The way we dress

She’s got the look! — That’s what author Geeta Khanna aims to bring about in her coffee table book Style of India. She brings to light the beauty and the evolution of the style of the quintessential Indian woman from the Harappan times to what we see today, in the 21st century.

She is known to have traversed great lengths to preserve and promote the unique arts, crafts and heritage of India, and the result is 500 stunning captures from archival material and recreations of drapes and accessories over centuries, supported by details spanning the gamut of Indian design over the centuries.

Talking about the inspiration for her book, Geeta shares, “If we want the world to recognise India as an important fashion location — which it is for so many reasons — it is time we celebrate ourselves. If we don’t value ourselves, why would the world value us? Also, there is no compilation that connects Indian culture to real time history of Indian fashion that not only includes the Indian fashion designers, but also the Indian cinema (as it greatly impacts what India wears).”

The book connects the dots from ancient India to now and makes it easy to understand why India dresses the way it does. “No such documentation has been done before. Earlier ones perhaps are on one of the subjects in this book such as sari, royal family fashion, Hindi cinema costume or Indian fashion, but none give an eagle’s eye viewpoint from start to now. I compare it to the case of five blind men who describe the elephant. Style of India is not just the sari, or the designer or Hindi cinema, it is so much more.”

The culturally reflective book is a presentation of the new India’s creative talent that largely draws its inspiration from its deep-rooted and multi-dimensional culture.

“Young minds from NIFT and my assistants (especially Nidhi Mahajan), avid historians, several PhD scholars and academic authorities have guided me on this path as well as Anuradha Kapoor, Aman Nath, Priya Paul, Jyotindra Jain, Layla Tyabji, Darshan Shah and many more. For the research on Harappan era, I referred to several PhD documents and books. We travelled across India for a few years, in and out of flights, hotels, cabs and discovered local foods,” reveals Geeta.

The highlights of this book include the ‘same God different look’ section — the calendar art section, which reflects on how diverse Indian style is. Here the same God is dressed in regional attires. The comparison of Sita and Draupadi through the Raja Ravi Verma calendar art reflects on the fact that in India, time is cyclic in nature, and not linear.

If anyone can give this subject the upward curve, it is the expertise, art direction and styling of Geeta, who has recreated the Harappan goddess, inspired by the terracotta figurines, excavated from the Harappa sites.

“I also recreated Razia Sultan, the first androgynous dresser in Indian Islamic history, the princely state dress up of the queen of Jaipur, and visuals that present the diversity in sari drapes of India and other aspects. I love the international designers section, where we see how great minds like Karl Lagerfeld and Jean Paul Gaultier interpret the Indian maharajas. I love the ladies congress delegate calendar of 1886, which shows women wearing a tiara with their puff sleeved blouse and saris. Talk about the British influence on us!” states the Delhi-based author. The book that took five years to complete profiles ace couturiers including Tarun Tahiliani, Manish Arora, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Anamika Khanna.