Fashion is a complex social and economic phenomenon that is difficult to define. It involves changes in styles and trends in areas like clothing, but also extends to other domains like music, art, and architecture. While fashion has ancient roots, it developed further with the rise of capitalism in medieval Europe, when changes in clothing styles became more rapid and cultivated for their own sake. Fashion operates within economic and social systems and is shaped by both commercial interests as well as creative forces. It serves as a means of social identification and communication of personal identity. The Indian fashion industry has grown significantly in recent decades due to factors like rising incomes, globalization, and the influence of Bollywood. Fashion in Delhi is strongly status-conscious and

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FASHION
‘Fashion’ is a notoriously difficult term to pin down, and it is extremely doubtful whether it is
possible to come up with necessary and sufficient conditions for something justifiably to be
called ‘fashionable’. Generally speaking, we can distinguish between two main categories in
our notion of fashion: one that fashion refers to clothing or that fashion is a general
mechanism, logic or ideology that, among other things, applies to the area of clothing.
Adam Smith1
, who was among the first philosophers to give fashion a central role in his
anthropology, claims that fashion applies first and foremost to areas in which taste is
a central concept. This applies in particular to clothes and furniture, but also to music, poetry
and architecture. Immanuel Kant provides a description of fashion that focuses on general
changes in human lifestyles: ‘All fashions are, by their very concept, mutable ways of living.’
Kant is perhaps the first fashion theorist to emphasize the new as an essential characteristic of
fashion. While earlier theorists had linked fashion to beauty, Kant emphasizes that it does not
have to have anything to do with beauty at all but it ‘degenerates into something fantastic and
even detestable’, since it is more a question of competition than a matter of taste. The new
has become self-justifying, it does not in principle need any particular qualities apart from
being new. There is in fashion a vital trait of modernity: the abolition of traditions. Nietzsche
emphasizes fashion as a characteristic of the modern because it is an indication of
emancipation from, among other things, authorities.
Clothes are inherently geographical objects, yet few of us consider the social and
economic significance of their journey from design to production to consumption. It is
proposed that fashion operates within and in relation to socio-economic life and the built
environment. This “cultural economy approach underscores the impossibility of severing
commercial or financial explanations of fashion from those that emphasize the aesthetic and
creative determinants of worth and value.”2
1
Fashion: A Philosophy, Lars Svendsen, Reaktion Books 2006
2
Geographies of fashion: Louise Crewe, Bloomsbury 2017

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EVOLUTION
The origin of fashion is usually linked to the emergence of mercantile capitalism in the late
medieval period. Europe was then experiencing considerable economic development leading
to swift cultural changes. It was here that changes in people’s clothing first acquired a
particular logic: change was no longer rare or random, but was rather cultivated for its own
sake. Clothes changed their basic shapes rapidly, with changes in superficial details taking
place even faster. Though fashion has been there even before that for example, in ancient
Egypt only the upper classes were allowed to wear sandals, and both the Greeks and the
Romans had rules regarding who was allowed to wear what. In the Middle Ages, however,
such rules were considerably more specific and comprehensive. Mercantile capitalism
had created a more ‘fluid’ society with social mobility, with laws also being introduced to
maintain class differences. Lavish clothing was a clear indication of vanity, something that
was a serious sin in itself. The sumptuary laws were constantly being broken as if the ban
made the commodities even more attractive. These laws served precisely to strengthen the
role of clothes as an important social marker as they created relatively clear criteria for the
social status of various objects. In the nineteenth century ‘democratization’ of fashion as
mass production as well as consumption mushroomed. At the start of the 20th century, the
fashion industry had global trade links, but it was yet to become globalized due to its
complex history and the power balances between the west and the east, with corporations that
were truly international, and fully-fledged fashion systems in multiple countries across the
world. This is not to say that fashion did not exist outside the West; style changes emerged on
other regions, moulded by local tastes and social structures. However, lab tested fashions
generated by designers, manufacturers, and promoted by retailers and media were to evolve
in the second half. The early 21st century saw a steady dissemination of trends via the
Internet, and financial and industrial growth in countries such as India and China. The rise of
the middle and upper classes in India, dictating potential domestic market, as is the case in
other countries that have invested in fashion, including China.
INDIA
The British introduced fashion in India adopting an extravagant lifestyle that could be
cultured as well as being indulgent in the ways, prior to that it was just limited to the
administrators. However, India’s tryst with industrialization quickened the pace of an
intrinsically agriculture-based nation. From the late 1950s, with Prime Minster Nehru
creating a clear mandate for moving the economy towards industry and agriculture as twin

