India Reloaded

They walked onto the ramp, straight out of an androgynous fantasy. But, this was no dream. This was style reality, couture on a gender rampage. Gorgeous men with bare chests stripped baby-smooth, sindoor in their curling hair, wrapped skirts, intricately embellished lungis, brocades and flowers. Bright red shoes too which prompted many a wolf whistle from the audience rows. Once upon a time, women had barged into the male domain of power shoulders and business suits. Today, designer Rohit Bal had men gently eased into skirts and loving every minute of it. After all, “Gudda”, as his friends call him, had been at it for the last 13 years, since he did menswear for couture store Ensemble’s inaugural show — providing designer shocks as regularly as his intricately-embroidered ghagras and lehngas.

Even as front page news and Page Three immediately hailed the arrival of the metrosexual to local ramps — the gentler, more sensitive man given to paisleys and pearls — Bal discussed his latest collection of menswear where biker jackets were encrusted with mirror work and colourful patchwork, Elvis collars rocked with folk art embellishments and mirrors ruled. “I am expressing sexual liberation in fashion,” says he, shaking the blond highlights in his naturally-blond hair, over consecutive glasses of watermelon and carrot juice. “I treat men as men completely,” he answers my confusion. “I thought when they walked the ramp, they looked more manly than men in suits. Even with the sindoor, they looked like men, not even slightly effeminate. There is no dividing line between sexuality and fashion because, at the end of the day, every single human being uses fashion to look and feel sexy, beautiful, stylish.” A gulp of the vegetable elixir and, “I think sexy is more attractive than beautiful.”

Getting away from the rhetoric, Bal’s latest sock-in-the-plexus collection was tamely titled, “The Asian Nomad”. Bal takes me on a heartfelt, verbal-visual journey of Central Asia, picking up all the peculiarities of the regions that he is moving slowly through, drawing inspiration from the Bosphorus to the Fujiyama. This is fashion being looked at through the eyes of the actual craftsperson, working closely with the designer to create for the person who is completely free spirited. The contemporary nomad perhaps in search of his own sexuality or on a sensuous wander through the urban highway that is life. Bal has wandered off into the basic aesthetics of folk art and the art of the artisan and balanced, and amalgamated it with global fashion. “For the new man,” he announces. “Unafraid, a wanderer, given to self-abandonment and a feeling of adventure.” The fact is that the collection worked and we have to agree: “The men looked lovely.” Bal’s brave new man as seen through his androgynous silhouettes, his life-affirming reds and his sindoor-parted hair, is the quintessential Indian male, before British colonisation and orthodoxy created “bigots”. He speaks of the strong androgynous feel that runs through Indian mythology and culture, where Indian gods often took a woman’s form. Look at Khajuraho, he advises. “I think that sexuality and gender bias are all in the mind. Man is man and woman is woman and yet, both are the same. We are all going through a period of accepting change, we have lived too long with constriction. Today, sexuality is no longer an issue — it is who you are and what you do with your life. Straight, gay, bisexual — it’s finally who you are that is important.”

So, here is Bal, a wrap-skirt cleverly zipped over his jeans, a folk-quilted red jacket holding it all together, walking the breeze on the parapet of Mumbai’s rainwashed Marine Drive. But, tell me, I question: do you actually see men togged up like this, I mean, in real life? Wrong question — he obviously does. He would wear this to a club evening, he asserts. He knows at least 23 men in Mumbai’s social set who wear his skirts. “Arjun Rampal wants this whole look for himself...he wants to wear the lungis all the time. Milind Soman too....” His eyes go back to that thunderclap show of his, his male peacocks who strutted to his tune. “Did you see them?” he queries. “They have never felt better in their lives. They felt that animal male in them. Men are dying to wear something more than pant, shirt, suit…. They loved the sindoor. Every man wants to look beautiful.”

Picture now, this rosy-cheeked, green-eyed kid running through the undulating market streets of Srinagar, in Kashmir. See him admiring the crafts created in this valley — the wood carving, the leather garments, the papier mâché, the finely-knotted carpets and exquisite shawls. A place of inspiring beauty and amazing craftsmanship, of people doing beautiful things. Behold this 12-year-old, at the neighbourhood leather shop, creating his first pair of pants, with fringes. “I would get my own shoes made, jackets made, add tassels....” He loved the valley and imbibed all its beauty, carrying it with him to the city, when he had to leave. “I am a lotus-eater — a Kashmiri,” he says proudly, harking back to the lotus images he had put on his garments in the beginning.

And then to St Stephen’s College in New Delhi, a stint with his brother’s export garment business, a while at NIFT, learning about garments from cutting and stitching, a menswear collection for Ensemble and three years of exclusive menswear, “until women started wearing my men’s clothes,” laughs Bal who is currently in the process of translating his latest runway success onto women. His “pet line” is also the country’s fastest growing prêtwear — “Balance” by Rohit Bal — for men, with a flagship store in Delhi, and a positioning in major stores in Mumbai and Bangalore (which will have their own outlets soon), Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Chennai with major expansion plans in the Middle East and Europe. “It makes more business sense for me to do a men’s line and it is unusual in India to show men the way I show them,” says Bal whose “Rohit Bal” label showcases women’s clothes. “And then, I cannot think of women in a “pet line”. I think of a woman as beautiful, untouchable, someone who needs to be pampered.” (Hey Gudda! Our wish list begs for more men like you!

But somewhere down the line, the 42-year-old picked up the “Bad Boy” tag. I am finding this hard to believe since he is obviously the flavour of the five-star lobby where we are, not in his home city, but in Mumbai where anonymity rests quietly on most shoulders. But, something different is going on here as people come to wish him and just make contact. Bal has a certain reaching-out warmth that kind of leans over and taps you on the shoulder. This is the guy who reportedly did a Full Monty on a local bar counter, at his own party. This is the guy I met the following night at a jazz place, having himself the time of his life. “Enfant terrible is actually a very complimentary term,” he says. “I do not give two hoots about anyone. I believe in myself and I know that I am a good human being. The more truthful I am, the more controversial I get. When I am sleeping in bed, I have nothing to worry about. I come as a package deal and my product gives me the confidence to be open about myself. I am the most famous designer today. Ritu Beri and I between us own 89 per cent of the fashion visibility in this country.”

And while bad boys will have their critics on and off the ramp, our designer claims to have reached the stage of maturity to recognise his strong points and to work at making them better. “I will keep my mind open to French couture, Italian pizzazz-ness, British snobbery but I will not divert from the ability to transform pure Indian-ness into global fashion,” he says. “I am genuinely and passionately in love with all things Indian.”

And, oh yes! about those critics: “Fashion is not nudity or vulgarity. No one is forcing people to take their clothes off,” says Bal. “It’s my party and I will cry if I want to.”