Fashon street

Now how many of us have noticed and appreciated the fact that foreigners really make street-fashion rock and have a big hand in making it big. Yeah! All of us have noticed that. I wonder why we don’t make full use of the by-lanes of Pahar Ganj, Tibetan Market, Sarojini Nagar and good old Janpath or for that matter fashion street in Mumbai.

Street Fashion is really big in every nook and corner of the country. The trouble is that we don’t know how to make good use of it. Yet, we keep wondering how foreigners carry off street fashion with such attitude and panache.

To make it work for you, it is important to understand what is street fashion and where, when and how much of it looks appealing. You can say there are two kinds of fashion that has made way into our lives through various fashion bazaars or local fashion markets. One is the functional-stylish street fashion that comes to us from the backpackers’ tradition. This includes shorts-tees, funky pajamas, lowers and other stuff. The second is the ornamental kind of fashion represented by skirts, dresses, junk jewelry et al.

Another thing one should keep in mind is that street fashion is essentially radical in nature (at least that’s how it began) and often goes against the current upper class fashion trends. So if Rohit Bal has said that the subtle look is in, the fashion statements on the street could be crazy bold colours. But when the upper class begins to use street fashion, the street immediately discards it and switches to a new trend. So if a certain style was prevalent on streets and a designer decides to put his trademark on it by making it popular, that style would go off the streets! For now, it would be called nothing new but a cheap down-market imitation (and comes to be known as a poor man’s Ritu Beri!).

Where we go wrong as consumers is that we tend to overdo everything including street fashion. So, if we decide to go functional-stylish or ornamental we go all out of the way and do it. And more often than not the spirit of the person is not in sync with the spirit of clothes! So while the foreigner who comes here is actually a backpacker and it suits him to wear just about anything off the street it may not suit an executive living in Delhi. He would just look like a dude-trying-to-be-a-backpacker.

You can only carry off a complete street look and make a fashion statement only if you are filthy rich, very beautiful or extremely powerful. If you are none of these, don’t try to go overboard and stick to standard fashion norms and conventional attire.

The safest and the best bet is to mix and match street fashion with brands. It looks really hip and zany. Merging the functional with the ornamental is also big but it should be done in right proportions.

So next time when you pair your Levis or Pepe with that red sequined spaghetti (you bought for 50 bucks) and red kohlapuris, you have not only made street fashion de rigueur and tasteful but also evolved your own fashion fundas.

-----Aj