What this Ranveer Singh dress says about fashion

Earlier this month, Ranveer Singh dropped a series of images on his social media. In all of them was dressed top to toe in maximalist Gucci, with a long-haired wig and flowing beard, much like the Italian fashion label’s chief designer Alessandro Michele. The three posts collectively gathered 4 million likes and almost 50,000 comments. So far, so much bang for Gucci’s buck.
But what followed was an incalculable meme fest. The images went viral with one funny caption after another. One said “Khilji in the 21st century”, referencing the hirsutism. Another said “When people in Dubai go out for milk”, poking fun at the shiny satin tracksuit and a dazzling bib of gold chains. A third said, “Going back to work after the lockdown”, satirising the long hair again. The virality of the posts was more that the brand bargained for. It was perhaps better than a front-page advertisement in a mainstream newspaper or eight pages in a top fashion glossy.

One of the best side-effects of the lockdown has to be the meme. Since we are all home and forced to be looking at our screens all day long, anything that happens online matters very much in the real world. Just look at the rise of NFTs, e-commerce and online schools for example. The digital world is taking the place of the real world. In 2021, if your product has not been meme-ed, you’ve done it all wrong.