Ethnic wear is fast displacing the standard trouser-blazer  combination for social dos

YOU could call it the effect of a Divali hangover, or perhaps a prelude to the wedding season. But men are for once trying to outdo women in sartorial flamboyance, cut for cut, colour for colour.

Raw silk dhotis with embroidered borders, pleated kurtas, multi-textured angarkhas, Aligarhi coats and churidars, Pathan suits... not to mention mojris and shawls to match... have well displaced the standard trouser-blazer and other western combinations of formal menswear this winter.

"It is a season for ostentation and over-indulgence," observes Gauri Sinha, a fashion consultant with an export house. "After a long time, we are seeing a profusion of bright colours and prints during the winter. This could be one way the fashion industry is trying to counter the gloom that otherwise surrounds us.

Preeti Parekh, a Mumbai-based designer, is more specific: The revival of ethnic wear in men’s fashion is nothing but a response to the trend that has already set in women’s dressing. People are realising that one must necessarily complement the other. If your partner is in an elaborate lehnga-choli ensemble, ideally you should go in for the dhoti or, at least, a churidar-kurta set—not a three-piece western suit."

Not only are clothes being designed to complement one another, couples are increasingly showing up at social dos with matching colours, prints and embroidery. "The trend began with designers of wedding trousseaus," informs Parekh. "It establishes a sense of pride among couples — of belonging to one another."

According to Malini Reddy, a professor in the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), the last time designers took men’s fashion seriously was almost 15 years ago. Today, with Wendell Rodricks, Aki Narula, Sharbari Dutta and others lending their interpretations" to male ethnic wear, a revival of sorts is being witnessed in angarkhas, achkans, Jodhpuri coats, chogas, jamas, pherans and Nehru jackets.

"Designers like Hemant Trevedi prefer to team up kurtas with trousers, whereas others like J.J. Valaya, Shoba Somani and Krishna Mehta are pitching for a dhoti option," Reddy points out. "The kurtas are now being made in assorted cuts and lengths, with or without collars and coordinated with elaborate waistcoats or jackets. With the availability of newer fabric options, the kurta is no longer an item of casual wear."

Likewise the dhoti, which was originally an unstitched piece of cloth (of approximately three metres in length), has become a pre-stitched garment and, in effect, a classy item of hi-fashion formal wear. It is now available in cotton muslin, silk and brocade and in shades of off-white and ivory, to yellow, red and black.

Apart from being teamed with kurtas, the dhoti is being worn with long knee-length shirts and, more significantly, with pherans. Traditionally, these loose kurta-style shirts used to be worn with salwars. But now, somehow, salwars are out of favour with Indian men.

"Actually, a number of changes have crept into men’s clothes, both stylistically and the way they are worn," observes Parekh. "These changes may not be apparent to the untrained eye because they have been slow in evolving and have been very subtle, unlike women’s fashion, which thrives on drama."

She points out that the angarkha (literally, a cover for the body) which is Rajput in origin, with a typical round collar, is now being designed with an elongated neck and with gathers at the waist. The influence of western styling is obvious from the overlapping, or what is commonly known as a double-breast cut.

Similarly, the achkan or sherwani is being transformed from a regal outfit (most commonly worn in Mughal courts) to a rather European suit jacket. Designers like Krishna Mehta and Aki Narula have made it into an elegantly tapered long coat, with or without side slits and worn with churidars.

At times, the outfit appears with Chinese collars, to be worn with long-sleeved western shirts or kurtas without collars. A shoter version of the sherwani is also in vogue. It resembles the closed-neck Jodhpuri jackets, or bundh-galas, only that it is not as elaborately embroidered or embellished.

Yet another outfit that has undergone a change is the jama — the shirt with a clinched waist, traditionally associated with the shepherds of the Kutch region in Gujarat. Today, as a fashion garment, it has the same clinched waist, but its hemline extends way beyond the hips and can even touch the knees! (MF)