When Keshav Jadhav, a 20-something janitor at an apartment complex in central Mumbai saunters in to work on any given morning, he looks no different from the brat pack gracing the scenes in the latest Bollywood blockbuster and by that logic no different from his more fortunate contemporaries lolling about in college campuses. Fake Adidas T, ditto for the shoes, 'boot cut' low-rise jeans and a cap worn (peak facing backwards) complete the picture of cool. In minutes though he is in regulation blue uniform, mop in hand, enquiring about leaky drainpipes.

It is no different with Akram Khan, a youngster working at a stitching unit in suburban Mumbai. With a salary of Rs 3,500 a month, he keeps aside enough for food and rent, then scours roadside stalls selling cheap couture for the latest cuts and styles. His friend Imran, who mans one such roadside stall selling every style conceivable in blue denim at a starting price of Rs 100, is himself clad in flared black jeans, crisp white shirt and purple sunglasses pushed back on his head. "I've given up wearing those stitched trousers," he states pointing to a passerby. "It's important to look with it."

HIGH STREET VS MASS MARKET
LOW-RISE JEANS
Wrangler (Rs 995-1,500)			Imitation (Rs 200)
Levi's (Rs 999-2000)			Imitation (Rs 200)
Lee (Rs 1,099-1799)			Unbranded (Rs 100)
HAIR COLOURANTS
L'Oreal Excellence (Rs 399)			Unbranded (Rs 18)
Garnier Colour Naturals (Rs 99)
NAIL POLISH
Lakme (Rs 55 onwards) Elle 18 (Rs 20 onwards)			Chinese brands (Rs 10 onwards)
BODY GLITTER
Store brands (Rs 135 onwards)			Unbranded (Rs 10)
ANKLE LENGTH CRUSHED SKIRTS
Store brands (Rs 450)			Unbranded (Rs 100)
DESIGNER FOOTWEAR
Store brands (Rs 600 onwards)			Unbranded (Rs 100 onwards)
FLOATERS
Nike (Rs 900)			Unbranded (Rs 75)
T-SHIRTS
Polo (Rs 350 onwards)			Imitation (Rs 100)
Lee (Rs 399-700)			Imitation (Rs 100)
			Imitation Adidas (Rs 49)

As for the clothes Imran peddles, he may not know their 'English' names, but that hardly bothers him or his customers. "Do you want to see some 'monkeywash' or 'jhalar' jeans?" he enquires referring to sandblasted jeans (the reference to the monkey obviously comes from the brown shade) and cowboy style denim with tassels running down the sides ('jhalar' is tassels in street speak). Karim, at the next shop does one better, "how about these 'anti-fitting', 'cheetah wash' or 'monkey tubelight' pairs?" he says. Monkey Tubelight? "Oh, those are the ones with huge white patches that Salman Khan wears all the time," he offers helpfully, referring to one of Bollywood's biggest stars. He helpfully adds that newcomer Zayed Khan inspires anti-fit jeans and Shah Rukh Khan, "the fastest selling-it is called patch wash." For the record, Karim sells about 25 pairs of high-fashion jeans priced at anything between Rs 100 and Rs 250 a day at his stall in downtown Mumbai.

This is a story about how fashion is no longer the prerogative of high-income households, about how couture has turned de rigeur for just about everybody. It is a story about hairstyles, clothes, accessories, footwear (Kavita, a household help in downtown Mumbai has just invested in a pair of pink platform heels and a pair of Osho style flats with sequins), hair colour (a quick glance around the second class ladies compartment of a Mumbai local makes you wonder if anybody wears their hair black anymore), even body glitter (this hot selling fashion accessory is available for as low as Rs 10 per tube).

The influence of films and tele-serials coupled with the explosion in the retail sector, higher disposable incomes and, of course, cheap surrogates have together unleashed a new fashion-crazy being who is fairly ubiquitous on the urban landscape today.

The fashion shown in risqué music video remixes is essentially meant to capture the irreverent attitude of youth. Irreverent or not, it has served to take fashion, like the thong on the lady pictured alongside, mass.

