I love clothes and shopping for them. To me, spending an hour in the clothes shop is almost therapeutic ! Those who love spending, will understand what I mean. There is no treatment better than shopping for clothes (for some it is shoes, books, CDs etc) when you are feeling down. The best part about shopping to me, is the bargaining part. And since this is possible only in India, I love shopping in India the most !
So you can imagine my distaste towards ‘upscale’ boutiques. What is it about these places, that makes anyone go to them. I visited one with my sister yesterday since she wanted to buy something unique.
Here are some things I found weird about the place (and other similar places):
a. Dim lighting - You can hardly see the colour of the fabric. Forget the fact that most of them are better seen in this light than in broad daylight ! I could hardly see my sister in the boutique, so you know what I mean !
b. Couple of foreigners (read ‘White skinned’) people move around in a dreamy state trying out various similar looking clothes !
c. Shehnai or some such sad sounding instrument plays in the background. This supposedly represents our ‘heritage’ to foreign customers.
d. Most customers simply seem to float in and out of the shop, more with the intention of being seen in the place, than actually buying something. Apart from my sister, I did not see anyone else near the billing counter !!
e. When I don’t press my clothes or comb my hair, I am called shabby, but looks like that is a requirement to visit such shops. Most women I saw there, had serious hair issues, and wore well-worn shabby clothes. The difference was that they probably stepped out of a luxury car and the hair and clothes are considered hip !
f. People shopping spoke only in whispers. As though it was a crime to speak out aloud. I prefer having a friendly chat with the shopkeeper in the hopes of melting his heart to get a better price. Poor me, even my whisper sounds like thunder and customers were seen raising their dainty trimmed eye-brows and pouting their painted lips on seeing a ‘country brute’ in their midst!
g. Clothes there were supposedly exclusive. I don’t see how stocking 4 kurtas (of different sizes), 4 skirts, 4 pyjamas, 3 men’s shirts and a couple of curtains and doormats in the same print qualifies as exclusive. I remember my mother telling me how, when she was a child, her father would get bales of rough cotton material during each festival, the bales transforming to skirts, blouses, half-sarees, shirts etc for the numerous relatives at her home.
h. I have always had a secret suspicion that most of the exclusive kurtas at such stores are usually made from old dupattas. Dupattas, as most women will tell you, are rarely washed and retain the new look for a longer period. Once a dress is discarded, the dupatta, however bright and good, has to be necessarily discarded too. I think most of the ’boutiques’ buy such dupattas and make kurtas out of them.
i. Crushed (read crumpled) looks and pastel shades (read dull and worn out) seem to be the in-thing in most hip stores. Add to it a name (which most poor customers think is the name of a designer) and there you go - a Rs. 100 worth dress is transformed to a Rs. 1999 worth designer wear. If you dont believe me, visit life style. I tried to check out the place for some salwars and found that the same stuff I got in my neighbourhood store, was available for 10 times the price, simply because it said ‘Ritu Berry’ or ‘Rocky S’.
I am thinking of embroidering ‘Rathi’ on all my clothes or if that is too obvious, atleast ‘Priya Chandra’ or some such thing !
j. The person at the billing counter, is usually a local. The one at the store I visited yesterday was speaking in perfect tamil with someone else (not a customer), but when we went near the counter, she switched to (incorrect) english! She was rude and seemed surprised that we could afford clothes there (You guessed it, I had braided my hair, wore tailored clothes and wore a bindi too !! I definitely did not look like one of her ‘customers’)
k. Customers usually do not seem to be surprised at the prices. I, the country bumpkin, have the habit of looking at the price tag first (middle-class mentality) and people around me were in all probabilities, looking at me like I had just escaped from of the zoo. Add to this, the sad part that it is considered bad manners to bargain !
The strain of shopping at such places is a bit too much for me. I am happy with my non-exclusive clothes at shops where the shopkeepers are as unsophisticated as me and expect me to bargain rather than pretend to be shocked. Hip, I may never be, but then those who have not shopped here, have no idea of the pleasure of buying a product for atleast a rupee less than what the tag says !!
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