Fashionholics Anonymous

Wardrobe malfunction would feel pretty shy in front of ‘market malfunction’ as dresses short enough to make a hooker blush is invading the youth psyche informs Jawed Khurshid

As the model Sucheta Sharma sashayed down the catwalk a couple of years ago, her left breast was accidentally exposed – although it was covered by a strapless, see-through silicon bra. Wardrobe malfunction?

The peril that is even greater than this is crouching and ready to pounce and get you. Wardrobe malfunction would feel pretty shy in front of ‘market malfunction’. Beware!  Jolly Roger is fluttering and casting ominous signal. Dresses short enough to make a hooker blush, pants that would make most women’s legs look like they’re packed in sausage casing, and bubble skirts that Dorothy could use to fly home from the Emerald City. Cool, there are many more to be presented on the platter.

Fashionista croon lullabies to more traditional attires, while the lunatic fringe has taken on the aggressive hue, established a jungle raj on the ramp. Few types of attire are so transparent that one thinks twice while using it off the ramp. Similarly, dresses bejeweled with precious stones, embellished elegantly with moti-studded (pearl-studded) frills at hems and aggressive dominance of zari on every single available patch and niche on the glittering attires like ever expanding creepers may stultify the audience flanking the catwalk but fails to take up the market by storm.

Here, it is a different ballgame altogether. Once it reaches the shelves it functions simply as decorative pieces with almost negligible selling potential. Or it simply adorns mannequins standing tall behind glass panes. Here, on the ‘ramp’ of chic shop hunters - Shopper’s Stop, Akbar Ali’s and many more it is the vibrant violet and groovy green that seduces the eye. That’s because designers pepper their shows with pieces they have no intention of ever manufacturing.

The looks are simply too labor-intensive and expensive to produce. Designers simply want their collections to echo their theories on the current direction of fashion. Style can be worn by the majority of women as long as they recognize what works for their figures. While the catwalks have long dictated the important colors, fabrics and silhouettes for a season, they also have intimidated women by showcasing styles only matchstick-thin models could consider wearing and only trust-fund trollops could fathom purchasing. Women have now become very vocal about the fact that they don’t want to be dictated to. They want to have options and they want the designers to meet their needs. 

AchalaSachdev out rightly rejected the notion that the couture marched on the ramp don’t sell. “All the clothes the designer showcase on the ramp are wearable. The designers are catering to a certain genre and not “aam junta.”

Gauhar Khan, Model says of the idea behind high profile designer clothes gathering dust, “that’s not true anymore. Earlier it was a lot about making an impact. Now it has become more consumer-oriented. If you checked out this Lakme Fashion week, 99% of the dresses are very wearable. The designers want to sell more just take a name for themselves. These days any lady would prefer picking it up obviously for the wealthier lot.”

Ask the former super model MilindSoman about there so believed commercial “non-viability and you get him furious, “it’s just not true. Designers are not stupid. The collections they design are extremely expensive” is all he chooses to say.