Changing Styles

The most arresting feature in all of this is the sheer speed at which fashion travels to the streets. "We get new stock the day of the release of a new movie here," says a roadside jeans vendor gesturing to the Eros cinema hall featuring a hit Bollywood film across the road. "Sometimes, even the previous day," he adds.

"Fashion spreads so fast that it hardly gets on the ramp and you see it on the streets-in fact, sometimes you see it on the streets even before it makes it to the ramp in India since it was probably part of the previous season in Europe and the export surpluses make it to the streets," says Mumbai-based designer Krishna Mehta. "To top it all, it penetrates the market at dirt cheap rates."

"Over the last year or year-and-a-half, we find that the domestic demand for very cheap fashion has simply surged and local manufacturers seem to have realised that the lower end market particularly is doing exceedingly well," says Renuka Vaswani, Head of merchandising at Alisha Garments, a leading export house.

Advertisers have been quick to catch the trend. "For the last year or so, we have been following a uniform portrayal of characters in our ads," explains Prasoon Joshi, National Creative Director, McCann Erickson. "A pair of boot cut jeans and crushed cotton shirt, for instance, cuts across consumer segments today. Very specifically, Bollywood is the biggest influencer and you only need to watch out for what Salman Khan or Vivek Oberoi are wearing to put your finger on the pulse."

The fashion shown in risqué music video remixes is essentially meant to capture the irreverent attitude of youth. Irreverent or not, it has served to take fashion, like the thong on the lady pictured alongside, mass.

Channels like MTV have got the mass segment figured out to the last T. "We live at a time when imagery is everything. We deliberately retain the veneer of sec a (the highest economic strata) in the channel though 80 per cent of our programming is in Hindi, since that is (sec a) the aspirational element. The VJs have to have a certain look in order to retain that aspirational element," says Cyrus Oshidar, Creative Head, MTV.

The phenomenon isn't just about commerce; it is nothing short of a major sociological shift. "Identities are increasingly being defined by an accumulation of signs," says Dr Anjali Monteiro, Professor and Head of Media Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. "Today, the signs can be accessed by anyone-it could be a cheap cellular phone or fake accessories, but wearing the sign is most important."

Bollywood has always influenced fashion in the mass market; now, the couture factor has pushed out the kitschy costumes of the 1990s and transformed Bollywood heroines into aspirational figures for the higher economic classes as well. "Today, Bollywood influences fashion for the masses as well as the classes" says Manish Malhotra, the designer for a string of Bollywood hits ranging from the hugely successful Shah Rukh Khan starrer, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, to the more recent Rani Mukherji starrer, Hum Tum. "I do a lot of non-resident Indian wedding gear and believe me, Bollywood is the benchmark," he adds.

Bollywood actors like Salman Khan and Vivek Oberoi serve as fashion influencers across audience segments. Others like Zayed Khan propel specific categories like anti-fit jeans while stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan are drivers for the best selling low rise, 'patch work design' blue jeans.

The Price Factor

The mass market for fashion can be penetrated only through price. A walk down any of the street side shopping hubs in any Indian metro will establish just how low prices can fall. A pair of boot-cut low waist jeans can be had for Rs 100, ankle-length layered peasant style skirts (yes, the sort that models sport currently) can be had for less than that, crushed cotton shirts for less than Rs 50, fake Adidas or Nike tees for Rs 49, hair colourants for less than Rs 20, body glitter for Rs 10 a tube, 'Chinese nail polish' for Rs 10 a bottle....

Here is how it works. In the apparel business, all fashion gear finds its genesis in some way or the other in the export market. With leading fashion labels like Abercrombie & Smith, Gap, Old Navy and countless others sourcing their wares from India, a lot of the export surplus (rejects) makes it to the domestic market. Export reject branded tees and jeans are sold to agents for as little as Rs 40, says one exporter. However, that is not enough to satisfy the sea of demand that has cropped up.

