A Fashionable Tale of 5 Cities

Consulting Fashion Editor Sujata Assomull gives a personalised account of what fashion meant to her in the five cities she has lived.

"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening," Coco Chanel.

We all know that our sense of style changes with time. As we grow in years, it is only natural our approach to what we wear will change. But more than my age, job, and marital status, what I wear has been hugely influenced by where I live. Having grown up in London, as a student I lived in my denims by day, and at evening it was all about fitted and, since I was young, rather short dresses.
For the short while New York was home, it was all about black for me -- it seemed to be the uniform colour for anyone in fashion there. A gap year in Mumbai led to making India my permanent place of residence and I never returned to London. That was also when colour entered my wardrobe. Having spent over a decade in Mumbai, I found myself in Delhi for career reasons. After nearly seven years in the city, it was time for a new beginning and Dubai beckoned and I am happy to now call this city home.

A year after I moved to Delhi from Mumbai, a senior fashion designer came up to me and said, "I see you have become a proper Delhi girl now." I was puzzled by his remark, as I was still in denial about my move from Mumbai to Delhi. "You have traded your trademark easy sleeveless shift dresses for trousers and a more layered look. And I love the fact you mix in Indian textiles with this tailored look," he explained.
In Mumbai, I lived near the sea and my life revolved around my column writing and the club -- the Breach Candy Club. As a city, Mumbai is known for its club culture. So I lived in easy dresses, from the office to meeting friends at the club, these dresses became my signature style statement. And as a fashion writer if I had a fashion event to attend, I just loaded my hands with bangles. The Mumbai I lived in had a very nonchalant approach to dressing, and I felt very comfortable with its style. As I moved to Delhi to join a leading magazine group, dressing for work in a more corporate setting meant I needed to rethink my work wardrobe.

Delhi had just become home to India's first luxury mall Emporio, so this become a hub for me. While there is a side of Delhi that loves its brands, enjoys dressing up and for whom tight cocktail dresses are a uniform, it is also a city that is steeped in culture and that has a more traditional attitude to fashion. I could not understand these two sides of its fashion personality: both seemed too severe for me. What I had not realised was as I grew to enjoy my life in Delhi, my sense of style reflected this.

Dresses gave way to smart boxy blouses for work, my eveningwear became much more dressed up to go with the city's vibe for living the good life. I suddenly owned more cocktail dresses. But at the same time, I started to embrace Indian textiles so my sari collection expanded and I began to mix "Made in India" fashion with tailored Joseph trousers.

Joseph is a well-known London fashion brand that really introduced me to the notion that fashion is more about a lifestyle than a trend. My love for fashion really started when I worked at one of their stores as a "Saturday Girl" as a student in London. So it seemed, after all these years, there was still a little of the London girl in me.
Moving to Dubai was not as daunting as moving to Delhi, as it is a city I know well, my parents have been here for almost two decades. The process of packing, though, was not so easy. I could not understand what would I want from my wardrobe after I shifted base to Dubai. There was good reason for this confusion. So far, Dubai has let the easygoing boho Mumbai girl meet the Delhi fashion embracing lady. Dubai is a true melting point in terms of people and places. You have the sea and sand of the Jumeriah Beach, the bright lights of fashion-loving Downtown and the commercial-focused Business Bay and DIFC that tend to adhere to a more corporate dress code.

I have not really put my finger on what the Dubai style is. I know you can never be the most dressed-up person in the room, as Dubai is a city that loves brands, bling and baubles. It is, after all, home to the world's largest shopping mall. At the same time, you will not feel out of place in a gypsy skirt worn with a simple tee, as the city also embraces ethnic and 'global local' styles of dressing, thanks to its cosmopolitan make-up.
Of course, it is important to have respect for the culture -- the region has a rich understanding of tradition. So I can wear my sari and it does not feel like I am in costume. My easy-to-slip on shift dresses are not seen as too informal at work here, and my favourite Joseph trousers are not called conservative.

Thankfully, Joseph has a store in the city, so I no longer have to wait to travel to London to stock up on my trousers. Nearly every European brand I love has opened shop in the city, as have the American labels I enjoyed as a fashion student in New York; and with most Indian designers holding trunk shows in the city, you are truly spoilt choice. And with the under one year old Dubai Design Fashion Council, planning to put a full fashion calendar together for the city, Dubai and its local talent looks set to get an international platform.
I think this means my wardrobe will now have even more length and breadth.

Sujata Assomull is Consulting Fashion Editor with Khaleej Times. Follow her on Twitter @stylesuj, and on Instagram at instagram.com/sujstyle

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