Ravished, in America, by India

[imomus]

I'm sitting with my ex-wife Shazna in the cafe at Kinokuniya, the new Japanese bookstore at Bryant Park. It's Sunday. I've just come down through a gorgeously sunny Central Park only marred by... the clothes. The shark-shaped bicycle helmets, the cheap-looking wrap-around "insect" shades, the terrible goatee beards, the reduced colour palette of whites, beiges and blues, the mesh caps and offensive running shoes. Americans dress, on the whole, very badly.



"I really enjoy coming here," I tell Shazna, "but I can't shake the feeling that Americans are living wrong. Their aesthetic of everyday life is simply incorrect. And I can't help feeling that the longer non-Americans stay here, the more they get absorbed into this wrongness, and start to see it as, if not right, at least acceptable and convenient." Shazna knows exactly what I mean. If there was ever a time when there were "beautiful Americans", it's gone.

When would that time have been? Well, perhaps when cowboy movies were all the rage. Or perhaps when the rock opera Hair introduced us to American hippy styles. Now, though, to "dress American" means to dress badly. I've been struck, this trip, by the fact that only people from the Indian subcontinent are impressing me. Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, south of the L train stop, is a sort of catwalk where you're probably going to see the best -- in purely visual terms -- that New York can offer. I did see some people in stunningly beautiful outfits: an Indian mother and her daughter, who had on a turquoise top and a bright red scarf falling across it. The colours were simple, bold and optimistic . Adjectives we might once have used about America we now tend to use about India and China. The pure sexiness of optimism, expressed in colour and form, is now theirs.



Outside PS1 in Queens I see another Indian -- Shazna says she's probably a Bangladeshi -- this time wearing pink and green, a combination filled with the freshness of spring. It's pretty much inconceivable to imagine a white American wearing that combination, and yet it's gorgeous. Somehow I find the colours in subcontinental clothes "chromatically trustworthy". They express not only positivity about the future, but a traditional culture thousands of years long.

I feel the same way about Indian music. The show before the one Aki and I appeared on up at the Columbia campus radio station, WKCR, was called Garam Masala, and consisted of such gorgeous Indian classical music that I asked Gerry not to play any of my music during our interview. I felt it would sound crude and shoddy in comparison to the glowing, throbbing drones, scales determined by the hour of the day, and divine voices in the Indian court music.



So, an emerging theme during this visit: I am totally impressed by people from the Indian subcontinent. These -- not hipsters, not Harlemites, not Japanese art students, not affluent gay couples walking little dogs in Chelsea, and certainly not the weary, nervy people I see on the streets of the Upper East Side -- are the people tweaking my aesthetic antennae here in New York. These are the people I'm noticing, and admiring. Make of that what you will; my conclusion is that I really need to visit India itself soon. Or, at the very least, Jackson Heights.

Comments

[contentlove.livejournal.com]

Visiting Austin might make you smile. That is all.

[(Anonymous)]

My God. Glorifying Billyburger hipster, anti-Americanisms and blatant orientalism - all in one post! That what we call a Momus homerun! (A "Momo-Home")

[diotina.livejournal.com]

Do you not feel you might be orientalising a tad?

[newstandsophist.livejournal.com]

It's funny, back in the 1950s, rich white people ("preppies") would have been the only people in the U.S. you'd see wearing pink and green together. You can probably still see the combination on WASP matrons in Lily Pulitzer dresses on the beaches of Nantucket.

Generally, though, I agree. Americans are poor dressers. We've really let ourselves go over the past thirty years or so.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Taking orientalism away from me is like taking a rattle away from a baby! Or a fishing rod from a fisherman! Don't be mean!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Well, I was trying to say that the Billyburgers were pretty unimpressive these days. It was hardly a floral tribute to people in skinny jeans and keffiyehs, was it? There are some good Ginsberg beards about, though.

[(Anonymous)]

It's hilarious you feel you can comment on peoples dress sense with any authority. I mean come on some of the tat you wear is horrendous and dare I say a tad American if anything.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Well, we get caught up in the commentary Catch-22 here, don't we? If I champion something I do myself I'm a narcissist, if I champion something I don't do I'm a hypocrite, and if I champion someone from another country I'm an orientalist.

