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Flag waving is fashionable

Menka Shivdasani

FIFTY-FIVE years of freedom and how meaningless have the rituals connected with it become! The television channels are not planning anything particular for Independence Day, one newspapers said, but if you had switched on your TV set at 8-30 a.m. on I-Da y, you would have found a Zee presenter grinning goofily and wearing what looked like the Indian flag.

Mercifully, there were other shows that took the issue of Independence Day more seriously. STAR News had discussions on what the day meant to young people, and also visited some militant camps; Mr Satinder Bindra on CNN commented on how the Prime Ministe r had defended the decline in the economy as being a reflection of a global downturn (he also referred to him as a reluctant leader who came, read his speech and went away); Aaj Tak had three senior journalists discussing the PM's speech and BBC World sp oke about the unprecedentedly tight security following the failure of the Agra summit.

If there was one story that took on a particular poignancy, however, especially in the light of what the President said about the common man getting impatient for justice, it was the STAR News vignette on Pingali Venkaiah. This was the man who had design ed the Indian tricolour, but died forgotten in abject poverty without even a freedom-fighter's pension. STAR News featured his aged daughter who is struggling to make a living today, selling papads and pickles, and dreaming of justice for her father -- a t least a stamp in his memory, or a flag where he breathed his last. Clearly, Pingali Venkaiah has been treated in exactly the way we treat the Indian flag itself, important for a day and forgotten the next.

One nice touch on STAR News -- though it had nothing to do with Independence Day -- was a fashion show in which 29 women achievers got together to walk the ramp in aid of cancer patients. Glamour without purpose is meaningless, said designer, Shaina N. C ., on the occasion. Too bad, the organisers of the Lakme Fashion Week had not heard that one; most people thought that the event, which has just concluded in Mumbai, was reduced to no more than a celebrity-studded social event.

Mr Sumeet Nair of the Fashion Design Council of India, however, begged to differ when Mr Govindraj Ethiraj made the point on CNBC's Cutting Edge on Tuesday night. Business relationships were built up during the week, he insisted, and if the media had cho sen to focus only on the celebrities, well, that really could not be helped. Fashion comes with glamour and that happens worldwide, he said. It may be reported only as such but what is happening is substantial business ties.

The industry is in its infancy and as it grows even the fashion media will grow, so that there will be less of celebrity-spotting and more of serious fashion writing. The fact was, he added, that Indian fashion had begun to gain both global and domestic recognition; the Selfridges' representative who came was talking of an India promotion, for instance, and large retail stores such as Shoppers Stop were looking at the possibility of having a designer's floor.

Mr Ethiraj did not seem to think much of the fashion industry in India, however; he referred to it as being unorganised, with the designers not paying taxes, but charging way too much for the garments. What is your context of `affordable'? responded desi gner Ms Anshu Arora, pointing out that designer clothes were expensive because they were sold at small boutiques where the overheads were very high. Though, of course, the irony of this is that if designer clothes are too easily available, they will not be exclusive at all, and the last thing you ever want to wear is something that everybody is.

One good thing that did come out of the Lakme Fashion Week, however, was the corporatisation of Indian fashion. The industrialist, Mr Gautam Singhania, who was often spotted at the event and his company, Raymonds, are now looking at the designer wear mar ket, where they can reach out to large numbers. This event has brought the designer, the buyer and customer closer, commented Mr Vinod Kaul, who represented Raymonds on the Cutting Edge discussion. He also believed that this year's Fashion Week was a hug e improvement over the previous editions. Ms Anshu Arora agreed. Last year was not very encouraging, she said. Everything was slow and easy.

If this year's event was much better, then, perhaps, there is hope for the industry, and it will mature in time; for now, there is still a great deal to be done in terms of infrastructure and better organisation.

There is one challenge the fashion industry will have to face, however; in India, the sari is still most fashionable and, as many would say, the most elegant garment, and if designers are looking for numbers, they will have to find some way around this, or co-opt it.

Sometimes traditionalists have very extreme views. Travelling in the second-class ladies compartment of a local train in Mumbai the other day, I came across an interesting admonishment scratched into the paint. Presumably addressing college students, it read, don't wear T-shirts and jeans!

Not everyone would go around taking the trouble of scratching such a message, but there is no denying that the attitude certainly exists!