Two piece wonder

The bikini has never been a casual outift. In India in the ’90s, it has been outrageous, rebellious or quietly subversive, depending on what circles you moved in. In the ’00s they became suggestive props for sexual liberation in the movies. Suddenly, all the extras were wearing them. The bikini seemingly broke into the mainstream with Sharmila Tagore’s bikini well-documented across film magazine covers in 1967, but the several Dhooms and Jisms decades later are what made a bikini scene kosher in the film world.

All this has changed since the explosion of athleisure, something which had started building since the ’00s (remember Preity Zinta’s cult black bikini top in a sports bra cut for ‘It’s the Time to Disco’, the year crop tops were all the rage?) Shivan and Narresh, the first homegrown designers to concentrate solely on the bikini, mapped into the right audience, according to them. They believe that the Indian population has slowly adapted the bikini to their sensibilities: “The bikini has gone through a steady rise in popularity over the past couple of years in India, with the growing number of Indian holiday travellers to beach and resort destinations, along with availability of brands catering to this niche category in India. Indian women, of course, adopted the one-piece maillot with more ease but with fashion trends pointing to the bikini, and with the onset of Sports Luxe, the bikini with high-waisted bottoms has seen a steady rise in connoisseurs.”

I remember family visits to the beach in 2004, when we would keep all our clothes and sun hats firmly on, baring little more than our ankles, as foreign tourists around us showed no such hesitation. A school trip in 2006 had us wearing shorts and tank tops, and feeling very adventurous. In contrast, come 2016, forget Goa or Andamans, a trip to even a city resort or a pool party would have people sunning themselves in a bikini top by the pool, a throw kept within easy reach. In the final scene of Udta Punjab , Alia Bhatt’s character Pinky wears a skirt, sitting by herself at the beach, a vision of peace after the storm of violence that has preceded this scene. Throughout the film, her character, Pinky, had been staring at a poster of Goa outside the room she’s incarcerated. The poster helps her survive a series of unfortunate events. Wearing a salwar kameez all through the film, the skirt is a signifier of her liberation.

In its meta-narrative in reality and on-screen, the bikini, however, has a complicated relation with sexual liberation in this country. While the elite and urban upper middle classes may have become used to wearing it by now without necessarily making a statement, the mainstream’s comfort with seeing (and wearing) versions of bikinis and bikini tops is a much slower, quieter change, encouraged by the banality of its appearance in movies, the influence of athleisure in everyday lives, and mass online lingerie and fashion websites.

The hype around the bikini has dissipated, but as the bikini sees a slow decline abroad, it is being modified for different occasions other than a dip in the pool. Narresh Kukreja, of Shivan and Narresh spoke about its massive scope in fashion design, “The bikini is fast seeing adaptability in wardrobes beyond just the beach or the pool. Women are finding the bikini almost as a wardrobe staple that can be paired with everyday wear. Design innovations are continuously being added to this two-piece wonder for greater adaptability and versatility. It’s very important to remember that Indian women are the only women in the world that are comfortable showing off their midriffs across all ages. This opens a gambit of design options for you to make bikini as versatile and relevant to Indians as possible.”

The bikini is is now paired with denims, jackets, palazzos, pants, and even saris to get the beach-to-bar look in place. With the onset of bralettes, lines have really begun to blur. Shivan Bhatiya feels that ultimately it is a sign that the popularity of bikinis, and its growing versatility is a positive body statement. “It’s increasing adaptability by Indians also reaffirms that we are a young nation growing more and more comfortable with our curvaceous body type and that we love being modern while staying culturally relevant.”

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