Political Fashion Week: Stuff The Strut

The Lakhs-mein India Fashion Week has grabbed the front page. It's a fair exchange, considering how routinely the traditional Page Onewallahs now strut their designer stuff on Page Three, the glamourati's once-exclusive domain. Sonia's Guccipudi may be confined to the padayatra, and our 'Man' is hardly Armani, but several party-players of the UPA are catching up with the awesome swing record of its predecessor.Ministers of the NDA became so adept at pushing the style file, that some people thought the initials stood for National Designer Alliance. At any meet, you could see them schmoozing as comfortably with 'Sush' as in Sen as they would with 'Sush' as in Swaraj. The border between power and glamour is now so fuzzy that Delhi's recent political events read like a report on the LIFW. (The Fashion Week, in turn, is embroiled in politics, and is fittingly being held at the same location.) Take the RSS-BJP controversy. Its AA-category models, Vajpayee and Advani, are beginning to seem like has-been himbos being pushed out of the show by younger hot-bods such as Abs Jaitley and Six-Pack Mahajan. The much bigger event was the Musharraf visit, and it fitted the fashion show model perfectly. It quite upstaged the preceding Chinese Haughty Couture display. Musharraf was presenting his collection after a momentous four-year gap, so there was electric suspense. He did not disappoint. The assembled power crowd was riveted to his new look, so different from his 2001 stunner. Needless to say, the celebrity designer was unfazed by the battalion of photographers training their bazooka-sized lenses at him; arguably Mush got more flash than Ash does. The General decided to model his new designs himself. He sashayed down the Delhi catwalk to the theme song from Veer-Zara. You'd think he was Jessae Randhawa. Editors, normally as hardnosed as an NYT fashion critic, keeled over in delight as he presented this label, cutely called Phir Wohi Dil Nahin Laya Hoon. Mush ramped up the agenda, displaying a rackful of garbs, from bus driver to business driver. He presented Pakistani shalwars and conflict resolution with a nifty pirouette. His coordinates had interesting back notes; hectic backroom parleys had ironed out the contentious clauses. Some of the agreements were heavily embroidered, others had a minimalist starkness. Some lines were straight; others were cut on the bias — in this event, prejudice was dumped as if it were an export reject. Like his own expensive suiting, Pervez wanted to bond with the best. So, we presented The Complete Manmohan. But there was a refreshing change from today's FTV-wannabe shows. The General may have worked at transparency; he may have dared to bare his arsenal; but there was no display of cleavage between the two countries. Both hung together. The absolute Wow outfit was the remodelled Kashmiri phiran. Fashionistas and terroristas alike gasped at its cool, contemporary lines. The frayed fabric had been patch-ed up. Party-poopers whispered about what could be hidden in the few remaining folds; but the look was distinctly sleeker. The insp-ired touch was an edgy soft border. It was immediately crowned the 'peace de resistance'. *** Alec Smart said, "What's the trouble with Defence-deal scandals. They shoot, but they refuse to scoot." Erratica & Juggling Act, compilations of best of Erratica & Jugular Vein, now available at leading bookstores. Or log on to www.books.indiatimes.com