{"id":42005,"date":"2010-10-16T09:06:35","date_gmt":"2010-10-16T09:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.tehelka.com\/?p=42005"},"modified":"2010-10-16T09:06:35","modified_gmt":"2010-10-16T09:06:35","slug":"the-only-fashionistas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/the-only-fashionistas\/","title":{"rendered":"The only Fashionistas"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are trying to spot the next hot trend, head to the Northeast. Forget the metros, street fashion is born in Shillong, Kohima and Imphal, says\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Aastha Atray Banan<\/em><\/strong>
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\nNAMRAPALI NARZARY<\/strong>\u00a0is a 21-year-old Bodo student from Assam, studying sociology at JNU. Narzary is currently into the body-con look inspired by Serena Van der Woodson from\u00a0Gossip Girl<\/em>. Think super tight bandage style dresses \u2014 unwatered down fashion but at non-H\u00e9rve L\u00e9ger prices. On the university\u2019s tree-lined streets, among the studied slacker fashion of the student population, Narzary stands out with her effortless style.
\nNarzary is not an exception. A casual glance across college canteens anywhere in India will confirm where the real fashionistas of the country are. Not Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru. The girls and boys from the Northeast are the frontrunners. Fitted dresses, abstract-shaped pants, harem pants, bubblegum colour schemes, skinny jeans, ties, hip-hop sneakers and gelled, highly structured hair all hit Gangtok, Shillong, Imphal and Kohima before they hit \u2018mainland\u2019 India.
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\nNarzary did not spend years trying to choose between the three prevailing influences on Indian street fashion: Bollywood bling, dated American trends and \u2018alternative\u2019 meaning ethnic with a heavy dose of handlooms. As a teenager, Narzary only wanted to look like the Korean girl band 21. With Bollywood unpopular and minimal local language programming, pop culture in the Northeast takes a lot of its cues from Korean television anyway. The Korean pop music aesthetic contains some startling artifacts: pink one-shoulder shrugs, leather bodysuits with silver studs, 1980s playsuits, hot pants in neon colours and dropped crotch pants for men. Mazami Sailo Rose, an executive working for the Italian fashion house Pal Zileri grew up in Mizoram. She explains the leaning toward Seoul simply, \u201cOur bodies are different from people in the rest of India, so are our features. We resemble people from Korea and China. It\u2019s better to dress like them than dress like Bollywood stars. That\u2019s why Korean pop bands are a huge influence.\u201d
\nThe fashion establishment may be catching on. When the prospect of a Guwahati Fashion Week was announced recently, hopes were raised for a runway without embroidered lehengas, glistening sherwanis and sequinned saris. The event, which is tentatively slated for this month, will feature fashion designers and models from the Northeast. Debasish Shyam, business head, United Spirits Limited, one of the sponsors, explained simply, \u201cWe found that the youth in the Northeast spend most of their disposable income on fashion. And since there is no concerted effort to establish an official platform for fashion in that region, we stepped up.\u201d
\nSo why is the Northeast ahead of the curve? Nandini Baruah, 30, a well-known Guwahati designer who will also be showing at the Guwahati Fashion Week, believes that the region\u2019s melting pot nature helps. \u201cTake Assamese society, there are descendents of the Mongolians who came from China and descendents of the Aryans. There are many intercaste marriages as well. Due to this mix of cultures, people are more open-minded here, and thus, fashion is easily accepted. You are bound to find a unique Justin Timberlake or Rihanna at every corner.\u201d Daniel Syiem, 30, a designer from Shillong also brings up the influence of pop music, \u201cRight now, with the coming of VH1, hip-hop dominates the scene. It\u2019s great that finally we may have a fashion week to call our own. For years, we have dressed well, now we can link that fashion awareness to a larger context of fashion in India.\u201d
\nIf you were missing a sartorialist-like blog tracking some of this fashion, look no further than\u00a0A Bit of Our Life (stylingscholars.blogspot.com).<\/em>\u00a0Lepcha and Longkumar are 20-something anthropology students in Shillong. You can\u2019t see their faces but everyday they post pictures of themselves in delicious new clothes somewhere in their hometown. With wearable colours, clean lines and high-waisted everything, the girls are less hip-hop and more\u00a0Aisha. Aisha<\/em>\u00a0with flair. L1 and L2, as the girls like to call themselves, trace their instinctive fashion antennae back to their parents and grandparents.
\nAn antenna so sensitive that to be rebellious means to be anti-fashion. Mumbai-based copywriter Kima De Mizohican complains, \u201cThere is a lot of pressure to look good. When I go back from Mumbai to Mizoram, I have to hear jibes from people about being too casual. Fashion has become such an integral part of people\u2019s lives that if you are not with it, you are totally uncool.\u201d
\nPHOTOS:\u00a0GARIMA JAIN AND MS GOPAL<\/strong>
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If you are trying to spot the next hot trend, head to the Northeast. Forget the metros, street fashion is born in Shillong, Kohima and Imphal, says\u00a0Aastha Atray Banan [wzslider autoplay=”true” info=”true”] NAMRAPALI NARZARY\u00a0is a 21-year-old Bodo student from Assam, studying sociology at JNU. Narzary is currently into the body-con look inspired by Serena Van […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[6209,5725,6210,6211,6212,6213,6214,6215,6216,6217,6218,6219,6220,6221,2031,6222,6223],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/69"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}