Co-ord with caution

Co-ord sets seem to have reached peak popularity in Indiamostly in the worst versions of themselves

- Vangmayi Parakala

It's a Sunday afternoon, and, at a busy mall, two otherwise chic ladies glide down an escalator in what seem to be...night-suits? Impeccable Korean glass-skin make-up on one and classic Ruby Woo-esque red lip on the other dispel any illusions that they may have had a lazy morning.

No, wait a second. Those are co-ord sets. Bad ones, of course. But I soon realise these aren't an anomaly. I see them a few days later in an office waiting room, outside a fancy coffee shop. And at the airport. And on Instagram, on celebrities "spotted" doing regular-people things. It's an epidemic.

Ideally a predetermined set of upper and lower garments in one colour or pattern, co-ord sets are supposed to be an easy way to look put-together. In that brief phase after the lockdown, when we were all trying to understand how to inhabit the world socially again, fashion writers told us co-ords were the things to bank on, that they were here to stay. This made sense: They offered a gentle way for us to ease out of oversized T-shirts and ratty pyjamas, and, without too much effort, feel stylish and smart.