THROUGH THE KEYHOLE

The harshest of the reality is well received and accepted when delivered with a pinch of humor and glamour.

‘Confession of a shopaholic’ is  a beautifully crafted and packed bunch of realities about what a lust for fashion can do to you, carefully delivered  with a pinch of irony and humor. It is about a young, working girl, who lives in the fashion capital - New York and gets mislead to become a shopaholic owing to her high buying power bestowed upon her by the bunch of credit cards she owns! She gets caught in a heap of debt and finally comes out of it by giving all the ‘branded’ stuff she has shopped over the years. How I wish the same worked in real life too!.

Belonging to the century when fashion is just a matter of time, every other person is a designer and their own stylist. The brand conscious and fashionably alert population in India has left no stone unturned in exploring the possibilities. Thanks to FDI and the ever posh malls that credit themselves with almost every ‘major’ brand under the sun, the chances of you spotting a Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Prada or Gucci on the streets of Indian metros has increased manifold. Gone are the days when fashion was just an accessory, not a way of life, a side dish, not a main course. Most of us Indians live in a different world. A world where it is more important to stuff your wardrobe up with the same sacred shades of reds and greens in all shades, hues, sequins and stones. Here, quantity matters more than quality, appeal matters more than brand value and sensibility travels in an entirely opposite direction. Is this owing to lack of exposure or buying power? The answer is no! It is all about the psychology. I was talking to my friend from a south Indian Brahmin family ,and she was cribbing about how her parents did not allow her to spend a lot of money on a pretty lehnga she spotted in Delhi for her brother’s wedding. The statement that she made was a benchmark! She said 'they let us spend insane amount of money on silk saris, but not on lehngas’. The same applies to all other product categories.

Being part of a society with well defined and fixed notion about ‘what amount of money should go where’ limits one's reach and possibilities to explore their options. Though last decade has seen huge leap of improvement in Indian fashion scenario, with more and more customized clothing stores, boutiques and brand outlets sprouting up in every nook and corner, the ‘aam aadmi’ or middle class Indian approach towards fashion has changed little. And accordingly, the industries tunes themselves to make ‘what sells’. Indians look at fashion through a key hole, shaped  for the key that their mind visualizes.