Can Indian Fashion Exist Without Bollywood?

The fashion designer talks about B-town influences in Indian fashion, and how it's up to the industry to sell a story

- Pranav Misra

2019 has been a time when people have had conversations about how the world of fashion and Bollywood coexist. I don’t know the details of how the idea of a showstopper started, but I feel like I only see it happening more in our country. As a designer, when you make a garment, it is the hero of the story. It is made because it is relevant; it is to be worn by anyone who chooses it. Indian fashion industry has been selling clothes through Bollywood, but unless it actually enmeshes in the celebrity’s wardrobe and personal style, which it rarely does, as an industry, we are selling a story that’s saying that the hero is not the garment but the star who promotes it, and this greatly devalues design.

This brings me to a point: Why as an industry, we have been working as Bollywood’s entourage instead of celebrating talent from other fields, or actually creating your brand family hand-picked? Why haven’t we celebrated designers themselveS or models and new faces in casting? Why do we always fall back on movie artists and exclude individuals who actually impact fashion with their personal taste and style?