The high price of haute couture

Designers say that however fashionable something might be, if it isn’t comfortable, it’s not worth buying

Fashion comes with a price. We’re not talking money, we’re talking about cuts, gashes, scratches and sometimes even bleeding feet. Take for instance Kylie Jenner. Her silver embellished Balmain gown that she wore to the Met Gala left her legs bleeding with a lot of scratches.

In India women wear zardozi work for almost every celebration, so it is hardly surprising that they have their own share of fashion horror tales. Clients have often complained about how some of the top designers’ clothes have left them bruised and bleeding.Designer Nachiket Barve offers some insight. “Fashion has to be in sync with comfort. If you’re not comfortable, then there is no point in wearing something,” he says. Nachiket’s designs, though high on zardozi, are known to be light and don’t leave behind marks. “It’s a conscious decision. You have to make sure the client is comfortable. All one needs to do is just add a lining inside the dress so that it doesn’t hurt. I was backstage during a fashion show once and I saw that all the models had cuts and bruises across their bodies because the clothes had metal in them. A lining is really not a big deal, ” he explains. “Brides have it the worst. They wear these lehengas that are heavy and have a lot of work. They sit in these clothes for hours and if it is uncomfortable, it begins to show on the face,” he says. So what can one do Nachiket has a simple advice, “While buying the ensemble, wear it, sit in it and walk around as well. If it is making you uncomfortable for even 10 minutes then don’t buy the dress. Imagine how it will make you feel when you’re sitting in it for hours.” The other people who are at the receiving end of fashion are models and even fashion bloggers. Fashion blogger Masoom Minawala says that the biggest problem she faces is related to shoes and jewellery. “Shoe bites and shoe bleeds are very common. Also, when we wear heavy ethnic jewellery it just pulls the ear down and the pain is tremendous. In this case I suggest that one uses ear tapes. For the feet, it is almost impossible to avoid shoe bites so the best thing to do is use gel pads.” Model Dipannita Sharma has walked the ramp for years now and she says that the only difference between then and now is that you have social media to show how fashion affects you sometimes. “When I used to regularly walk the ramp, we would go home with some bruise or the other every single day. These heavy garments would leave behind bruises and sometimes we would have to wear garments that were unfinished. Designers wouldn’t even care that their models were hurt. I know very few designers whose clothes don’t hurt, Abu Sandeep are one of them,” says Dipannita.