A few years ago, my friends and I went up to veteran Indian rocker Lou Majaw after his gig in Mumbai to ask him a fashion-related question. Where did he get his denim cut-offs from, we wanted to know, for Majaw is as well known for his signature short shorts as he is for his lifelong dedication to Dylan. He responded with one word. Well one word, three times. “Snip, snip, snip” was all he said. Further questions were met with a beatific smile. Even though Majaw didn’t give us much to go by, his answer did say something significant about style in the Indian indie music scene: most of it is DIY, put together by the artistes themselves.
Indeed, bands with distinct looks aim to sartorially represent their sound with their on-stage attire. Those who play joyous, sprightly compositions amp it up in the garment department by wearing a veritable rainbow, while metal bands often adopt a darker wardrobe. Vogue rounds up bands that are high on sound and style.
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SUITS = SKA
Delhi ska-fusion group The Ska Vengers and Kolkata singer songwriter Nischay Parekh play their concerts in suits. While the former are identified by their black trilbies, jackets and trousers (or singer Samara Chopra’s white shirt and hot pants combination), Parekh, who now performs as the duo Parekh + Singh with drummer Jivraj Singh, has a penchant for pastels and wears suits made by Kolkata tailoring institution Barkat Ali & Brothers, as “an attempt at looking and feeling timeless.”
The Ska Vengers follow in the tradition of international ska bands such as The Specials. Their dance-friendly sound has scored them fashion show engagements that has helped build wardrobes. “Several members have acquired clothes from labels such as 11.11 and Péro as part payment,” says founder and keyboardist Stefan Kaye, who is known for his impressive collection of Hawaiian shirts on and off stage.
Image: The Ska Vengers
BOHO = ELECTRO POP
Singer and actor Monica Dogra, who performs both solo and as one half of Mumbai electro-rock duo Shaa’ir + Func, has been answering questions about onstage style for years. Dogra first caught the eye of fashion designers with her boho chic aesthetic of crop tops, flowing skirts and tribal make-up. Since then, she’s progressed from getting local boutiques to stitch monogrammed clothes to sourcing runway pieces by designers such as Kanika Goyal and Namrata Joshipura for her gigs. Dogra, a fixture at fashion weeks, who in 2014 launched a line for designer wear e-retailer Stylista, says, “Independent artistes only stand to make money from live performances, so it’s important to consider how to put forth a show that looks well produced.”
Image: Roycun D'souza
ETHNIC WEAR = FOLK
Over the years, certain images have come to be associated with certain types of acts. If you’re a metal band, you will dress in black T-shirts and jeans, and maybe goth face paint. If you’re a folk-fusion group, then you will dress in colorful khadi kurtas. Singer-composer Raghu Dixit, who believes in taking the extra effort, pairs his kurtas with equally vibrant lungis. Bengaluru-based Dixit gets his lungis from the Sri Lankan boutique store Paradise Road in Colombo. The reason one of South India’s biggest indie exports gets his wraps from outside the country is because Paradise Road has “amazing prints in bright, earthy colours” and they are “not synthetic and machine printed [but] hand loomed cotton.” “Perfect to represent my music,” says Dixit, who has won worldwide fame for his raw, soulful songs.
Image: Himanshu Rohilla
EIGHTIES STYLE = BOLLYWOOD DISCO
The tunes of Kolkata dance-rock exponents The Ganesh Talkies bear the strong influence of 1980s and 1990s Bollywood disco, and on stage they are often decked in colour clashing clothes that recall the wardrobe of film actor Govinda. “When [bassist] Roheet [Mukherjee] and I started The Ganesh Talkies, we wanted to shock people with not just our music but also our appearance,” says vocalist and frontwoman Suyasha Sengupta. “[Both are] fun, loud and quite over the top,” she adds. They would initially rent their flashy garb from costume makers working in the Tollywood movie industry and in TV talent hunt shows, but for the past couple of years they’ve been wearing the kaleidoscopic clothing of BOBO Calcutta, a label and store run by their designer friend Ayushman Mitra.
Image: Shankar Sarkar
Amit Gurbaxani is co-founder and chief editor of Thedailypao.com
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