Power Dressing For Indian Women

Women of Indian origin love traditional elements from culture and often wear heavily embellished and embroidered clothes in bright colors. Indian culture is very expressive but for power dressing most important thing is how to control it and chose the style that works best for our personality and work environment. A woman’s clothes and accessories reflect meaningful things about her and they can help in showing right business attitude while in a formal social or business occasion. Armani is the designer who first created power suits for women as he realized that there is a need for women at their workplaces to be taken seriously. It is an art to look professional while retaining femininity. Business and social entrepreneurs and those working in a corporate environment must practice this and master it.

Indian women worldwide seem to be obsessed with famous Indian Kurti (Tunic Top). When they wore it in late 90’s and till mid 2000‘s it looked unique, professional and stylish. If you wear the same kurti now, it will easily make you blend in the crowd. Try a sherwani style with pashmina or handpainted silk stole, or silk top with brocade blazer for that professional stand-out look. 

Power dressing is related to job environment and the local culture too. Classic cut clothes, dark colors, neutrals, minimal patterns usually help in conveying the right image.  To stand out in a crowd, a  professional looking designer bag, statement ring and a sophisticated pair of shoes will work. Heels and a little makeup is a must add-on to feel confident about yourself. A polished look always wins, you can go for white clothes too but it is bit difficult color to carry, make sure it has the right silhouette and details, also matched with right accessories. For common Indian skin it is very easy to be lost in a light color Indian outfit, whereas the key is not to let beauty of your clothes and accessories overpower your face and personality.

For most of the Indian women, Freida Pinto’s natural makeup will work better than Red Retro. This Indian actress from Mumbai, who became famous from Slumdog Millionaire has created a space for herself in Hollywood’s glamorous events and fashion magazines. A fine watch must be an essential and also for final touch you can’t go wrong with blow dried hair. Low cut, tight or short clothes are not appropriate at any level in a professional environment. Bags that look like a weekend tote or a mommy kit are a strict no too. Also, one should try to find alternates to floral prints and embroideries. There are many options if you search-pin tucks, tone on tone embroideries, khadi silk, swarovski crystal components, block printed and jacquard variety of silk fabrics and much more.

Professional women often struggle with how glamorous should be their look for a formal evening. When in doubt, Black and white is a safe choice. Recent trends in Milan and the wall street journal’s view says that power dressing is now prettier than ever. Oscar De La Renta in their fall 2012 collection showed lace suits. I also love Naeem Khan’s corporate fashions for Fall this year with lots of Asian ornamentation done in a way that it stays business like and formal. If you have evaluated all the options for your personality and found the one that works best for you, then there is no need to change it , you can stick with it and maintain a signature style. Simi Gerewal always wear whites, Bollywood stars Rekha is always seen wearing heavy silk saree with gold jewelry and now her follower Vidya Balan too during all award ceremonies. The typical ethnic look with traditional Indian attire can work in Indian gathering but that should not be done in a multicultural environment or at a formal business conference, meeting or even office party. Another point to consider is when starting a new job or changing careers, dress more conservatively than creatively.

Deepa Narula, researcher and educationist from India who owns many schools in New Delhi, says that the embroidered Indian suits make her merge with the crowd which does not support her position as an administrator. She needs to reflect her power to maintain control in campus. She has now turned to Western talilored dresses in solid colors and wear them with tights. She admits that for social gathering in evening her choice would be long suits made famous by Pakistani fashion designers in New Delhi.

It seems that here is a beginning of another trend. It is very common for celebrities in West to come up with their product line, and now the well known Telugu actor Chiranjeev’s brother Pawan kalyan is launching a clothing line of sportswear apparel. We can hope to see more Indian celebrity brand apparels coming in near future. Talking about trends, Jharna Madan has come back with fifth rank in Mrs India International which was held in Atlanta in end of May 2012. We are surely going to see many more participants going for beauty pageants from New England area in coming years.

Lady Gaga was in a Hong Kong fashion event recently and she wore a white contemporary white gown designed by Indian designers Alpana and Neeraj Mittal, also a hat designed by Shilpa. It is a dream come true for designers who believe in their creativity and work for out-of the box collections. The IIFA rocks will be held in Singapore this year and will showcase collections by designers Suneet Verma, Masaba and Varun Bahl. 

As India New England Women of the year 2012 is around the corner in Boston, we have known so many powerful women having ability to move people, organizations to another level and ability to make community groups stand together for various causes and for what they believe. Dear Indian women, you have worked very hard to earn meaningful positions in our society , reward yourself with quality pieces, and above all style ideas and universal principles of dressing, make sure you wear lots of attitude.


Fashion Thought for June 2012
"Fashions fade, style is eternal." YSL