Madura Garments

Opportunities for men’s fashion in small town India

Our process

• Fundamental enquiry to understand nature of change in small town India

• Within that to understand the evolving nature of masculinity in small town India

• Factors that shape & influence masculinity

• How does masculinity manifest itself in terms of clothing and fashion

• Mapping fashion trends across tier 2 towns

Methodology

• Primary enquiry across 4 centres , Aurangabad, Bareilly, Salem & Asansol

• In-depth conversations with close to 100 people around– Their life– Work– Clothing– Change– Women

• Documenting street fashion, small town in collaboration with photographer / fashion blogger

• Drawing from our work on small time India; Bharat Darshan

Big shifts in small town India

Small town is entrenched in a homogeneous collective

Yahaan sab, sab ko jaante hain

Sab family kee tarah hain

But today, spores of the city being blown into small town life

Preparatory Schools& accessing new skills

Meaning of education is slowly detaching itself from a mental faculty

and aligning to ‘body’

Today education is about imbibing symbols & simulating behavior codes of a profession

Accessing mobility through body

• body is an entity to be maintained and decorated so that it could engage in a world where fluency of body language is becoming important

Fashioning self to escape the collective

Entrepreneurial energy

Myth of Self-invention: make your own from what is available

“Same to same nahi banane ka. Chaar mix kar do, ek ban jayegi!”

• “Hum log all to all cheezon ka knowledge liya hai. Sab cheezon ko mila ke chalte hain, jisme in jo badiya laga usko catch kar liya.”

• “Ekjageh fix ho jayenge to khatam ho jayenge.”

Not the ‘reinvention of the jaded”

In this context

How is men’s clothing evolving

Many faces of men some changing while some others resisting the change

Patriarch

formaldress code

Shirt-Pant dress code

Relaxed office goer

Body code

Patriarch in modernclothes

Official man

The Individual

Mixed code

Culturaldress code

Men’s fashion landscape: Aurangabad

Men’s fashion landscape: Bareilly

Men’s fashion landscape: Bareilly

Men’s fashion landscape: Asansol

Shirt – Pant Clothes shrouding the patriarch

• Roles that men played; that of protector and provider of family

• Kaam karte waqt haath pao chalne hahiye….readymade aur jeans wagarah chust rehtee hain

Self which was shrouded in loose attire of manhood is beginning to get defined

sharply through tight fitting

• Wanting to move out of father’s shadow

• Chust mori wale pant

• Need to appear and look like you are capable

• Yet when it comes to wife, she is not a life partner but help for aging parents

Formal wear: Mobility through institutional hierarchy

• Representing not self but an institution– Main khada hoon matlab karbon khada hai

• formal dress code to belong to an ‘official’ cadre

• Elevating but binding– Sober colours– Stripes– Office mein kuch tadak bhadak nahin

Loosely coded formals

• Room for individual

• Jeans with formal shirt

• Subversion through accessories and styling

Expressive world of casuals; not bound by institutions

• The identity entrepreneurs

• Clothes that accentuate the body• Jeans shaam ko .. Badhiyaan dekhengi

na…

– Funky– Designer– Pencil/ narrow– Short / tight– Fitting / body hugging

Various dress codes

• Strict formals• Diluted versions of formals• Casuals • Formal mixed with casuals

• Lets start with formals and how it is getting influenced

Formals: Pride in the Institution

• Main khada hoon matlab Karbon khada hai

• Only pvt. Sector banking employees can afford branded formals

• Shedding self and stepping into an uniform

• Lack of style or no style means formals

Need to escape the grip of institution

• The other significant behavior

• Constant attempts to get away with something

• Slim trousers, sandals, jeans & shirt

However not everybody abides by proper code

Shirt tucked out: power resides in me & not in the institution

To not allow the institution to take over the self completely

Denims: Entering the formal code

Changing institutional landscape & the need to learn formal codes

• Interview mein kya peheney?

• From Government jobs to private sector

• Retail influence

Calibrating formality as per the context

• Making small adjustments to given structures

• Not a rigid classification of clothes, but playing with individual elements

• Govt . Vs. private

• Indian vs. MNC

• Local formal vs. MNC formal

• During meeting vs. after meeting

‘Self’ peeking through the uniform

• Teasers• Minor design elements in formals

• Those who need brands go for readymade, those who need little design come to us– Owner of Tailoring shop upgrading to a design studio

Fashion is not rebelling against the idea of conformity, but play-acting

conformity• Subversion of formalwear codes

• The un-tucked shirt, sandals with formalwear

• Wearing jeans as work wear

• Faux tie built into shirts

Escaping Institution and discovering ‘self’ through the ‘body’

• Playing-off the body emerging as a dominant narrative

• New vocabulary– Funky– Designer– Pencil fit– Tight and body hugging– Short shirt– Narrow jeans

