Durga Pujo in West Bengal is a multibillion-dollar industry, with transactions of not less than $4.5 billion in 2022 alone.
This year with the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage tag, contributions of all the sectors involved in Durga Pujo have been recognised and appreciated. Not that this recognition is more significant than the awe on people’s faces after waiting for hours in the serpentine queues, but it would bring the attention Kolkata Durga Pujo always deserved, and one can say that money has been well spent.
But what about fashion?
Big chunk of these transactions go into buying new clothes and accessories. And when millions of people come down to streets for pandal hopping, donning their newly curated looks, it should be riot of ideas and innovation. But is it?
One barely notices any creativity with the designs or artistry of the clothes and accessories. Most of them are mundane repetitions of same design, patterns and colour palette. If there is anything noticeable, you wonder from where they got it, since readily available fashion in market is iterative, supplied by brands who are content with their sales figures coming from a market lacking creativity and innovation.
And if not them, then it leaves the door open for young entrepreneurs to come up with ideas and aesthetics to fill up this vacuum and break the monotony of the stereotype.
We hope to see this trend change gradually with time, through the imagination and innovations of young home-grown brands budding up, and their endeavor to make an impact on Kolkata fashion vista.