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routes to progress, the nation was on the move upward. The surging middle class, seeking its
place in the emerging nation, had little time now to make its own clothes, and the office
worker preferred to have his or her clothes made by someone who specialized in the craft.
Men, particularly, preferred to patronize the local tailor, rather than trust the cutting of pants
and shirts to their womenfolk. The women, however, still took pride in the fact that their
cholis and their children’s garments were still hand stitched at home. India today, together
with China and Russia, has become part of the so-called Golden Triangle, attracting Europe’s
biggest designer labels. Luxury brand companies have been encouraged to invest in India by
several factors: the growth in the younger “aspiring” population; increasing salaries; a strong
eco- nomic climate; and a growing brand awareness attributed to increasing international
travel. The arrival of the international brands has undoubtedly inspired and motivated local
Indian talent to sign up with these brands until they have acquired the necessary skills and
experience to apply their own taste of locale.
This ritual has fed the Indian designer market like no other. The market for women’s fashion
in India is probably the most lucrative in terms of variety and scope. However, popular
brands are not the only ones driving the growth of India’s fashion industry. The Bollywood
influence in Indian fashion The flourishing Hindi film industry in India has played a key role
in transforming the way Indians dress. To reinforce their image and to protect their market
and revenues, the international brands reinforce this with the help of film stars to engage the
consumer emotionally with the dangers of counterfeiting. The tradition of the Great Indian
Wedding has a growing impact on the fashion and luxury sector.
1940s3 reflected nationalistic ethos due to national movements. The hand-spun Khadi fabric
became a powerful symbolism of the Swadeshi movement as opposed to the British mill-
cloth while the six-yard sari with simple borders ruled. The foundation of the Indian cinema
in this decade revolutionized the fashion scene. From Raj Kapoor to Dilip Kumar, men were
inspired by the European fashion of their matinee idols. White kurtas were still widely worn
with dhotis. Actresses were seen wearing puff sleeves in blouses which became a rage. The
salwar-kameez with a dupatta made its mark. Women from royal families became a style icon
of this decade made simple silk chiffon saris and delicate jewels very popular.
In the post-World war and post-independent era, the ‘50s decade witnessed celluloid
actresses like Madhubala, Meena Kumari and Nargis’s sartorial style inspired many young
women. While Madhubala’s sensual look in deep-cut blouses with Capri pants in Howrah
Bridge (1958) and full-length Anarkali suit in Mughal-E-Azam gained widespread
popularity, Meena Kumari mesmerised her fans with her courtesan look bedecked with
jewels. Translucent saris teamed with brocade blouse with sweetheart neckline were the
eternal favourites. Men took style lessons from Dev Anand who had girls swooning over his
look. Dev Anand was a trendsetter with his puffed hair, check shirts, mufflers and jackets.
The 1960-70, the ear of heavy jewellery and embroidered sarees saw the hem of the kameez
go shorter and arrival of bright colours. Body-hugging silhouettes came in vogue like skin-
tight short kurtas. Shorter and fitted blouses, a hint of skin, scarves and bouffant hairstyles
were the key features of the 60s. While Sharmila Tagore embraced the swimsuit in ‘An
Evening In Paris’ (1967), the Mumtaz style sari became hot favourites.
Bandhgala or jacket as worn by Jawaharlal Nehru became a staple in formal wear. Checkered
shirts, polo and Turtle-necks and bell-bottom pants for men were key fashion takeaways.
The 1970s was aptly called the ‘Decade of Decadence’ with both men and women adopting
the hipster style. This period brought with it a sense of experimentation, with bright colours
from demure to bold, actresses set fashion goals in crop-tops, pant-suits, maxis, skirts, polka
3
https://www.voylla.com/blog/7-fashion-wonders-of-free-indias-7-decades/

