Dressing Up And Dressing Down

Shorts and sneakers are not yet acceptable as corporate attire in India, unlike in the Silicon Valley. However, dressing up daily in a business suit is equally likely to invite a dressing down from colleagues. Long gone are the days when a tie – if not a jacket – was mandatory for upcoming executives, even in the hot and sultry Bombay summers. In formal meetings too, a jacket is now a rarity and ties are fast becoming a collector’s item.

- Kiran Karnik

The change is not limited to offices. Cricket fields, long populated by players in pristine white, have now become a riot of colour with only the ball – in the short format – being white. The players sport a range of colours, with multi-coloured uniforms covering the spectrum from violet to red. Some even have a strong dose of gold, as bright as a jewellery shop, while others have enough red to attract all the bulls in Spain.

The transformation relates not merely to clothing, and ranges literally from head to foot. Hats were dumped long back, along with our past colonial masters, while formal shoes are increasingly being replaced by slip-ons or sandals. For some, socks are optional, and many no longer carry a handkerchief. Tiepins disappeared even before ties and only fastidious dandies any longer wear cufflinks. Other accessories like pens are rarities, and wrist-watches – especially amongst the young – are as uncommon.

DRESSING DOWN

Dressing down seems to be the fashion of the day. One detects a slow but steady movement towards a Zen-like minimalism, with various “unnecessary” pieces of clothing – like hats, jackets and ties – being done away with. Lest much of this is seen as a male-chauvinist view, let us note that there is a broadly similar trend amongst women.

The sari has substantially given way to dresses or trousers and tops. The last two, I suspect use less cloth than a sari and blouse, showing that the minimalist trend is not limited to men. Many women now dispense with the dupatta as an accompaniment to a kurta: emphasising both informality and minimalism.