All of you who know me know that I'm not exactly a fashionista - I typically rely on my sisters for input when it comes to matching my socks, let alone pulling together an outfit. With that in mind, please take this blog post with the appropriate grain/handful of salt.
Yesterday I went shopping at a proper mall here in Mumbai, the first time I've ventured outside the realm of street shopping and market haggling since I arrived here. The primary purpose of the shopping trip was to find clothes for our upcoming weekend in Goa. I realized recently that all of the clothing I had brought with me was not exactly beach friendly. For example, I brought 6 dresses with me from the states. 4 of them are black, 1 is dark navy, and the 6th is a slightly lighter blue. Seriously, Katie? By comparison, the Indian women I see every day are dressed in colorful outfits - bright and bold with tassels and sequins. My basic black wardrobe makes me look drab and even more conspicuous than I already am! I can only imagine that the clothing worn to the beach in Goa is going to be even more bright and colorful, so I set out to (at least try to) blend in more.
The mall that we went to is called Phoenix Mills - it is a huge space with 3 separate "malls" in the entire complex. Our first stop was a store called Global Desi - which is a popular women's fashion store, selling mostly traditional Indian garments (except no saris). From what I can tell, it seems that saris are treated as a different class of women's clothing here - stores will exclusively sell saris, or in some cases they'll sell saris plus fabric that can be made into other types of clothing. I have yet to come across a store that sells saris along with the range of other women's clothing, but that just may be due to my limited shopping experience here. Anyway, Global Desi has a classic array of women's clothing options in local styles. I still don't know the names of all of the different types of garments, but I'll give it my best shot to describe to you what it's like.
From what I can tell, nearly all of the outfits here (aside from saris, as I mentioned) are some kind of top worn with leggings underneath. I can't even describe to you how wonderful this concept is! This is considered work appropriate clothing (at least in my office) - so I get to wear leggings to work all day! They're so much more comfortable than the slacks or tailored skirts I normally wear. The types of tops that go on top of these leggings all vary. They are all long enough to come down to the knee or slightly above it - to wear leggings with anything shorter would be considered immodest. Some of them are tunic-style tops with varying sleeve lengths (full, 3/4, short, sleeveless). Others are more tailored and resemble dresses in the more Western sense of the term. For example, my outfit today is a cotton dress in what I like to describe a "50's housewife" cut - it is fitted up until the waist and then has a full skirt with pleats. Most clothes here have high necklines, which is fine with me. The most striking feature of all of the clothing are the colors and the patterns that are used. Nearly all articles of clothing have some kind of bright color, fun ethnic pattern, embroidery, fringe, ruffles, or similar embellishments. As I mentioned before, people are wearing bold, bright colors - basic black is uncommon.
There are some other types of clothing as well, although most are a bit too ethnic for me to be able to pull them off. Some of the outfits come with baggier legging/pants rather than the fitted leggings that westerners wear. Think Princess Jasmine pants with less puffy-ness - maybe those are called harem pants? There are some cute skirts that I've seen, too, which I'm guessing are worn alone rather than with leggings. There are other types of traditional outfits that are sold too - matching sets of pants and dresses or long sheaths that correspond to different regions of the country. Again, I don't know enough about them to try to attempt to wear them. Plus, most of these outfits looks more old fashioned than the stuff that I'm wearing, and they usually are much more conservative as well - covering up nearly all exposed skin in baggier layers. I'm trying to stick to my Indian-Western hybrid fashion - hoping that the pieces I buy here will get some use back home as well.
The mall itself was just like malls in any other part of the world. There was fluorescent lighting, white granite flooring, escalators and food courts - all very similar to what you would find in a mall in Australia, the US, Thailand, or Paris. There are quite a few western stores there too - French Connection, Lacoste, Thomas Pink, Gucci, Zara, Burberry, The Body Shop, and others. Plus you have the western food chains that are present - CPK, TGI Fridays, Subway, Baskin Robbins, Trader Vic's. The only clue to the mall's location can be found in a few stores that have their names printed in Hindi script as well as English. Globalization at work!
The surplus of labor resources makes its way into the retail sector as much as it does into the other industries here. Actually, I don't think I've mentioned this in a post yet, so forgive me for a brief digression from my shopping stories. There are so many people here - so many bodies - that you can get almost anything done for you if you request it. Restaurants, grocery stores, alcohol stores, tailors, pharmacies - they all deliver free of charge. You can get hairdressers, manicurists, yoga instructors, body waxing, masseuses, personal chefs, housekeepers, and more come directly to your house at no extra charge. I'm sure there are services I could get done for pennies on the dollar here that I haven't even imagined yet. Anyway, back to shopping. In one department store, there were employees in nearly every section of the store. Unlike in US stores where they're waiting around to get you a fitting room so they can collect a commission, these people are actively showing you garments that they think you would like or might fit you. You show the slightest bit of interest in their section, and suddenly they're acting like your personal shopper, showing you everything that they have in your size. Thankfully they don't follow you if you go to another section - otherwise I would have felt like the pied piper of pantaloons. The weirdest thing about it is that I'm pretty sure these people don't make commission - they just care that much about you finding as much stuff to try on as possible! This one poor employee kept trying to show me things, and she kept picking the ugliest stuff! Her section had some cute stuff in it, but everything she showed me looked like someone had barfed on it (figuratively speaking of course). I had to just walk away, leaving her waving several vomit-stained pieces of clothing at me as I retreated.
