Apparel April 2019 Apparel April 2019 issue | Page 94

TREND TALK
THE BOTTOM STORY
In a country known for its diverse styles of bottom wear, this year holds a plethora of
trendy options for the fashionista, as East meets West and the result is spectacular!
Chitra Balasubramaniam explores.
One of the earliest memories I have of shopping
for salwars at Fabindia is how a foreigner was
explaining the pyjama trousers to her friend.
She showed her how to wear them and said,
“You bunch it up in the middle and tie it and
believe me they are the ‘most comfortable thing
on earth’.” The good ole salwar and its slightly
modern fashionable version, the churidar, were
the most worn styles by women in ethnic wear. It
was teamed with kurtas, tops, kurtis, long flowing
angarkhas… It was the top which evolved with
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change; the lowers/bottom wear remained more
or less the same. It could be altered for looseness
of the bottom wear, with flares, with a lot of
choodi as in a churidar, but that was it.
Come 2019, the humble salwars and churidars
are no longer in sight. Actually, the trend started
a few years ago but now has become so strong
that from haute couture, boutique, mass and
streetwear markets have taken to it by storm. This
is evident in most markets; whether one shops
at high-street shops or at Delhi’s local markets, it