of it.2 One of the entry points into the exhibition was a display window called Buying into Gandhi
(see below and Figure 4) that addressed the role of khadi in the Indian independence movement and
of Gandhi. Further, it addressed the current use of khadi and handloom in designer fashion and their
role in discourses on ethical and sustainable fashion, as well as the dynamics of cultural capitalism.
James Ferreira, an Indian designer, claims that ‘It’s high time that we bring Indian khadi back in
fashion. Khadi is the most beautiful fabric and has been highly disregarded in modern times. I have
tried to give it a new life with my collection. We should be proud of whatever we have’.
‘Gandhi Cool’
Sustainability is the buzzword, ethics the new elegance
Images of Gandhi and khadi fabrics have become a popular staple of the Indian youth fashion, especially
the intellectual middle-class university crowd. The capitalist market has turned Gandhi, with
his khadi, into a commodity or even a lifestyle brand. Gandhi-inspired products often invoke
concepts like ‘slow’, ‘ecological’ and ‘ethical’ fashion. Khadi aimed at the ‘aware youth’ is then typically
marketed as ‘sustainable clothing’ whose purchase helps the development of rural communities
of weavers and artisans. Khadi fashion items often become symbolic of the wearer’s connection
to ‘Mother Earth’, of an alternative ‘free-spirited’ New Age lifestyle. What is sold here is not only a
pre-packaged ecological and ethical lifestyle but also good conscience and imagined redemption
from the baneful capitalist system, of which, paradoxically, this is only a manifestation. The Indian
ethical eco-fashion, be it boho-chic or haute couture, that claims to support rural development and
help generate employment for traditional handloom weavers and other artisans, is symptomatic of
the current rebranding of capitalism into a ‘capitalism with a human face’. Good conscience and
feeling good about doing good become the added value of the garments that are purchased by the
‘ethical consumer’. The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek has analysed this tendency within
contemporary capitalism where the anti-consumerist duty (to do something for the environment
and the poor) is already included within the product. As he says, within contemporary capitalism
‘the act of egotist consumption already includes the price for its opposite’. The problem is that such
remedies do not cure the disease: they are part of the disease.
Another display window labelled Cosmopolitan Maharajas dealt with the contemporary wealthy
elite in New Delhi and its dressmakers, who provide it with an aesthetic overflowing with historic
references to kingly power, attires repetitively citing the pre-colonial fashionable styles. Among
fashion pieces on display was Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s lehenga (‘long skirt’) with antique elements
worked into the new garment. This piece could be contemplated both aesthetically in its materiality
and as a manifestation of the current dominant trend that I have labelled ‘royal chic’ (Kuldova
2013b) in the industry and its meanings (see Figure 5). The installation also addressed the