“narrow” jeans &stylish belts as a symbol of this new masculinity

Loaded with detailing that focus on the masculine body – chest, arms

While the formal stripes put the body behind the bars,

the checks structure the body

Allowing the body to speak desired language

Fashion is not merely accessing looks but a whole new vocabulary

Shoes, accessories like caps, belts, leggings, sunglasses

Expressive language for inarticulate youth

Profusion of casual wear, accessories

More body surface that can talk

‘Designer’ as a euphemism for the need to access an expressive language

Changing surface facilitating internal transformation

• The putting on of sunglasses

• The scarf / gamchha and the tightening of resolve or loosening into leisure

• Locating a new reality or context within

• The importance of the “Mumbai / Delhi” tag

Constantly expanding vocabulary

• Rejecting what’s popularly yesterday• Adopting “aajkal kya chalta hai”• Running & latest item• Roz kuch naya aa jata hai ….

• Formals change slowly as compared to casuals

Fashion: playing with different codes to expand vocabulary

shurta

Obsolescence over durability

• Aajkal aadmi yeh chah raha hai roz kuch naya pehne

• Purana jaldi pheke aur kuch naya le

• Ab dusshera diwali ka Koi wait nahin karta. Jab note aaye kuch le liya

But Indian male not fluent in language of body

• Excited about expressing ‘self’ but not conversant with the new fashion discourse

• Seeking help from bollywood and facilitators of fashion

• When people come we tell them about facials and new services, lot of people convert…..sometimes thier wives get them here….

‘Body’ adolescence

• Exploring multiple options

• Body as a canvass to be adorned

• But no formed sense of what’s body appropriate

• What one can carry off and what one can’t

In the new fashion discourse where identity is liberated from societal

structure, the sources from where identity can be borrowed multiply manifold

Is pink a sign of feminization

• Not in small towns

• Things considered feminine are one amongst many options available to men

Despite all the exploration there are some who maintain distance from the

fashion tamasha

Fashion principles

• Negotiating everyday live and its demands

• Responding to institutional structure and class hierarchy (often through the body)

• Child-like subversion of rigid structures defined by the world of brands (and the big city)

• Discovering body as a medium of expression for one’s masculinity• Connect with a constantly updating vocabulary that evokes

dynamism and mobility

• surface in change facilitating an internal journey & transformation

Two worldviews

Institutionalized• ‘Formals’ as a

metaphor

• World of brands• Marks social status• Commanding respect

Deinstitutionalized• ‘Jean & fitting clothes’

as a metaphor• World of fashion• Outlines ‘self’• Seeking attention

Aligning to Institution

Liberation from Institution

Negotiating Institution

World of brands

• Mobility through alignment to big names and institution

• Linear and slow growth

• Readymade templates over personal choice

• Sanitized order adhering EBO’s

World of fashion

• Speaks to the new masculinity emerging in small town

• Plethora of choices

• No templates to be followed

Some retail principles

Only eye level display cared for

Formal shirt packaging on the sides..not at the forefront

• formals often referred to as dabbe wale kapde

Hidden formals vs. showcased casuals

Complete reliance on the shopkeeper

• Display esp. in case of formal wear takes a backseat

• Stacked according to the price braceket

• Being more organised & institutional,color ,patterns and design are secondary

• Displayed post buyer profiling

Customer with a 'condition'

Retailer as an authoritative 'fashion diagnostician'

• Recommends a solution - picked out from the nameless boxes lining the shelves (pulls out a box that he believes is the suitable solution for the customer)

• Reminiscent of chemist stores - drawers on the wall, information lies with the retailer

• Not just a salesperson, but makes a more upstream contribution

Fashion Evangelists

• Tutoring fashion

• Soft skilled instigator – a tease, a titillating instigation that evokes desire

• Handholding them into the ritual and aesthetics of fashion

• Transferring the knowledge of cool

 The hot-selling street stall hawker

• Represents the 'latest' in fashion

• High decibel hawking of items at the peak of their popularity and relevance

• Fads rather than fashion

• Items sold by the 'heat' of their popularity..not a place for classics

The seamless-ness of fashion spaces

• Not standalone stores

• Market spot as an aggregated fashion exchange (many apparel shops lined against each other)

Codes at play

• Active engagement with the merchandize

• Shopkeeper not a dukaandaar but a guide to fashion

• Shopping means going to many shops and not one large store

Implications

New brand opportunities

Power dressing for small towns

• Reinforcing Institutional hierarchy

• Current images of Van Huesen are alienating for small town men

• How can a brand evoke the emotion of “main khada hoon matlab karbon khada hai” through formals

Power distancing through ‘spotless white’

• ‘White’ has an interesting and enduring cultural theme. Connotes a complex set of classical power and masculine codes

• Brand that speaks to the one who take pride in remaining unaffected by vibrant changes around them

