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Romcoms might not have prepared me for modern dating, but they offered a timeless sartorial guide to falling in love.

- JISHNU BANDYOPADHYAY

My friend’s ex-boyfriend is the best way I can describe F. You’d think a decently handsome Italian guy like him would be cleaning up in London’s dating scene, but the reality is anything but. “Dating here is a nightmare tbh,” he DMs me during our conversation. “It’s a constant flow of getting ghosted or stood up,” he says. I joke that it’s not all that bad back in India. The following week, after reading an online report about how intimacy is Gen Z’s wildest kink (insert skull emoji) and sobbing to Close (2022) alone on a long-distance movie night that never materialised, I am convinced otherwise. I almost feel myself morphing into a geriatric senior while telling this story to a friend, wishing for simpler times. “What happened to the love story we prepared for all our lives?” she asks.

The romantic comedies I lionised, profoundly shaped my understanding of romance, and maybe unfortunately so. Whether Bollywood or Hollywood, these films were never mere entertainment, they were portals to idealised worlds where love invariably triumphed amidst a backdrop of impeccable style. Each protagonist’s sartorial journey mirrored their emotional arc, with clothing serving as both armour and invitation.