The Hindu Business Line : Ethnic wear is in

With a greater number of men, especially youngsters, switching to ethnic clothes and fabrics, designers are coming out with more clothes that blur conventional dress sense.

Fashion designer Binu Sehgall wants leading model Aryan Vaid to go to a discotheque in a dhoti-trouser and kurta with a stole strung on his shoulder. "Poor men have so little to wear. So, I have decided to give them bright colours and fusion clothes that offer the best of both worlds," he says.

With a greater number of men, especially youngsters, switching to ethnic clothes and fabrics, designers like Sehgall are coming out with more clothes that blur conventional dress sense, which curiously dictates traditional clothes for women and western attire for men.

As boundaries between men's and women's clothing get blurred, we have women now well ensconced in grey trousers, white shirts and business suits, while men are exploring new fabrics and new colours, drawn primarily from traditional prints and designs hitherto only seen on the sarees of their mothers or wives.

In fact, Sehgall is using combinations such as yellow-blue, lime-green and red-yellow in her latest collection, which will be showcased at the forthcoming Bride and Groom Exhibition 2004, being organised by the International Trade and Exhibitions (ITE) Ltd in Delhi from August 27. Leading stores have started prominently displaying purple, maroon or even pink clothes for men. "I never thought that I would ever buy a yellow shirt or wear something pink. But these are so cool that I can wear them to office," says 26-year-old Ashwin, holding a bunch of brightly coloured short kurtas and Chinese collar shirts at Good Things, a Noida-based ethnic clothing retailer.

A software professional with a Noida-based multinational company, he says he has had enough of jeans, tees and sneakers as a student and then, as a trainee with his company. A couple of years into working, he says he even tried out the kind of clothes popularised by Allen Solly as `Friday Dressing'.

"In most organisations, the work culture is now fairly open and unless you are dealing directly with customers, there is no dress code. When I joined my company, for the first month I was in dark-coloured trousers and light coloured shirts. Then, I became more bold and switched to cotton trousers and casual shirts. By the end of the training period, I was mostly seen in jeans and sneakers. But ethnic cotton shirts and kurtas in bright colours with jeans and Rajasthani nagra shoes is my latest craze," says Ashwin.

Kunal, a sports journalist, says he prefers hand-woven cotton kurtas and shirts because they are trendy and very comfortable. "When you are out covering a match in the heat, having comfortable clothes is absolutely necessary. Most of my colleagues wear almost the same kind of clothes, which the players wear. Perhaps, that helps them identify with the sportsmen, but I prefer to carry a slightly different identity. After all, was the traditional journalist not supposed to be clad in a kurta with his trademark jhola hanging by his shoulder," he asks.

Which is why ethnic clothes seem to be making their way to corporate boardrooms. Ananda Bazaar Patrika group's Editor-in-chief, Aveek Sarkar, is always dressed in his trademark dhoti and kurta. In fact, this was the attire he donned for, perhaps, the most important meeting of his life, when he met Rupert Murdoch to become Star's partner in India.

Politicians have been always known to dress up in ethnic clothes as it helps them identify with the masses. But this season belonged Generation next leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot and Manvendra Singh, who made their appearance in Parliament in brightly coloured headgear and traditional clothes.

Ethnic wear has made its appearance in even the most high-profile stores in Delhi, which jostle with each other to capitalise on this new trend. "A large number of men looking for ethnic stuff are still those preparing for their own wedding or for a wedding in the family. But we also sell lots of shirts, T-shirts, trousers, kurta-pyjamas as also formal clothes that are used on other occasions or simply for casual wear. Men are certainly experimenting with new kind of clothes these days," says Vipin Chhabra, Managing Director, CTC Plaza, a leading store in Delhi.

Along with clothes come accessories like safa (headgear), ties and jutties. Jutties are normally associated with Rajasthan, but in keeping with the latest trends, Chabbra says that CTC Plaza has its own team of artisans who craft this exquisite footwear.

Agrees Ebony Retail Holdings Managing Director Neeta Narula. "Demand for such clothes has picked up following the popularity of television serials like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, where the protagonists invariably wear such clothes. While ethnic wear was primarily meant for major occasions like Diwali or Rakshabandhan festivals or family dinners, we now find a lot of customers looking for ethnic clothes for daily wear," she says.

Ebony now has exclusive space for ethnic wear, where two brands — Gatha and Rod — are for sale. The price, says Neeta, ranges from Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000 for kurtas. The prints range from solids, checks and stripes, while the fabrics start at cotton and go up to fine silk. "Ebony does not store trousseau items like achkans and bandhgalas with heavy embroidery. That is because customers prefer to go to specialised stores for such clothes. Besides, we would be required to keep a substantial inventory of these high-priced clothes that people look for only when they want to buy dresses for marriages," she says.

Marriages, of course, have always remained a special occasion when both men and women turn to ethnic wear to look "special" on the most memorable day of their lives. As all stops are pulled for the big day, stores and fashion designers have to cater to all the fancies of their customers. Little wonder then that a store like CTC Plaza boasts of a range that starts at Rs 5,000 and goes all the way up to Rs 2 lakh for the groom's attire.

Of course, if you approach a top-notch designer to dress you for your big day, you might as well forget worrying about the costs.

As the marriage season approaches, designers are a terribly busy lot and have lined up several shows and promotional events that promise the best dressed brides and grooms this year.

Meanwhile, for those who still have any doubts, a purple kurta, bought after throwing traditional dress sense in the bin, may be a great idea to get ethnic.

Picture by A. Roy Chowdhury

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