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dresses and fishnet stockings. The era also saw Indira Gandhi becoming the first woman
Prime Minister of India who was also a style icon. From her neatly starched handloom and
khadi saris, the Iron Lady of India was known for her tasteful sartorial choices. Men adopted
the ‘Guru kurta’ (round-neck A-line kurta popularised by Rajesh Khanna), safari suits and
slim pants. By the end of the 70s, jeans emerged as daily wear for men. Amitabh Bachchan,
the angry young man of the 70s was a trendsetter with his leather jackets and flared trousers.
The advent of television in people’s homes in ‘80s gave new meanings to fashion.
Salwar/chudidar became national attire for women. Printed saris with matching blouses
became common. Shoulder pads, blingy ornaments, outrageous colours were the hallmarks of
this decade. The buzzword for men’s fashion was colourful T-shirts and denim jackets.
90’s fashion was ruled by Indipop divas like Alisha Chinai and Suneeta Rao who had
immense fan following owing to their desi cool image. Film inspired fashion continued to
play an important role. Baggy pants were common in men. While Shah Rukh Khan sported
branded body- hugging tees while Salman Khan’s vests became a national craze. Govinda in
mismatched loud wardrobe became a style icon of the masses.
The new millennium had several international brands setting shop in India. Both men and
women sported new styles and experimented with cuts and patterns. Fashion designers like
Manish Malhotra and Sabyasachi experimented with new and old fabrics. Women preferred
sari in its slinky and glamorous avatar with deep-cut cleavage-bearing blouses. Low-waist
jeans too became hugely popular along with ethnic kurtis. Men’s fashion was more about
distressed jeans and cargo shorts.

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Fashion Education
• From the 1920s, Santiniketan and Sriniketan brought teachers from all over the world
to train students in a variety of disciplines. Crafts and clothes were an intrinsic part of
the syllabus.
• In Tamil Nadu, Kalakshetra, started in 1936, gave the Bharat Natyam respectability,
and ingrained the intricacies of its costumes and jewellery into the social fabric of the
time. The Adayar border saris became the fashion statement of the ladies who lunch
and those who professed to be art conscious.
• National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) established in 1986 under the
umbrella of the Ministry of Textiles. Though it was meant to educate and produce
professionals for the fashion world, it has been more successful in creating fashion
designers.
• National Institute of Design (NID), an autonomous national institution for research,
service, and training in industrial design and visual communication setup in 1961
provides a multidisciplinary approach to design education, training, and practice.
Today, it is internationally recognized for the quality of its programs, which have
introduced changes in kind, rather than merely in degree.
The popularity of NIFT and NID have given rise to other design institutes, such as the Pearl
Academy in Delhi, Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackresey University and the Sophia
Polytechnic in Mumbai.
DELHI
New Delhi, for all its sombre capital-city status, is one of the most status-conscious cities in
India. With their lavish lifestyle, competitive nature and social consciousness, Delhi’s big
spenders are given to outdoing each other through sheer displays of wealth. Connaught Place,
Ambience and DLF Saket Mall is an ideal location and setting to become a true High Street.
According to Nehru, “New Delhi is the visible symbol of English power, with all its
ostentation and extravagance.”4
Delhi has some advantages compared to other big Indian
cities: one is the relatively cheap cost of labour, cosmopolitan culture and secondly the fact
that it is the capital of the country. Here, money flows freely because the north has a different
kind of income and has a different kind of customer, because the city like a cocoon and hub
at the same time. It condenses backward and inward as a hub, attracting work force and
people into the city while feeding off other cities.
FASHION AS VISIBLE EXPRESSION OF SOCIAL IDENTITY
The most visible material item of the fashion symbol is the garment, which carries multiple
and various meanings. The dynamism of the garment symbol can carry open or closed codes
depending on culture, gender and social location. Cloths can carry many significant signs
according to their shape, colour, surface decoration, embroidery techniques etc. And each one
can be the expression of identity over ethnicity, religious beliefs, age, education and social
class. Through observation of clothing styles over these items, the assumptions could be
made about a person’s identity.
4
India by Design: Michael Boroian and Alix De Poix, Wiley 2010

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Fashion is a form of non-verbal communication. The dressed body communicates our
personal and social identities. It expresses our thoughts, feelings, and desires, as well as
group membership. It means that clothing and fashion carry some hidden codes and these
codes are can be the signs of something because visual elements which carry also some
communicative purposes are the codes of the clothing and fashion. The significant and
communicative expression over clothing in the context of social groups mostly is seen at
sports team’s fans. For example, if you wear a t-shirt which belongs to Kolkata Knight Riders
team, it means that you support a team Kolkata Knight Riders and wearing that tshirt makes
you a part of that team. And you feel a group belonging.
FASHION IN AND AROUND UNIVERSITY OF DELHI
Delhi University is India's most highly regarded educational institution which attracts the
brightest of minds every year. The university is also an eclectic cocktail of myriad cultures
and personas and the varied colleges of the university serve as a canvas on which the students
showcase their fashionable side! Various colleges in Delhi University also have Fashion
Societies which function like any other college society, in terms of going for competitions,
cash prices, practicing throughout the day etc. What makes all these fashion societies a thing
of interest is that most of their annual productions are dramatic, visual and cinematographic
representation of social issues through fashion.
When it comes to representation of one’s self, ideaologies or identity, people from Delhi
University, be it a professor, student or staff use fashion at its fullest. The consumerism is not
only towards high-end brands but also street shopping. The campus area is surrounded by
market areas such as Kamla Nagar, Majnu ka Tila, Janpath, Sarojini Nagar and Lajpat Nagar.
These market places provide global fashion products at nominal prices mostly because they
are export surplus.

