What started off as a day-long event on the last Sunday of June to pay respect to the Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan in 1969, is now a month-long global affair which witnesses people from all walks of life celebrating gender fluidity and equality. And what better way to express solidarity and equality than through gender-fluid fashion? Indulge decided to shoot four subtle and sophisticated gender-fluid ethnic looks with gender-fluid fashion influencer and stylist Pushpak Sen and dashing model Aman Pal. While Pushpak channels two very classy sari looks that any man can wear with pride, Aman looks beautiful in two ethnic outfits.
All the outfits for the shoot are from the latest summer collection of the popular homegrown slow fashion label Bhomra Design Co, which also supports gender-fluid clothing. Sriparna Ray, the designer-founder of Bhomra decodes their summer collection.
What’s your latest summer collection like?
When I think of creating a new line the first thoughts are strangely never around colours but always around a memory. It's always a connection to the past that has relevance in the present -- something that you want to touch and feel once again. I was yearning for my summer holidays spent in my maternal uncle's house where we while away time playing cricket, hopscotch, ludo, hide and seek among other games or savouring the last drops of iced orange lollies! These memories gave rise to the initial idea for this year’s summer edit which is all about jamdani in its quintessential simplest best on a universal colour palette comprising bright breezy yellow and rose, lemon greens and rust orange, soothing indigo, whites and blacks. There are vintage lace-edged dresses, tape-frock dresses, soft lacey petticoat skirts, retro stripes running through traditional fish butis, floral butis and crab buti jamdani, saw borders. The easy fits make playing in the sun as joyous as it would have been when you were a pint size.
How gender fluid and inclusive are your outfits?
In these years of rearing Bhomra, I wanted to shape it around the core principles of love. It's important for me that Bhomra stands honestly and equally for all of us. I wanted it to be a label that will hug you and tell you that you are all that matters and that you are loved. My biggest ally in this are the geometric simplicity of jamdani and the ever-comforting hues of woven fabrics replete with loving nostalgia. Overlays that wear themselves beautifully across genders, saris that drape across boundaries, shirts that don't judge, vintage lace dresses that are meant for the poet inside you --- all these define Bhomra. When you wear a Bhomra and see yourself in the mirror, you will only see you, and find comfort in being the true you and not a construct of society or people's expectations. Inclusivity and fluidity are not just for genders but for all who are trying to break taboos everyday of their lives.
How can one style your clothes in an androgynous manner?
Beautiful anti-fit shirts can be teamed up with dhotis or loose pants, throw over our OG overlays and keep them on for a layered androgynous look. Or, just wear the overlay buttoned down and team up with simple straight pants. Our clothes are a medium of expression and all of you out there are our artists giving it a new meaning every day.
What's Bhomra’s brand philosophy?
Honest, classic styles anchored in the magic and purity of taant and jamdani, that transcend stereotypes.
What inspires you as a designer?
Imagining designs and patters. While my canvas of jamdani and taant remains the same, a different design approach is what pushes me to create.
You are known for modern silhouettes in traditional jamdani, what other experimentative work are you doing?
This year, I will showcase more visible experiments with other fabric and art forms married to jamdani and taant fabric. In terms of silhouettes, we're constantly exploring and growing in order to expand our audience base nationally and internationally.
Summer wardrobe essentials?
Oversized overlays, button down shirt, a kaftan shirt, a vintage lace dress, a Japanese overlay and anti-fit dresses.
What's fashion for you?
Slow, responsible, comfortable and keepsake. It is and will always be about you and how you make it your own.
Price on request. On bhomra.com. 382/A New Alipore, Block G.
The sari story
Androgynous clothing is a rage for a long while now, but over the last few years, we are also observing how men are happily embracing and adopting ethnic androgynous fashion, especially saris and flowy Indian kurti dresses. It’s no longer a rare sight to witness a man strutting down the roads in Kolkata unabashedly and oblivious to a few curious glances, tackling the beautiful cotton drapes like a pro. Such sartorial fluidity is being increasingly adopted without much inhibition by gay men, thanks to such beautiful examples of gender-fluid fashion flooding social media. Kolkata’s Pushpak Sen definitely leads the pack by the way he has turned the sari into a symbol of gender-fluid dressing. The young stylist -- who has learnt the art of fashion communication from Polimoda Fashion School in Firenze and goes by the moniker Bong Munda – shares his thoughts on gender-fluid fashion and how he curated the four looks for Indulge.
Tell us about the four looks.
We have done two looks in white and two in black reflecting the different moods of the day. The white sari that I am wearing can be tried during the daytime and you can wear it to a brunch meeting or daytime occasions. Aman is wearing a jamdani dress taking us back in time to our boisterous and innocent childhood days. The black ensembles are more for evening parties and cocktail nights. The black jamdani sari with brass jewellery that I am wearing and Aman’s jamdani jacket both reflect how you can look great without sequin or heavy embroidery.
How experimental have people become in terms of fashion?
Gender-fluid fashion has been existing for a long while now and currently, it is more about the extension of one’s personality that one wants the world to understand or perceive.
It’s extremely encouraging to see Gen-Z trying out anything and everything without thinking twice and that’s the spirit of fashion because fashion is also about creating a moment and enjoying and having fun and I feel in the coming years that’s going to happen at an even larger scale.
What is the kind of reaction you get when you wear a sari in public places?
Broadly there are three kinds of reactions – that of shock, amusement and irritation – but one thing that’s common is that they stare a lot since it plays with their perception of gender and identity and gets frightfully overwhelming for them to deal with it. But I love wearing sari and I am very comfortable in it. Even when I was abroad, I would jump onto public transport wearing them -- I can literally run in them and drape them in two mins.
What else do you wear?
I love to wear dresses, jackets, suits and dhoti-panjabis.
CREDITS:
Pictures: Debarshi Sarkar / Models: Pushpak Sen and Aman Pal / Hair and makeup: Abhijit Paul / Styling: Pushpak Sen / Jewellery: Earthaments / Location Courtesy: The Corner Courtyard