Monday, January 28, 2008
Color is the Eternal Black
"The Supper Deluxe Bus " (sic) between Khajuro and Jhansi - Monday, January 21 st
Maybe it's the (lack of) heat or the humanity, but India's unique fashion sense is beginning to win me over. Of course their endless enthusiasm for bright colors and centuries of textile making are legendary and fits with my own fashion sense. You have to adore a culture that has theories of color and elaborate schemes of color associations. As result, I have concluded for most ordinary indians "color is the eternal black."
Fashion archaelogists need not pore over fading polariods or scratchy home video tapes to rediscover the fashion highs and lows of the last several decades. Clothing recycling and rapid popuation growth means that most all of the great fashion styles remain strutting about the streets of India. How I wish I had been able to capture for you a photo of the Indian hipster rocking an all in white 1972 Miles Davis look on the comically crowded bus between Khajuraho to Jhansi. True to form the lad was a study of cool detachment standing throughout entire five hour journey without breaking a sweat or cracking a discernable human expression. I felt unworthy and too self-conscious to manage more than a few furtive and totally unsuccessful angled camera shots hoping to capture his "look." My only and somewhat feeble excuse is that I was literally pinned into my seat by the crush of fellow bus passengers (yes Jen and I were some of the few lucky ones early enough to get seating on the "Supper Deluxe Bus").
Inspired by this tragic missed opportunity, Jen and I have pledged to photo those "great disco shirts of India" to share some of the otherwise lost fashion moments of the past.
Maybe it's the (lack of) heat or the humanity, but India's unique fashion sense is beginning to win me over. Of course their endless enthusiasm for bright colors and centuries of textile making are legendary and fits with my own fashion sense. You have to adore a culture that has theories of color and elaborate schemes of color associations. As result, I have concluded for most ordinary indians "color is the eternal black."
Fashion archaelogists need not pore over fading polariods or scratchy home video tapes to rediscover the fashion highs and lows of the last several decades. Clothing recycling and rapid popuation growth means that most all of the great fashion styles remain strutting about the streets of India. How I wish I had been able to capture for you a photo of the Indian hipster rocking an all in white 1972 Miles Davis look on the comically crowded bus between Khajuraho to Jhansi. True to form the lad was a study of cool detachment standing throughout entire five hour journey without breaking a sweat or cracking a discernable human expression. I felt unworthy and too self-conscious to manage more than a few furtive and totally unsuccessful angled camera shots hoping to capture his "look." My only and somewhat feeble excuse is that I was literally pinned into my seat by the crush of fellow bus passengers (yes Jen and I were some of the few lucky ones early enough to get seating on the "Supper Deluxe Bus").
Inspired by this tragic missed opportunity, Jen and I have pledged to photo those "great disco shirts of India" to share some of the otherwise lost fashion moments of the past.
Don't worry though - I suspect if you are able to make the journey here any time in the future you should be able to see the fashion show here for yourself. Thanks to the magic of man-made fibers most of the fashion evidence is expected to last for the next 1,000 years or so before it finally bio-degrades or until forthcoming post peak-oil conditions have us recycling disco shirts and foraging near infinite supply of discarded plastic bags to synthesize future fuel supplies.
Labels: Disco-Shirts, india
