Antiserious — Fashion, 2018
Rheea Mukherjee, Mangalesh Dabral, Urvashi Bahuguna, Lakshmi Krishnakumar, R. Srivatsan, Gopal M.S., Nasreen Habib, Joe Mills, Glen Armstrong.
I believe it was the Manoj Kumar film Roti, Kapda, Makaan we thought about when we were working on themes for the next set of issues after we were done with the Body trilogy. Roti became Food, which was the previous issue. Kapada was turned into Fashion. Makaan, Home, we will soon start working on.
We weren’t sure of the positioning of this issue. Was it too privileged to talk about fashion, we wondered. What do we even know about fashion? But decided to go ahead with it, because while we may or may not know about high fashion, we decided what we wore was fashion, just as much. But also that fashion can be and is so much more than clothes, shoes, and bags. We were trying to look beyond the kapada (clothes) aspect of it. And we found what we were looking for and more.
In this issue we have some interesting and expansive interpretations of the word from a myriad of writers from India and abroad. We have Lakshmi Krishnakumar writing about the sisterhood she formed through the sharing of ‘bindis’ as a child. We have Urvashi Bahuguna looking at the metaphor of baldness, and how that fits into our everyday discourse. Joe Mills in his short story “Mohawk” explores the inner monologue of a parent as she reflects on the many vagaries of parenthood through a child sporting a mohawk. Mangalesh Dabral’s poem Skin, translated from Hindi by Sarabjeet Garcha, that talks about the skin that is so much more than just the body’s covering.
Rheea Mukherjee through her short story explores the many social media trends, or fads, that come and go like fashion, each one more disruptive than the other. M.S. Gopal gives us a touching photo essay on the many small shops around Mumbai that make and sell their own clothes, emulating much of what Bollywood is selling, creating a parallel universe of its own for the aspirational without much reach or privilege. Nasreen Habib writes beautifully on the kheta, a hand-made recycled quilt, made by the Muslims of Bengal origin in Assam. Glen Armstrong in his three deeply personal poems explores the everyday encounters with ‘fashion’. R. Srivatsan’s essay, which we republish with his permission in our ‘Not Trending’ section, critically analyses how the advertisement showcasing a woman’s body satisfies the hunger of the upper-caste, patriarchal, capitalist establishment.
This issue took a long time to take shape. Because of my rapidly escalating mental health conditions, I haven’t been able to pay it the attention and care it deserved. But I think what we have managed to put together is a fine edition nonetheless. And I am ever so grateful to my supportive and fantastic co-editors Sumana Roy, Shruti Ravi, Debojit Dutta for being there and being patient with me as we slowly read through and worked on the submissions.
Happy reading, everyone.
Love,
Manjiri
