THE STUDY OF THE INDIAN FASHION SYSTEM WITH A SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON WOMEN’S OCCASION WEAR

The versatile draped silhouettes & heritage craft traditions redefined for contemporary connoisseurs; have further led to the rising acceptance of Indian ethnic/ fusion fashion as a paradigm shift for India to discern and emphasize local inimitability, to create a sense of belonging and stimulate consumption of a culturally promoted “Global-Desi” fashion dictum across cultures. This paper presents the study of major factors contributing to the Indian fashion system interpreting its engagement with the Indian society and also the world. This research highlights impact of the Indian Fashion system on the Indian society and its meaning. There is continued interest for classical Indian dress silhouettes, heritage textile crafts, accessories; this study concentrates on outcomes through the lens of history, culture, and sociology of fashion. The neue urban tribes and fashion social movements in the post- modern era led emergence of the apparel category- occasion wear; reserved for weddings, festivals, formal evening wear for parties. There is opportunity for exploring the hyper reality through the represented garment simulation in the occasion wear category. The Neue urban tribe creates lasting footprints through interpretation of the Indian Fashion System enroute popular culture; Bollywood and the satellite television. The semiotic approach to decode the nuance of the Indian fashion system embedded in popular culture through visual media like, family albums, films, magazine articles, red carpets appearance etc. across the 80’s, 90’s and 2000 onwards . The neue Indian women perceive the sari, salwarkameez, bandgala jackets, as essential inclusions of their contemporary wardrobes as they rendezvous their global counterpart in quest of cool hunting (Fashion Identity), trendsetting. Thus number and variety in types of fashion apparel will have a positive relationship with the role of women in society and their education level, profession and will provide future trend directions for occasion wear. Operational Definitions Global-Desi (An Indian term for global yet local Indian, local; Neue Indians), Khadi (fabric which is hand spun and hand woven in India, often referred as Fabric of freedom) Marshall McLuhan’s ‘Global Village’ Communication theorist McLuhan was ahead of his time, writing about technology in the 1960’s, his arguments seems even more relevant today in the internet age. McLuhan argues that the proliferation of electronic technology has extended our biological senses of sight and sound beyond their normal range. He is saying that through technology such as the telephone or television we are able to communicate instantaneously across the globe, which consequently impacts by speeding up the global economy and social life. McLuhan argues that due to technology and its instant communication we feel as close to someone on the other side of the globe as if they were in our own village. Therefore we can understand why McLuhan says we are in a ‘global village’.