First Fashion Feelings
When I was in school, one of my most impractical dreams was to become a fashion designer. Thankfully truly my parents steered me away from that - I cannot figure-draw & I am happy with the path my life took - but I always 'sketched' clothes in the back of notebooks, as doodles until one day I didn't.
ChatGPT helped me create this — some sketches of the colorful fashion of the nineties
The mental space for me to consciously explore my relationship with fashion - ideas, dreams, likes, peeves and more - has only become available recently. I've also always written, blog posts, interviews, reviews, terrible poetry (thank goodness annual school books weren’t digital) and more; in fact my first job was as a copyeditor. This series has been in the making for over a year - and I hope everyone who said yes to being interviewed, is still open to it. There are many ways to 'organize' this, and for me, following my memory (mostly chronological) feels the most right.
Also ChatGPT, kinda love the vibrant colors
Nineties: Frocks, frills, and flounces
2000s: School, teenage rebellion, and college (nose ring ftw)
2007+: Navigating various worlds of work
2020s+: Dressing for now
The nineties in India, as I remember them, didn’t have the endless choices we see today, not just for clothes but for a lot of things.
My earliest memory of clothes takes me back to age seven: layers of frocks, often topped with organza or “something lace-like” (a fabric adventure for this series!). As an army kid, moving around meant new schools, new friends, and new tailors. At that point in my life, fashion simply equaled clothes.
The nineties were also shaped by Bollywood’s larger-than-life fashion choices and outfits. I don’t remember an explicit connection between what I wore and what I saw on screen, but I am hard-pressed to imagine that influences from the movie industry didn’t show up in day-to-day life or vice-versa.
A lot of the “global” pop culture content came primarily through music and artists – as I have grown up, I have realized that global often referred to perhaps two or three countries. I don’t remember any of the fashion choices, whether of the girl bands or individual singers, being an option for me :).
Choices for me were local: local bazaars for purchasing fabric or occasional visits to a store to buy something readymade (which would last for a long time, since fast fashion wasn’t a thing then). The skill of a tailor could turn a dream into a wearable reality.
A younger version of me, abashed at my love for things pretty, would try to justify this passion project as a way to reflect and find some sort of common arc. That just isn’t true. My life (personal and professional) is more latticed than linear. What my real hope for this is to talk to friends (old and new), get a peek into their worlds of fashions, and get to see A LOT of clothes from the India of the nineties. Share a photo of your favorite frock or sweater or jacket?