many, it’s not even an ‘ensemble’ that they create, rather, a mix-and-match from whatever they have in their wardrobe.

“I usually team-up my clothes from my collection of apparel. It’s experimental, it’s my style, it’s unique and I love it,” says Kanika Kapila, a budding fashion designer from New Delhi.

While Kapila adorns eclectic style statements, which she herself creates, for some, their fashion inspirations come from the very buzzing and glamourous world of fashion blogs.

“My sense of style has always been understated with basic pieces and clean cuts, but, that can get boring after a while. As I’m overactive on Instagram, during one of my midnight social media binges, I came across Style Drive by Ayushi Bangur. The blogger’s use of accessories to play up the most basic articles of clothing inspired me to introduce small changes to my outlook, adding the much needed spark to my wardrobe,” says Seerat Chabba, a journalist from Bengaluru.

So, while Indian designers, stylists, budding designers, journalists or just about anybody is getting decked up to be somewhere, a fashion element from some part of the world is influencing their style, but secretly.

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