STREET CRED

Commutercore to cottagecore, bubble hems to corset saris-the internet is awash with fashion aesthetics, each with its own little club where the membership is free. But what is it like to walk these trends through the streets of India?

-  NIDHI GUPTA

Is that…a plastic bag?” It is 5am on an October morning and my mother’s sleepy voice floats out from under her comforter, her eyebrows raised in the direction of my bottom. I sigh. Partly in the interest of travelling light, but mostly because it is so on-trend, I’ve decided a black bubble skirt is going to be my constant companion on a weekend getaway to Jaipur. And I intend to wear it everywhere, starting with the train.

I’ve mindfully packed what I think are suitable separates to combine with the skirt: a white shirt to be topped with an acid-wash denim corset for daytime sightseeing and a one-shoulder black top which I’ll later accessorise with Bapu Bazar-sourced leather juttis for evening bar hops. I’m feeling quite smug about such uncharacteristic efficiency and foresight when I hear: “Can you leave it behind? I’m out of dustbin liners.” Mum chuckles before she starts to snore again.

At the door, I meet my newly betrothed brother and fellow traveller, whose brain is whirring into action as he takes in my outfit. “I thought we were taking the train, not parachuting into Jaipur,” he smirks. Do you know that the balloon skirt has been around since the 1950s, I want to shout at him, and has kept reappearing in high fashion and low through the decades, in the 2000s in its indie-sleaze era, and again in 2023 with Jacquemus, and is basically the biggest, most accessible trend of this year? Instead, I smack him on the head and point at his wife, who is wearing the same skirt, except in white. He gives us both a sheepish grin.