A manufacturer cum vendor reveals a simple strategy: "Many of us are manufacturers for exporters. We deliberately overestimate the bale requirement when the order comes in, which leaves us with hundreds of surplus meters of export quality fabric that we either sell to agents who then get the stuff stitched or we just stitch the clothes ourselves, put different brand names on it and offload it in the market.''

Game show hosts like Sonu Nigam and Hussain of Kisme Kitna Hai Dum (STAR Plus) fame serve as role models and, therefore, as fashion influencers for the young.

The single biggest fashion influencer in the 'Indian casuals' category is the TV serial. Everyone from the "homely" heroine of Sony's 'Yeh Meri Life Hai' to vamps with halter neck blouses to the ever popular housewives of Star's Kyunki..., influences a range of styles, 'necklines' and accessories for the mass market.

"You can never trace these stocks back to any single source" says a leading exporter. "Often agents just come by and pick up stacks of surplus labels from us, these are obviously getting stitched on to stitched fabric.'' The reference point for the designs is obviously the export market.

In categories like shoes, cosmetics and some other forms of apparel, imports from China and South East Asian countries has caused a shift in the market. "Chinese imports have changed the tastes of the Indian public," says Mohammad Khan whose 'One Dollar Shop' in central Mumbai stocks only imports from China and Thailand. At a neighbouring shop, cosmetics salesman Ketan Shah says that Chinese imports in nail polish and hair colour are considerably cheaper than the Indian brands.

The Marketing Challenge

There is clearly a humungous opportunity for a host of branded players to tap this consumer segment. A clear indication in the apparel category is denims, where the value for money fashion category (jeans priced between Rs 350 and Rs 700) sees the fastest growth in the sector at 50 per cent per annum while the super premium category (Rs 1,000 and above) is growing at 25 per cent, according to Janani Subramaniam, Brand Manager, Wrangler, at Arvind Brands. Brands like Newport, Ruff and Tuff, Flying Machine and Killer already operate in this segment.

The story is quite different with cosmetics where Anil Chopra, Head of Lakme Lever, explains that the growth is still in the premium segment that grows at 20 per cent per annum vis-a-vis a sectoral growth of 12-14 per cent. The reason for the sluggish growth for entry-level brands is simply that entry-level offerings of leading brands like Lakme sell for about five times the going-rate of low-priced competitors. That's a story that is repeated in the case of shoes too.

The Bollywood heroine is now portrayed as someone who can appeal to the "masses as well as classes". Key influencers of fashion like Rani Mukherji, Preity Zinta and Aishwarya Rai are robed for the screen by professional designers. The wedding costume genre is a rage.

Music channels' English speaking, designer gear donning VJs serve as aspirational hooks for the mass market. With 80 per cent of its programming in Hindi, MTV talks directly to young consumers in the mass market, albeit with a "veneer of SEC A".

The absolute necessity to correct this anomaly is highlighted by a few simple statistics: in the denim and tees categories, 50 per cent of the market is unorganised while in categories like cosmetics the corresponding proportion is a whopping 70 per cent.

Large players like L'Oreal in the hair colourants segment have already introduced products for various consumer segments, but the cheapest is still a steep Rs 99. The company, however, is not perturbed by the possibility of more brands crowding the market. In fact, it could be a sign that the market is developing says a spokesperson.

The other challenge for marketers is quite simply the ability to keep high-street fashion ahead of street fashion, especially since prices on the high street are already seeing an impact. "Typically, we would need to price fashion higher, but we believe that we offer value for money and we need to keep the prices at the levels that we do in order to see volumes," says Beena Mirchandani, Head (Merchandising), Pantaloons. "It's just going to keep getting worse everyday, but then this what markets for fashion go through internationally; we will just have to keep running to stay ahead," adds designer Mehta.

She is right. It is definitely going to get worse, particularly for big brands and designers alike. Just wait till a smart start-up launches branded nail polish sachets at Re 1 or hair colour sachets at Rs 5 or branded jeans at Rs 100. That should set the cat among pigeons.