Report by Insha and Kanhu Charan
As the rain begins to recede and the autumn puts it first step on the earth, the people start smelling the festive atmosphere in the state of Odisha. The first festive occasion of the season comes in form of Dussehra. Since years together, Dussehra have become as one of the big festival of the odiyas. It is the time of the year when people make a beeline for shopping centres. Well before the festival, almost all household prepare a thorough budget for their celebration. People plan to spend on overheads like cleaning/colouring/decorating the house, purchasing new clothes/bangles/necklaces, food/cakes and above all expenses towards transportation to visit different Devi Pithas and Puja pendals. But, it has been observed that the major part of budget of each unit of family goes towards new dresses and all. To match with the demand of the people, the shopping units dealing with cloth and dress materials design their sales and marketing strategy to attract buyers. As the campaign starts by these cloth merchants, the cities like Cuttack and Bhubaneswar look colourful with banner/hoardings/kiosks and other outdoor publicity material. Further discussion and debate begin among the family members, friends and relatives to come a conclusion regarding their choices of shopping joints and designs. Young girls and women prefer to dress up with new set of attires and for which, they go on searching everywhere starting from shopping joints to online shopping sites.
Keeping in pace with the mind-set of youth and their demand, the cities of the state are now well crowded with shopping joints, malls and all with fashionable brands. This season has witnessed many new outlets in twin cities to share the cream of growing market. Capital city Bhubaneswar looks like the ultimate destination for a drastic wardrobe makeover and it is observed, since last fortnight, almost all the shops dealing with dress materials and clothes as well as branded malls look crowded with buyers. This scenario creates an impression as if the residents do not buy one each, but a lot segregating one for each day.
As noticed this year also, Sharee still remains as the most sought after material for the women and young girls as they love to wear it on the day of Mahastami Puja, which is known as a fasting day for ladies. Though they have started migrating from conventional print and pattern, but still prefer soothingly ethnic for the day of Mahastami. Then, they use to transform into the western style for Navami and Dashami. Young girls are seen buying western outfits like jeans, top with jacket besides sharee to wear it on rest part of Dussehra celebration. Also, as witnessed, fascination to attend ‘dandia night’ organised by different organisations, associations and hotels is fast growing among the urbanites of the state which has created a good demand for Lehenga choli. Compared with men and boys, this festival is mainly for the women and girls to show their style in dressings with an attachment of tradition too. When it comes from small to teenage girls, colourful dressing suits well. So, western outfits with vibrant colours are seen as the best outfit for teenage girls. Additionally, there are people seen to be styled in a modern look, and hence they are wearing low waist boot cut jeans, patterned jeans, cotton leggings, jackets, and like more which are now at a high demand in this Durga Puja dressings. A young girl on the other hand is witnessed with so many fashion options such as frocks with frills, A-line tops, tops with plunging necklines, shrugs in crochet and like more. Lastly for women in traditional deck, sharees are seen as the best option with which one can flaunt all over. One and all women should prefer sharees because sharees only reflect the tradition for women. When it comes to sharees, one can go for either grant silk sharees or Bengali cotton sharees. Apart from that, an Anarkali salwar is familiar among all women to which ladies are getting inclined in twin-city. Choosing fashion dress not only reflects the style but one has to also pick the right outfit accessories and jewellery to add more beauty to the dress.
For boys, both full and half hand sleeve is what they are going for as the current fashion trend. However, one does not need to wear a simple shirt. Instead of those fine shirts with multiple pockets, tie print, some patchwork and like more. This year so many garment companies have introduced shirts with beautiful designs and as well as striped and checks. Apart from that, T-shirts are also mostly preferred now for simplicity and convenience. For men, every year seem to be the same in case of dressing such as that of casual shirts, kurta pyajama and churidar kurta and so on. But this year a number of brands have come up with various styles and designs in these kurtas thus opening a new avenue for men to choose. Hence, men go for the best and attractive one.
