Are we ready to experiment?

My work place is a great case study for understanding the latest fashion taste of the urban Indian Nari. Almost every day I witness an attempt to break away from the usual and boring formal wear into something stylishly ‘different’.


Somehow, there is still a far less percentage of women wearing western formals to work even today. I really wanted to know the reason behind this and got an interesting insight.


Western formals are not designed for the body structure of Indian women. There are almost no size zeros around. Our body is more voluptuous and we are not comfortable with the tucked in “body shirt” look. Skirts are still considered too bold a fashion choice and is somehow linked to the ‘Air hostess’ look, which, women fear, may not cause them to not being taken seriously at the workplace.


If one observes the trend , our office wear is dominated by the ‘Salwar-Kamiz’, which is now getting replaced by the hipper short kurti and chudidar(legging) . Dupattas are being thrown out of the window and are only considered a hindrance.


Not so surprisingly, there are a few fashion statements which do not fall in any of the aforementioned closed-set definitions and cannot be found in any of the branded stores in the market. Many of us are trying to find a balance between the west and the Indian wear. I can slowly notice the short kurti looking more like a longer formal shirt with bright colors and bold prints, accessorized with a thin waist belt and a soft scarf. Sometimes, I even see a short frock being worn over a chudidar. Well, the path breaker does get a few raised eyebrows, but I think it is a step forward - a positive shot at being creative with the limited fashion choices we have.

Fashion at work

We are two friends, who take keen interest in the way people dress around us. And these “people” majorly constitute of our fellow colleagues at “work”. We constantly try to assess the fashion quotient attached with every individual. Coz in our opinion , “fashion“ has a personal meaning to each person.


By “work”, we meant an Indian IT solutions firm. Since our first day , we always felt that it was extremely important to dress smart and look elegant. There always was a certain chic look in our minds, when it came to dressing for work.


Quite honestly we always look forward to that day, when we have something new to wear in our wardrobe. And we know how frustrating it gets when we don’t find anything new and exciting in our fav. store that can be bought as office wear.


So, how conscious or cautious are people about their looks in office, does anyone really care or is fashion just limited to the alternate universe of Fashion weeks in Paris /Italy/NY. After months of observing and chatting up with our female friends, we realized that the aam desi chicks did not really keep up with the latest fashion trends, but most of them did care about their appearance at work.


This space is an attempt to understand the common Indian woman mindset when it comes to styling in general and specifically dressing up for work.