Shirt pant brand for the dutiful family man

• Wearing formals casually – this seems to be the biggest chunk of the consumers

• This is the man who prides in living up to his ‘role’ – ‘purushottam’ ideal

• A brand that celebrates and reaffirms this ideal

• Distinct design language: cuts that accentuate square shoulders, simplicity and bareness of design elements, body cloaking Vs body hugging

• Drawing from the fundamental desire to be looked up to as a provider, the foundation of stability

Dynamism of entrepreneurs

• The small town entrepreneur feels subservient in conventional formal wear

• However small his empire might be… he is the master of it

• There is literally no demarcation between work life and leisure in his mind

• Always involved in his work

• Always bringing flair of his persona to his environment

• He feels formalwear constrains his dynamism, instead of carrying it through

Dynamism of entrepreneurs

• A brand/line which brings dynamic elements to formal wear … borrowing from leisure wear … but making it purposeful rather than frivolous like a party wear

• Work wear denims, mixing colors, cuts borrowed from leisure wear, outdoors gear … anything but the shirt-tie-belt format

• Positioning it as the self-made king’s wear

Negotiating Institution through design and product range

In the new fashion discourse where identity is liberated from societal structure, the

sources from where identity can be borrowed multiply manifold

• Instead of formal wear casualizing can individual interest / needs be formalized

• Car / bikes/ music as inspiration for formals

• Biker formals

Colour stories

• Personalization through colour identification• Colour worldviews

– White– Red– Yellow– Blue– Grey

Calibrating formality as per context and occasion

• Consumer with a condition– Interview– Local company vs. MNC – Marriage– Meeting– everyday

Accessories that allow for polite subversion

• A big market, with hardly any brands• Accessing an expressive language• Sling bags• Sweaty Gamcha stripped of its purpose to pose

as neck scarf

Not rebelling but playing with the codes of conformity

• Tie / waist coat built into shirt

Sense of newness through new forms .. new vocabulary

• Chino’s as a vocabulary not relevant

• Can there be a ground up terms that small town male can relate to

• Like biker office wear

Self peeking through the formal code

• Teaser designs

• Each element is ‘accentuated’ … unlike metros where the purpose of experimenting with plackets etc is to keep it understated… in smaller towns it is about extracting more value, packing more design

Fashion in small-towns

Retail rather than brand driven

Fashion destinations: Not a pilgrimage

• Not the urban, metro ‘brand pilgrimage’ of going to a Levis’ store or a particular mall

• The consumer is not a wide-eyed wanderer

• A different kind of a destination in small towns

• A whole street, market, many stores, many worlds simultaneously

Not a pilgrimage but a guided package tour

• The Indian way to travel and experience new things

• Not one but many destinations in a compact format

• Not an open exploration, but broken down into consumable parts

• The ‘must see’ or the ‘must have’

Sales-personalities not sales persons

• Exuding an ownership of the stock they sell

• Communicating an ability to lead the fashion choosing and buying behavior of the customer

Helping people develop fluency with language of body

• The changing room experience explosion– given the increasing role of the body & the absence of

such facilities in a traditional retail formats– Many mirrors, lights

• Dynamic mannequins– The expressive body language of small towns, not just a

hanger for clothes

• The language of grooming institutes– Guidance for those seeking formalwear codes– How to be formal yet bend some rules

Stylized Mannequins

• In metros, the objective is to display the cuts, styling of the garment

• In small towns on the other hand, the focus is on the pose of the mannequin rather than the garment

• Consumers are buying the mood, body language, swagger that comes with the styling

Not locked in brands but a space representing a fashion options and

choice• Designed to draw people as a 'destination‘

• Representing a space much larger than a 'store

Store as social etiquette dispenser(esp. in context of office wear)

• The small towner constantly striving to move up the social ladder trying to keep pace with the metro guy

• The profusion of grooming institutes, English speaking classes as signs of acquiring the relevant know how & mannerisms

• The store as a sign of dispensing social etiquettes

Not sections within store but stores-in-store

• Continuous aisle that let's customers move from shop to shop within the larger boundary of the store

• Alleviating the sense of being 'stuck' in one store

• Structurally more like an exhibition space with individual stalls within a larger space

• Mimicking the main market place

Hawking' spots within the store for specific merchandise

• Sunglasses, accessories - trendy items• Fad over fashion• Sales person as the mannequin

Key principles

• Pride in institution

• Need to escape the institution

• Calibrating formality as per the context

• Self peeking through the uniform

• Play acting the codes of formality

• Emergence of body masculinity

• Surface in change facilitating internal transformation

• Fashion is about constant sense of newness

• Fashion is about reinventing forms and vocabulary

• Retail ; complete reliance on shopkeeper

• Fashion evangelism / diagnostician

Key principles contd..

• Subversion by striping things of their purpose

• Design as a language for inarticulate youth

• Individual formalizing over Formals casualizing