Luxury Indian Fashion: A Social Critique

Description

This unique ethnographic investigation examines the role that fashion plays in the production of the contemporary Indian luxury aesthetic. Tracking luxury Indian fashion from its production in village craft workshops via upmarket design studios to fashion soirees, Kuldova investigates the Indian luxury fashion market's dependence on the production of thousands of artisans all over India, revealing a complex system of hierarchies and exploitation. In recent years, contemporary Indian design has dismissed the influence of the West and has focused on the opulent heritage luxury of the maharajas, Gulf monarchies and the Mughal Empire. Luxury Indian Fashion argues that the desire for a luxury aesthetic has become a significant force in the attempt to define contemporary Indian society. From the cultivation of erotic capital in businesswomen's dress to a discussion of masculinity and muscular neo-royals to staged designer funerals, Luxury Indian Fashion analyzes the production, consumption and aesthetics of luxury and power in India. Luxury Indian Fashion is essential reading for students of fashion history and theory, anthropology and visual culture.

Tereza Kuldova is Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History at the University of Oslo, Norway.

A deep and thorough examination of the luxury fashion industry in India, written by a specialist in this field who has embedded herself within the culture by spending extensive time living in, and genuinely experiencing, the environments she explores. Kuldova visits terrains not previously tackled by anthropologists to present us with an insightful, honest and eye-opening study, which is factual, while critically analytical, at times gritty and unabashed. It is of my opinion that this book will be invaluable to students of many disciplines as well an enjoyable read for a wider audience. * Kathryn A. Hardy Bernal, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand * Tereza Kuldova offers a path-breaking study, examining intersections of fashion, nationalism, networks of production and consumerism, and social hierarchies in India today. Engagingly well-written, frank, witty, and critically engaged, Luxury Indian Fashion takes readers on a journey from village craft centers to urban haute couture fashion shows, making all the stops along the way. * Melia Belli Bose, University of Texas at Arlington, USA *