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| March 6, 2000 | ||
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| LIFESTYLE: FASHION IN
CHENNAI Electric Southern Kanjeevarams yes, but preferably with lycra-the sleepy metro wakes up to a world of fashion, couturiers and beautiful models By Methil Renuka
No more, no longer. The ammas (well, at least their sons and daughters) are turning hep. It's no longer a sin to wear a tie-up blouse; there's no need to blush at the sight of a backless choli. For sure, polyester on the street may be as passe as Amitabh Bachchan, but the pattudu-pavadai capital -- in translation, read: home of the long, traditional skirt -- is reeling under an image makeover. For many people, the revitalised Chennai is a crossover city -- where cut-outs blissfully co-exist with glow signs, dosas with pizzas, Carnatic music with jazz. So, why not Kanjeevarams with lycra? Quite simply, fashion has found Chennai (it couldn't be the other way, could it?) Blame it on the MTV generation, everyone does. A city that used to get tucked in by 9 p.m., now pounds into the night. Discos are no longer unlawful and western music concerts actually exist, and as Chennaiites discover that they possess a "social calendar", it follows, they'd better look good. Vanity is not a Mumbai prerogative. At the same time, the emergence of the superstore -- Lifestyle International, Westside, Globus -- threw open the corridors of fashion to the middle class, even as an avalanche of labels -- Lee, Levis, Reebok, Benetton -- set off that very yuppie ''brand consciousness". A walk down the city's upmarket streets reveals sharply that a revolution of sorts is on. Boutiques have sprung up, some selling western and ethnic lines (Studio Saks, Ffolio, Rehane, Natalia), others offering exclusively Indian ensembles (Shilpi, Vastrini, Kutir, Textures, Avaran). Designers are sprouting widely, and names like Rehane Yavar Dhala, Chaitanya Rao, Richa Agarwal and Juliana are now casually bandied about. Even the modelling industry, almost non-existent before, is up and running. Some of the change has been driven by the five-year-old NIFT. Their young designers are routinely snapped up by big export houses -- there are 450 manufacturing units in the city -- while others freelance in the city's fashion houses or do window displays for the superstores. A few, like Julie Varughese, whose label Juliana sells under the HM Centre banner, embrace full-time designing. S. Devadoss, registrar at NIFT, is all optimism, "In two years, Chennai will be swarming with designers. Such will be the demand!'' But it'll be a tough market to conquer. To begin with, designers are competing with established mind-sets, with a culture where the greenbacks in a typical south Indian family still go toward silks and diamonds. Dhala set up her shop, Rehane, two years ago in the upmarket Khader Nawaz Khan Road area with, what she calls, a "cocky confidence". Some of it was understandable, for unlike the more with-it metros, there was minimal competition and, in a virgin market, she had a virtual monopoly. Still, everything was a hard sell: convincing people that designer wear was not some western misadventure but money well-spent. Says Dhala, who won the best designer award at the Femina Miss India contest '96, "It took time building a client list. You had to be original to impress, because you were vying with the domino effect -- fashion-fads trickling down from the north Indian cities.'' She is obviously original enough -- next month, she's launching RYD, a one-stop family garment store. Expectedly, the new look is a hit among college girls and well-heeled young executives. But the long arm of fashion reaches even further. These days, even the traditional Kanjeevaram wears a new avatar. Says 24-year-old designer Richa, who just designed Femina Miss India finalist Gayatri's outfits, "It's hard to believe, but you have hardcore maamis coming in, asking for tie-up blouses in stretch fabric and asymmetrical neck-lines for their saris.'' The question is, how come? "Because, they've been dying for something new all along, and they're entertaining and being entertained on a larger scale than ever before,'' answers Upasana, of Studio Saks. Her slick fashion house on Peters Road has yearly showings of its designers, mostly young talent sourced from various cities, including Chennai. Says Upasana, "There will be an unprecedented concentration of money in fashion, in the next three years.'' Yes, it will take that much time. There are at least four to six fashion shows -- most often, small-time "entertainment shows'' -- every month. But unlike Mumbai and Delhi, larger, more elaborate shows (costing anywhere between Rs 12-13 lakh and requiring corporate sponsors) are still hard to come by. "It still has to get a lot more professional'', says event manager, model and Chennai resident Sunita Punjabi. "Fashion in the city is by far untapped. We have the best designers but they should do fashion shows as an investment and not an expense.'' As stores flourish and designers emerge, models too, are coming up. As designer Chaithanya Rao puts it, "You can thank the mothers who've changed with the times," and unlocked their daughters. At this year's Miss India contest, Chennai was represented by the models Gayatri (a finalist), Madhavy and Megha. Says Shvetha Jaishankar, runner-up at the Miss International contest in Tokyo in '98, "Sure, Chennai is a lot less trendy than the other metros, and models are better off in Mumbai. But the sari and jewellery scene here is like nowhere else. Chennai has a good lot of production houses too, and the best destination stores in the country.'' In fact, such is the market's untapped potential that models are even shifting to Chennai. Twenty-six-year-old model Hari Nair leaped from Bangalore to Chennai six months ago, because he thought the city was not "as saturated as Mumbai or Delhi''. So, while his model-friends searched for greener pastures in the other metros, Chennai, he figured, was his for the taking. "The chances of getting advertising assignments and even film offers are more," he says. No kidding, today Nair has bagged a bit role in Mani Ratnam's forthcoming film Alaipayuthe and has numerous commercials -- Chakra Gold tea, Agsarcem Cement, TVS Excel -- running on all the regional channels. Caught in a time warp, stagnant as other big Indian cities broke new ground in fashion, Chennai is gradually moving forward. Mini-skirted girls on the road and backless cholied ladies out shopping are still hardly the norm, for a sturdy conservatism still sits heavily here. All the same, in the homes of the young and the rich, pret-a-porter is no longer some silly French swear word. |
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Strapless in Chennai! Must be a misprint, must have meant sleepy.
This is Conservative India: here spaghetti straps are thought to be an Italian dish and a
tank top, a piece of military equipment. A city where ammas arrive at parties draped in
miles of silk, naughty is not a word that comes quickly to mind.