Week 9:

Mahima Rupakula
5/28/2019
913734418

Week 9: Reorientalization

This article explores the way that fashion is looked at as a more "Western" phenomenon, and how oriental and eastern fashion is regarded as something separate from the global fashion trends by Western influences. This article points out that Eastern fashions are more typically regarded to as cultural "dress" instead of fashion, separating them and categorizing them as archaic instead of part of the global fashion movement. I think that it's disappointing to see this in most fashion trends, as I never even considered it until reading this article. As someone who considers themselves a lover of MESA fashion, I realized that even I have this predisposed notion of fashion being centered in the West. When one thinks about significant fashion capitals of the world, the first names coming to mind are Milan, Paris, New York, etc. All of these Western locations and cities only further propagate how the West is seen as fashion forward and modern, but the east is seen as "exotic", different and archaic in general. I decided to focus on finding more "modern" Eastern fashion brands, and I think I succeeded with the brand I found called Indya. I genuinely like a lot of the clothing on here, and I love seeing how eastern based fashion evolved to have a high fashion type of appearance through this clothing. My question is, why do so many eastern based brands cater to their market by adding "Western" in their descriptions (including Indya)? Is that necessary? Is there a way we can break that style of marketing down?

Figure: Modern Eastern fashion from my new favorite brand, Indya. This incorporates Indian silks and kurta style tunics, but modernizes the sleek lines in the cigarette pants and has a higher collar than is normal. The exposed shoulders and midriff are still commonly seen in lehengas for younger females.