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It's a party, not a wedding!

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Archana Jahagirdar New Delhi
Last Updated : Feb 05 2013 | 2:21 AM IST
THE FRENCH LUXURY goods company Louis Vuitton hosted a party last week to celebrate the coming festive season. So far, so good. In a discreet corner of the invitation, the dress code stopped me dead in my tracks: Indian traditional was what Vuitton wanted its guests to wear as they swilled some good French champagne.
 
The guests, as they streamed in at the appointed hour, brought home a point that has been paining me deeply in recent times. People wore saris, salwar kameezes, et cetera but many, even the majority, wore what would pass for clothes that one wears for an Indian wedding.
 
This confusion of what constitutes Indian traditional formal wear for a nice evening out isn't restricted to those who showed up for the LV party. All you have to do is watch TV to see how wrong things are in this segment. When contestants participating in reality takent shows have to wear Indian formal wear they all look as if they have just walked out of some wedding party.
 
At a product launch a couple of months ago which again demanded its guests to be dressed in Indian formal wear, most people turned up in wedding finery. With the festive season upon us this complete lack of understanding as to what constitutes Indian formal wear will only be too apparent.
 
And the biggest culprit of this lack of understanding is exhibited more by the women than the men, who can walk into a dinner or a wedding wearing the same dark-coloured suit with a bright-coloured tie without committing any serious fashion faux pas.
 
Card parties are social events where it is almost compulsory to wear Indian formal wear but I can bet my last dollar that most people here too will get it so wrong. This brings me to the question: have people forgotten that there is such a thing as formal wear which doesn't necessarily have to be that over-embroidered sari that you wore for Bunty's wedding four years ago?
 
There is no dearth of beautiful saris that have been handwoven by craftsmen who are keeping alive the textile tradition of this country. And these saris can be worn for different occasions without making a huge fashion mistake.
 
But in our haste to wear the so-called modern styles that now throng the market, we have forgotten these textile wonders. And the modernists who are supplying to big retail giants like CTC Plaza seem to think that the only time anyone wants to dress up in India is when there is a wedding to attend.
 
Hence, the plethora of showrooms that cater to the gargantuan wedding market are filled with these embroidered horrors that can only be worn, or should only be worn, sparingly.
 
The West discovered a long time ago the wonders of smart evening wear. India had it too but some where along the way we seem to have given up on it, in favour of this wedding chic (I say this with the old tongue firmly in the old cheek) which is reducing our urban population into a unrecognisable, undifferentiated wedding clothing mess.
 
Next time there is an invitation that calls for Indian traditional formal wear, drop that pallu, rather drop that entire sari in favour of something that is elegant, formal and something that doesn't make the host feel the need to immediatley organise a baraat to suit your sartorial preferences.
 
The poor host only wanted to invite you over for a nice little party, not his wedding. As for television reality show participants, they too could understand the fine art of dressing smart without looking as if half of Kinari Bazar (the market in Old Delhi where one can buy embellishments for clothes; a favourite haunt of fashion designers) had taken up residence on their clothes. On that cheerful and thoughtful note, I say happy dressing up for the festive season!

 

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First Published: Oct 13 2007 | 12:00 AM IST

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