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These markets have made trendy and “in” fashion accessible to
almost everybody. One can easily find clothes and accessories
trending globally being sold on the streets of these market for
Rs.100-200.
The University of Delhi since its very inception has represented
a clash between the oriental and oxidant. A number of its
constituent colleges were founded by the British to educate
Indian youth. One’s choice of clothes speaks a lot about the
demographic culture they belong to. Thus as a student of this
university, wearing an outfit which is a fusion of the oriental and
oxidant actually represents the legacy of clashes between the
academia of two great cultural civilizations.
Kurtas are staple ethnic garment that come in a variety of
shapes, sizes, and cuts; and can be styled in endless ways that
are both ethic and a fusion of the east and west. In fact, the Kurta
and jeans which is the unofficial uniform of DU, is a prototype
of Indo-western wear.

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TAKE ON ENVIRONMENT
People with smaller wardrobes are more environmentally responsible than those who just
can't be seen wearing the same thing again and again. Shopping for new clothes is obvious to
cause an environmental impact somewhere on the planet. Polyester is the world's favourite
fibre for fashion. Yet, micro-fibres from washing polyester clothing is being pumped out of
our washing machines and into our sewers. These tiny particles of plastic are adding to the
problem of our plastic seas. Textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of potable water
globally. Many textile dyes are toxic and are banned in many countries. Toxic textile dyes are
bio-accumulative5
. Switching to cotton is not the easy answer either. Cotton farming requires
plenty of water and pesticides. Retailers may seduce us with 'natural fibres' but natural fibres
have to be spun, knitted or woven, dyed, sewn and transported on a global scale. Handcrafted
products from luxury fashion brands may be grossly overrated as their manufacturing remains
largely contingent on ruthless massacre of wildlife.
CONCLUSION
For the Indians themselves, for whom value for money will remain engrained in the psyche,
jewellery will remain an investment buy, but the outward representation of status that it
confers will feed the business of the foreign brands. Bollywood will remain a key influence,
and adulation of its stars and what they wear will continue to have an impact on the Indian
consumer. Commentaries abound in the media and on a multiplicity of fashion websites
offering Bollywood-inspired clothes. Stakeholders are waking up to the business
opportunities these are presenting, and many designers are now joining with companies or
movie stars to cash in on the retail potential. Whether it is the versatile saree, the humble
salwar kameez, or the Indo-western fusion of wearing kurta with jeans, many Indian woman
have managed to adapt various trends in fashionable clothing without compromising on the
beauty of all things Indian. Nevertheless, the fashion industry in India is constantly
transforming and growing, irrespective of such trends.
Fashion had not ended, therefore, but it had altered, and it was, potentially, on the brink of
another major shift towards the East. While it is unlikely that the Western fashion industry,
which has evolved since the Renaissance, will be subsumed, it will have to adapt quickly to
respond effectively to the global challenge. One should know that fashion is dynamic, and
while some styles manage to become timeless classics, other trends only enjoy a brief hype
before they die down.
5
https://www.numptynerd.net/globalisation-fashion-victims.html

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The fast fashion industry is bolstered by a growing influencer culture, in which social media
celebrities collaborate with big fast fashion companies as “brand ambassadors” to somehow
seamlessly intertwine these brands into their everyday lives. These fast fashion brands
provide accessible garments, and with the help of online shopping, consumption is even
easier. As a result, clothing production has doubled between 2000-2014, and the number of
garments the average consumer purchases a year has increased by 60 per cent. People want
their clothing cheap and trendy, and they want it quick.
However, trends die quickly and with that comes waste. Clothing produced by fast fashion
brands are oftentimes made from cheap materials, like polyester and acrylic, and not built to
last: The average American throws away 80 pounds of clothing every year. We’ve been
conditioned to believe that buying a garment and wearing it once is justifiable. It’s not. Due
to the growing demand in the fast fashion industry, we see a vast overproduction of clothing;
for example, the Copenhagen Fashion Summit reports that fashion is responsible for 92
million tons of solid waste dumped in landfills each year. This cultural shift on how we
consume clothing is leaving a huge mark on the planet. Fashion has become much more than
representation and being covered.