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Short and Sweet

The coolest item in the fashion circuit is the short kurta. India Today's Anshul Avijit finds out why.

For the past couple of years garments relating to the torso have witnessed severe cutbacks as if the fabric market was hit by a drought and fashion had to make adjustments. Men's casual shirt, once a loose, usually full-sleeved structure almost reaching the knees, has now become tighter, firmer and short-sleeved, refusing to cross the groin and to be worn untucked over the trousers. For women, reinforced camisoles, slips, boob tubes, peasant blouses and drought-affected tops have become more popular than usual, policing the silhouette and accentuating the only-papaya-for-dinner figures.

But the coolest androgen wear this season, and what can proudly be called a totally indigenous creation, is the snipped version of the elderly kurta—the short kurta. Delhi-based fashion designer-turned-forecaster Rajiv Goyal, earlier with Pierre Cardin, says that the edited garment will continue to adorn torsos for at least another year, having achieved unprecedented success for the past two years.

The material of the short kurta is mainly cotton, though silk and polycotton are preferred for evening wear lustre. It could have a gold-tinged arabesque border, be furrowed with pin tucks, have Mandarin collars with wooden buttons or be totally collarless and buttonless, exposing the clavicle, a silver chain and the need for a compliment. Jaipur/Jodhpur block prints have shifted attention from bedcovers, tablecloths, duvets, and stock desert designs are being displayed on the new canvas to spectacular effect.

The colours are blazing—haemoglobin red, peacock blue, parrot green, turmeric yellow, carrot orange, salmon pink—and the sleeves have retained their length for maximum play. Designer Anshu Arora Sen, who does her short kurtas in pure white, says she grew up with them all around her and wonders why it took so long for them to become fashionable. The best thing about it is that it's really comfortable and people were going to realise that sooner or later. That's part of the reason. Retro revival, a global trend of bringing back elements from the recent past into the present, is the other. A vintage translation of the short kurta was noticeable in the 1960s and 1970s when Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan wore it aesthetically over a
sleeveless vest and brown bell-bottoms. When the aesthetics and the vest went missing in the bolder moments of cinematic sartor, the somewhat diaphanous kurta exposed a silver tabeez, chest hair and the dire need for a job. This was stereotyped as the urban uniform of the middle class, of the unemployed and teachers. The glamour of frayed chappals on one side and professorial chic on the other. As for women, well, on them it was considered just plain sexy.

The non-politico long kurta survived, becoming widespread in the ethnic boom of the 1980s, as well as a companion of the hirsute rebel who yearned for Marxian equity and cigarettes. The short one remained in the inert fringes of dressing till Sonali Bendre decided that a yellow one (sporting religious symbols) was suitable for the cover of a film magazine in 1998. The Hindutva brigade moved her to court and the kurta came under heavy media glare—the first time since Anand and Chupke Chupke. Retroism further assured its quick ascent to the top of the rag trade. Most importantly, it also lost its decades-long semi-pejorative baggage—it became the party wear of the elite.

The short kurta is now also fashioning changes in other upper body attires. The T-shirt is looking more like a shirt and the shirt is looking more like a short kurta, says Goyal. In fact, the merger of the three is going to be a major trend of the future. Goyal also suggests that this is not purely an Indian but an international movement since Indian trendsetters look to western designers, who in turn have been inspired by India. The new Nike T-shirt-morphed-short kurta could well be a product of this cyclic sensibility. Next in line? Mini kurtas that eschew the navel. Might even see a few in the ongoing fashion week.

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