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Indulgent eyes almost rolled in their sockets when the tween grandchild declared that the big knee-baring asymmetrical cut-outs are “not torn! This is style!” The top the tween wore also looked like it had been worn inside out with big orange stitches along the sleeves and scattered fringes along the hem. The distressed grandma looked appealingly and I smiled back assuring that her tween wasn’t going loopy at all. This style celebrates the natural aging process of clothes and could to a certain...

If you are a manufacturer — of anything, be it apparel, footwear, accessories or anything else under the sun, this is for you. As the globe grapples with the horrors of climate change being increasingly witnessed in the form of flash floods, cloud bursts, unseasonal rain or lack of it — just some of the visible signs, industries across the spectrum are scurrying to set their processes more compatible with the planet. Of course, there is a lot of greenwashing being done too. Irrespective, ripple...

Honestly, it’s time for us to hark back to our fashion/ lifestyle of yore. A time when clothes, or for that matter, any other item, be it bedlinen, upholstery or sundry household linen survived for generations. At my mother’s place some sets of soft cotton bedsheets from a ‘trusted’ brand were used when we were kids, her grandchildren hopped along the way, and today, when she is bedridden, they are still being used, after perhaps a thousand hand and machine washes. The print, specially of the...

Ever wondered how you ‘consume’ fashion? When was the last time you discarded a T-shirt or dress or sari or even a bedsheet, old cushion covers, footrugs? What did you do with them? Ever wondered how do those who live and breathe the malodourous air near a landfill — the huge mountainous mound of the city’s waste that gets dumped every day — survive from day to day in that nauseating stench? I don’t have numbers on how many million tonnes comprise clothing, but what I can suggest is we, the...

We wish it would rain and once the downpours begin we shall wish again for some respite. The roads will be in terrible snarls, the potholes and puddles bigger and splashier. It can be fun to go slop-clop on a muddy road once in many whiles, but a spray of that same muck by a speeding vehicle is definitely not the best way to start or end a day, or any time one is on any commute, or simply out for some chores or a much-needed walk. Well, here are some ways to counter the drip-drop-drip: Opt for...

In a politically correct world, there is no room today for criticising anyone if they are scrawny or fat, dark, wheatish or fair, short or tall, dressed to kill, or, killing with their dress sense! Yeah! It is all very good to not calling anyone names or even endearments of yore like Kaalu, Moti, Bhains (cringe), Paetlu, Dhepsi (overweight), Lambu, Gattu, and the more relevant in this context Chammakchchallo or someone inappropriately or gaudily dressed, not necessarily a bimbo or a petit-maitre...

How many times have you been body-shamed? While people are today increasingly aware of the inherent meanness associated with the shaming of an individual for weight, what cannot be negated is the need to eat healthy and burn those extra calories. Whether you are at it or not, here are a few points to help you visually tone down that paunch. And this is specifically for men. Women can borrow some tips too! Go monochrome! Not necessarily black or white, but any colour in some of its various hues...

A movement has recently been launched in the European Union urging youngsters and influencers to serve as role models to help "make fast fashion out of fashion." Can we in the Northeast take the lead in India and emerge as flagbearers of a movement that is urgently needed to make this planet a better place to thrive on. We have all been avidly following the terrible earthquake in Turkiye that saw lives in multi-storied towers collapse like nine pins. Don’t you think that natural calamities...

Yellow. Mustard. White. These are the colours that fashion must revel in, as the weather turns a corner, marking the advent of spring. And Basant Panchami or Saraswati Puja is the true harbinger. In Assam and some other eastern states, Saraswati Puja is a special occasion for many, many young women as it is the day that celebrates their coming of age to drape their mother’s six yards. No mean task that, more so holding it all together and yet walk and run with elegance. So if you are the tomboy...

Ask questions before going in for faux or so-called 'vegan' leather, for most are essentially altogether polyurethane or contain significant amounts of petroleum components. Circa the late Eighties. I had just discovered khadi kurtas, roughly woven in shades of blue, black, an ombre, and a tangerine too. The bags were either of cloth and now I know some PU or polyurethane leather, which means it was artificial and so peeled off after some time. Little did we know then how harmful these were for...