(A-Z: This series of light hearted explorations on familiar objects from everyday life dear to the urban Indian middle class looks at how they shape our wants & desires and ultimately make us who we are as a people. This is the concluding article in the series.)
The concept of clothes as a marker of status and occasion is not new. If what you are wearing is exclusive and rare, it tells everyone that you belong to the affluent section of society. The more elaborate the craftsmanship, the more expensive it is, and therefore, the wealthier you are.
India, as a whole, has been bombarded with images of elaborate wedding outfits from the Ambani wedding for the past few months. Fashion influencers have told us how much these outfits possibly cost, the number of craftsmen and man hours involved in the making and the expensive materials used. Out of the lakhs of outfits, it was Anant Ambani’s bandhgala that stood out for us. It was made with real gold Zari, which means that the cloth was woven with gold threads. The man was literally wearing gold. Zari was the star of the show at the wealthiest wedding of the decade. However, if you disregard the Ambanis, what does Zari mean for the Indian middle- class?
You might be surprised to know that using real gold Zari isn’t a novel idea (sorry, Anant). Real gold zari was a common practice earlier which has now been replaced with copper or other synthetic versions that shine as bright. Outfits with minimal zari work were popular among our older aspirational middle class. Every saree or suit (called punjabi in some states) was cherished and carefully passed on through generations. Zari was an extension of jewellery itself. It was bought after carefully saving money and kept aside for special occasions.
Like jewellery, Zari has close associations with displays of wealth and social prestige. At events such as weddings across classes, flexing the muscle of wealth is normative. Everyone from the happy couple to the wedding guests wants to project their wealth to everyone else. It is obvious that Zari becomes their first choice. Gold is also closely linked to divinity and auspiciousness, which further emphasises wearing Zari on religious occasions. “After all, why should Ambanis have all the fun?,” asked the middle-class.
As a big fan of middle class thrift, we would also like to point out how old zari clothes were sustainably used and cherished. After being passed on or reused, if some Zari was beyond repair, it was even taken to jewellers to melt and get gold or silver coins from them. “Nothing ever goes to waste,” the middle-class said.
But this was a long time ago, wasn’t it? Now it is only few like Anant who don the “real” zari. What changed, exactly? And should you be sad, happy or indifferent about it? It is no secret that modern consumer culture and social media together have altered our middle class consumer’s habits. Repeating outfits is no longer an option, when every moment has to be recorded and photographed. Why buy just one gold Zari outfit a year when you could wear ten at the same time? The middle class believes that every festival must be celebrated with the same enthusiasm and grandeur. And like I said, Zari is always the star of the show.
(Hamsini Shivakumar is a Semiotician and founder of Leapfrog Strategy. Khushi Rolania is a senior research analyst at Leapfrog Strategy.)