The NE Fashion Glory

A tremendous lively Kasturi opens the door to her tiny hostel room , when inquired whether  she’s always this thrilled about introducing people to her Korean collection “I gift all my friends Korean movies on their birthdays” She replies smugly. Korean theater is a massive hit among the youth of NE. I have watched a couple of movies  and totally admit that they are pretty addictive, full of family comedy and love stories - a cute pretty girl and a heartthrob arrogant boy both incredibly fashionable.

                                    Kasturi and her 98 Korean movies

Why Korean over the bollywood influence in NE ? ‘They don’t tend to connect much with India’ and while I was thinking about politics and ignorance ‘I think it’s more of  the appearance connectivity – what I am trying to say is the kind of colors silhouettes and styles best suited for features and body type here has certainly more connectivity with Park shin hye (Korean actress ) than Deepika’ Kasturi revealed .

Initially i tried to relate the whole thing with fashion and theater alone that’s when Kasturi pointed out that there’s a lot of difference between the movies of  North Korea and South Korea, ‘there aren’t many movies from North Korea because it’s not a democratic country like the South Korea. Most of the South Korean movies tend to be about settled happy lives, families where people concentrate on their personality & relationships while always being fluently stylish ’’. One can clearly notice the significance of fashion and culture in the Korean and Thai movies, In fact most of them are about fashion, grooming and personality development. One of the most popular Thai movie “The thing called love’’ is about - journey of a young girl and her zeal to change her personality and bring out the best in her . “I always want to look trendy it makes me feel good, it’s also one of my talents’’ says Rini a 20 year old khasi student. As a matter of fact being confident about looks can persuade confidence, hence the clothes you dress in can shape your personality adversely .

Movies from the southeast Asia are like your own personal guide to the latest fashion and trends around the globe, remember how we would admire the north easterns  for their amazing fashion sense, well that’s almost like a part of their culture and upbringing .There’s a lot of value to how one dresses up, grooms / presents oneself, with the presence of all the resources required in abundance - makes it almost effortless ! 

Talking about the Mecca of such resources, hail the Glorys Plaza situated in police bazaar, Shillong (the fashion capital of the north east India) - is the chest that contains all the Korean and Thailand street style riches- from shoes, wallets, bags to dresses, chinos/trousers, cute boy shorts and a collection of the stylish winter wear to slay for –all of the hottest trend at relatively affordable price.

                                                       Glorys Plaza

When we talk about the fashion cycle, it guides us throughout the timeline of a particular trend, its origin and the kind of audience associated with it. The cycle denotes that an average trend has an introduction phase where the Fashion innovators (such as designers) introduce a trend, what immediately follows is the adaptation of the trend by the fashion leaders (such as actors, stylists etc) then in its maturity phase the leaders are followed by the fashion followers (such as student and people falling in the age group of 20 – 45 year) and at last it’s accepted by the laggard (people who stick to style after the decline of the trend as they find it comfortable & satisfying). 

                                                      Fashion cycle

In major parts of India the mass population comprises of the Laggards, whereas in the northeastern part of India majority of population is that of the fashion followers. Inspiration of the street fashion here in NE is observably derived from the south east countries like Thailand, Korea and the Asian fashion capital Japan. Due to the speedy production in the garment industries of these south east countries, time taken for a trend to reach the fashion stores in NE is very less in contrast to the other parts of India.

The vendors at Glorys come from diverse backgrounds, a few of them are Tibetan refugees, Assamese and off course folks from all over the seven sisters .No matter where they come from, they all dig up styles from Thailand and Korea and are very pompous of it .‘Sorry sister hum bahot door se lata hain eight hundred last’-that’s when you find a scratched off label of Two hundred rupees. I couldn't help but notice that owning fashion stores happens to be one of the major occupations in Shillong (all the bigger stores and businesses are mainly owned by Bengalis and investors from outside NE .The smaller stores however are owned by the natives Khasis and from the nearby NE states ), with huge imports from the flea markets of Korea and Thailand there are more than at least two fashion stores per locality selling from accessories to dresses shoes,bags etc.

                                      Painting of Tibet monastery in Glorys

"Whenever I shop for the amazing fashionable stuff here ,the thought of visiting Korea and Thailand someday for sole shopping purpose comes to my mind all the time” laughs Komal jain a student at NIFT Shillong .