Corporate couture
Fashion
By Sumona Roy

CORPORATE couture is going through a design overhaul in both its variations: as office uniform and in what is understood as power dressing. Predictably, the changes are visible more in women’s wear than in men’s.

Most Indian designers are going by yardsticks fixed by the west, even in the classification: one, what one voluntarily wears to work, and two, designing exclusive institutional wear.

Moreover, for the first time, they are entering into contracts with companies that amount to patenting designs. In other words, the same designs, colour schemes and patterns cannot be used for any other business house.

For instance, the Taj group of the hotels has engaged Ravi Bajaj to design the uniform of its front -office staff in keeping with the "business-like image they want to portray". Earlier, the general manager’s wife decided what the staff should wear.

"The response to institutional designer wear has been very positive," says the Delhi-based designer, who has earlier worked with an airline company and the Hyatt Regency hotel. "Companies are beginning to realise that what employees wear reflects the corporate image."

However, Rina Dhaka, another Delhi-based designer, feels that working people still prefer a range that is stylish, easy to wash and maintain. "This explains why the salwar-kameez and kurta-pyjama have remained the corporate dress mantra," she observes.

An upcoming designer, Jay Ramrakhiani, believes that there is a lot of scope for innovations in corporate wear, starting with jacket, shirt and scarf for women. "The shirt can be alternated with a ruffled blouse or camisole," he suggests.

Bajaj feels that the classic skirt-white blouse combination, embossed with the wearer’s name or the corporate logo, takes on a more contemporay look and feel. Tunic-style shirts,which are deliciously cool and trendy, also make an impact.

Other designers specialising in corporate wear include names like Krishna Mehta, Priyadarshini Rao and Azeem Khan. However, for them, it is always better to improvise on conventional formal wear, rather than create uniforms that may not always suit every wearer.

Effectively, this would mean salwar-kameez would soon make way for pinstripes, jackets, trousers and skirts. Somehow, sarees do not fit into the scheme of things, even though the hospitality industry and the airlines were the first to adopt them to project an Indian image.

One area of concern however, still remains: how to beat the Indian summer? Designers constantly face complaints of uniforms leading to excessive perspiration, even in air-conditioned working environments.

Clearly, the solution to this is taking up light-weight airy fabrics like cotton and jersey. But then, these are not always easy to maintain and less durable than synthetics. Besides, a separate set of uniforms requires to be designed for the winter.

Preferences of corporate houses, however, centre around cotton-rayon, viscose-rayon, polyester-cotton and viscose blends. Silks andchamois satin are usually meant for senior, supervisory staff. The bottomline, of course, is that clothes have to durable, wrinkle-free and easy to maintain.

Style-wise, too, there are very clear do’s and don’ts for designing corporate wear. For women, the cut fall and styling of fabric assume prime importance. Prints are never combined with prints, but with neutrals, black, navy-blue, white or beige.

Skirts are generally maintained at knee level and to be on the safer side, tucked-in shirts are not recommended. Over accessorising with make-up and jewellery are also discouraged.

For men, tailored suits are sartorially savvy provided the fitting is prefect. This involves, among other things that one-fourth of an inch of the shirt sleeve shows below the jacket and that its collar is half-an-inch to three-fourths of an inch lower than the shirt collar.

Trouser lengths need to be double-checked with the wearer and accessorised with matching shoes. Leather belts are usually one-inch thick. White cotton socks,cross-over sandals and sneakers are a complete no-no for corporate wear.

After all, nothing can damage the image of a company more than the impression created by a set of badly-dressed employees. (MF)