Sartorial styles of artists

One of the most hilarious statements I have ever encountered in my life has to be: “Can you teach me how to dress like an artist ” I looked at the person who had made this rather curious statement in complete amazement: Clad in an off shoulder ubiquitous little black dress with razor cut hair and killer stilettos, her mouth a bright smear of red and matching talons, she could have been an aspiring model. I just laughed and deflected her, for it would have been an impossibly uphill task to make her understand, let alone convert her!

But it actually set me thinking that yes, artists do dress differently — and that is an understatement especially in the context of the recent debates about the Cannes red carpet and the monstrosities our actresses wear. Monstrosities because our fashionistas have still not got it that we are simply not suited for the gowns that we insist on wearing. Period. And no, I am not being overly conservative. Our body type and body language just don’t work with gowns. And we are stupid enough to want to conform and give in to fashion terrorism.

But then you have to excuse me for as an artist I feel we artists have the license to express ourselves in any way we want. Of course, one can get the ultimate close look at how artists dress during a working art camp when artists wear their work clothes, leisure and even formal clothes during the short span of the camp. For there is no ‘type’ that sets the artists apart, except a broad category of ‘artists’. They are as individualistic as their painting styles, or dance styles or music styles!

You have to see it to believe them. From pajamas to culottes to shorts to long skirts, gender notwithstanding, no matter what they wear, they would have splatters of permanent acrylic colours reflecting the mood of that day! The tops vary from cotton kurtas to handwoven ikats to just simple T-shirts. It really doesn’t matter what they wear, it’s the spirit they carry lightly that is their formal, casual and soulful wear. Their hair is loosely tied — and again this is not gender specific — artists have no gender biases when it comes to either clothes or hair. You will see an entire array of ponytails tied with anything they can lay their hands on at that point of time including shading pencils of varying thickness, paint brushes of all lengths and sizes. And if a normal human being was to witness this scene from the back it would be extremely difficult to identify their genders! Speaking of fashion, the ultimate fashion statement was of M.F. Husain and his long-handled brush that would double up as a walking stick.

But this generic statement is only for their work clothes. See them dress up “hot” for each other’s shows. Hot here doesn’t mean less clothes, it just means whatever they choose to wear will invariably have been woven by a weaver giving him the specific drawings of what to weave. The pattern could have lived in their minds for long and become clearer with time. That is hot for them. For women artists, they would wear hand-woven sarees that no man has ever seen before. It’s the intricacies of weaves, fabric, design that would make them worthy to die or kill for, depending on who is wearing them and who they want to kill (out of jealousy or admiration).

It is quite a visual to see painter interacting with a rangrez or dyer. The conversation is way beyond any normal human interaction. A sample:

Artist: “Yaar, ismein na yeh red laga de.” He has brought either his canvas or a paper swatch of acrylic or oil colour on a paper for matching purposes.

Dyer: “Sir, yeh colour dyes mein nahin aata.”

Painter: “Dekh yaar mix kar, yeh bahut zaroori hai.”

The reaction of the result by the artist: “Oh no! This is not transparent enough! Yeh kya kiya hai.”

Dyer: “Sir I couldn’t have done any better.”

The artist in frustration learns how to dye fabrics! But then you have been warned that this is an ongoing story that continues decade after decade and artist after artist.

The encounter with the tailor is even funnier.

Artist: “Please use this border or this texture in the yolk, this in the sleeves and this in the neck.”

They are all different most of the times and don’t be surprised if two sleeves are not supposed to look the same. The tailor is strictly not expected to apply his brains under any circumstances and if he dares to do that, well God save him. About 90 percent of the time after all the delays by the tailor, he has still got it wrong. Oh the poor artist! Alas!

I have seen some calligraphers in the Arab world wearing basic silk dresses with their calligraphy painted in acrylic colours to embellish them. Some in the west wear self painted t-shirts but nothing to beat the Indian artist who can really go crazy with the options of weaving, texture, dyer, tailor and not to miss his own paints also available to him. Which creative guy won’t be spoilt for choices But one thing is common, their clothes will never look shiny new — ever. Even if they have to wash new clothes to make them look a little edgy!

So that is the artist’s fashion extravaganza for you! Will talk about other artistes next week!

Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted on alkaraghuvanshi@yahoo.com