On that note, happy Wednesday everyone!
Yesterday I went shopping at a proper mall here in Mumbai, the first time I've ventured outside the realm of street shopping and market haggling since I arrived here. The primary purpose of the shopping trip was to find clothes for our upcoming weekend in Goa. I realized recently that all of the clothing I had brought with me was not exactly beach friendly. For example, I brought 6 dresses with me from the states. 4 of them are black, 1 is dark navy, and the 6th is a slightly lighter blue. Seriously, Katie? By comparison, the Indian women I see every day are dressed in colorful outfits - bright and bold with tassels and sequins. My basic black wardrobe makes me look drab and even more conspicuous than I already am! I can only imagine that the clothing worn to the beach in Goa is going to be even more bright and colorful, so I set out to (at least try to) blend in more.
The mall that we went to is called Phoenix Mills - it is a huge space with 3 separate "malls" in the entire complex. Our first stop was a store called Global Desi - which is a popular women's fashion store, selling mostly traditional Indian garments (except no saris). From what I can tell, it seems that saris are treated as a different class of women's clothing here - stores will exclusively sell saris, or in some cases they'll sell saris plus fabric that can be made into other types of clothing. I have yet to come across a store that sells saris along with the range of other women's clothing, but that just may be due to my limited shopping experience here. Anyway, Global Desi has a classic array of women's clothing options in local styles. I still don't know the names of all of the different types of garments, but I'll give it my best shot to describe to you what it's like.
From what I can tell, nearly all of the outfits here (aside from saris, as I mentioned) are some kind of top worn with leggings underneath. I can't even describe to you how wonderful this concept is! This is considered work appropriate clothing (at least in my office) - so I get to wear leggings to work all day! They're so much more comfortable than the slacks or tailored skirts I normally wear. The types of tops that go on top of these leggings all vary. They are all long enough to come down to the knee or slightly above it - to wear leggings with anything shorter would be considered immodest. Some of them are tunic-style tops with varying sleeve lengths (full, 3/4, short, sleeveless). Others are more tailored and resemble dresses in the more Western sense of the term. For example, my outfit today is a cotton dress in what I like to describe a "50's housewife" cut - it is fitted up until the waist and then has a full skirt with pleats. Most clothes here have high necklines, which is fine with me. The most striking feature of all of the clothing are the colors and the patterns that are used. Nearly all articles of clothing have some kind of bright color, fun ethnic pattern, embroidery, fringe, ruffles, or similar embellishments. As I mentioned before, people are wearing bold, bright colors - basic black is uncommon.
There are some other types of clothing as well, although most are a bit too ethnic for me to be able to pull them off. Some of the outfits come with baggier legging/pants rather than the fitted leggings that westerners wear. Think Princess Jasmine pants with less puffy-ness - maybe those are called harem pants? There are some cute skirts that I've seen, too, which I'm guessing are worn alone rather than with leggings. There are other types of traditional outfits that are sold too - matching sets of pants and dresses or long sheaths that correspond to different regions of the country. Again, I don't know enough about them to try to attempt to wear them. Plus, most of these outfits looks more old fashioned than the stuff that I'm wearing, and they usually are much more conservative as well - covering up nearly all exposed skin in baggier layers. I'm trying to stick to my Indian-Western hybrid fashion - hoping that the pieces I buy here will get some use back home as well.
The mall itself was just like malls in any other part of the world. There was fluorescent lighting, white granite flooring, escalators and food courts - all very similar to what you would find in a mall in Australia, the US, Thailand, or Paris. There are quite a few western stores there too - French Connection, Lacoste, Thomas Pink, Gucci, Zara, Burberry, The Body Shop, and others. Plus you have the western food chains that are present - CPK, TGI Fridays, Subway, Baskin Robbins, Trader Vic's. The only clue to the mall's location can be found in a few stores that have their names printed in Hindi script as well as English. Globalization at work!
The surplus of labor resources makes its way into the retail sector as much as it does into the other industries here. Actually, I don't think I've mentioned this in a post yet, so forgive me for a brief digression from my shopping stories. There are so many people here - so many bodies - that you can get almost anything done for you if you request it. Restaurants, grocery stores, alcohol stores, tailors, pharmacies - they all deliver free of charge. You can get hairdressers, manicurists, yoga instructors, body waxing, masseuses, personal chefs, housekeepers, and more come directly to your house at no extra charge. I'm sure there are services I could get done for pennies on the dollar here that I haven't even imagined yet. Anyway, back to shopping. In one department store, there were employees in nearly every section of the store. Unlike in US stores where they're waiting around to get you a fitting room so they can collect a commission, these people are actively showing you garments that they think you would like or might fit you. You show the slightest bit of interest in their section, and suddenly they're acting like your personal shopper, showing you everything that they have in your size. Thankfully they don't follow you if you go to another section - otherwise I would have felt like the pied piper of pantaloons. The weirdest thing about it is that I'm pretty sure these people don't make commission - they just care that much about you finding as much stuff to try on as possible! This one poor employee kept trying to show me things, and she kept picking the ugliest stuff! Her section had some cute stuff in it, but everything she showed me looked like someone had barfed on it (figuratively speaking of course). I had to just walk away, leaving her waving several vomit-stained pieces of clothing at me as I retreated.
On that note, happy Wednesday everyone!
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