Mad Men

[ajkandy.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

Classic American dress sense in every frame of every episode, and I love it. Maybe it stems from having part-Indian background, but I love classic Western prep-wear, from Chariots of Fire argyle patterns to Banana Republic high-street interpretations. One day, I will own a Savile Row suit...(hey, I'm allowed to occidentalize, aren't I?)

Re: Mad Men

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I'm allowed to occidentalize, aren't I?

Certainly. (http://www.thesartorialist.com/photos/4209fifthWWeb.jpg)

[(Anonymous)]

I guess like most things it comes down to how you say it. You do tend to get caught up in the moment of a thing and then totally forget it the next. That may or may not be viewed a good thing dependent on other peoples mood at the time.

[tropigalia.livejournal.com]

My mom agrees with you. I have to tear her away from Jo-Mar fabric stores and Indian women who I assume don't want an over-zealous white woman harassing them about making saris.

[tropigalia.livejournal.com]

Also, is Trouble Andrew (http://www.myspace.com/troubleandrew) your doppleganger?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I wonder if there's a parallel world where American women en masse adopt saris? I used to think that those huge t-shirts black kids wear would evolve into robes eventually.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Love saris too. But living where I do, I suppose I'm just used to seeing them. Ditto the saffron colored Sikh turbans. You have to have the right complexion for such bold colors, though. Ruddy or pasty types like us just look washed out. Soft blues, pinks and lavenders are your best bet for shirts and such.

The NYer defensive reflex for black gets on the nerves, yes. But that's New York: it's a battlefield where people go to earn a living rather than live. Other parts of the country aren't so wedded to that dour nonsense (Charleston, Austin, (http://www.angeliska.com/) San Fran, etc).

[tropigalia.livejournal.com]

I would hope in that parallel world there hadn't been a history of oppression and imperialism committed by white people, because that's the only thing stopping me from letting my mom enjoy her sari habit.

Also have you seen Pastry Kicks (http://www.pastrykicks.com)?:


I think they're representative of the potential American fashion could have to be truly great if people weren't so afraid of BEING AWESOME.

[(Anonymous)]

What's wrong with goatees? How are they so different to the hobo ten-day growth look you sport?

It's all so ridiculously subjective. If American women did suddenly start wearing saris, you'd probably rock up to tell us all how horrible they were. Do you find keffiyehs horrible on Arab guys? Probably not. Americans could all adopt the Momus mismatch-homeless-guy-everything-too-small-and-ill-fitting-Vladimir-and-Estragon look and you'd still say it looked vile.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I'd seriously reconsider. They're representative of a country that dresses like six year-olds.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

At the risk of sounding churlish, you must admit that everyday sari materials can often look a bit cheap. But that too can be beautiful in its own way.

Where's Constantin Guys when you need him?

[(Anonymous)]

If you look at the previous posts the comment counts are pretty low. How to remedy the situation? Talk clothes, trash some whiteys, celebrate a non-western aesthetic, and -perhaps most importantly- incite the hipster debate to get the numbers rising. I daresay we'll see 40+ before this time tomorrow.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Feel the might of an American texturebomb, (http://lord-whimsy.livejournal.com/257277.html) Nick.

Problem with Americans is that they aren't American enough.

But those people see YOU as a bicycle hemlet and fly shades guy

[(Anonymous)]

Surely this is the problem of admiring parallel conservativism and labelling it alternative. You're a hub man masquerading as a spoke. There's nothing more gentle or honest in these clothes that isn't in a preppie shirt and chinos. In fact the men ARE in conservative shirt and chinos. What you really mean by this article is "Women should be more traditional", an understandable cry from the modern male.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

And then you have the portraits of Charles Bird King:

1) (http://lord-whimsy.livejournal.com/347271.html)
2) (http://lord-whimsy.livejournal.com/347514.html)
3) (http://lord-whimsy.livejournal.com/347882.html)
4) (http://lord-whimsy.livejournal.com/348141.html)

Re: But those people see YOU as a bicycle hemlet and fly shades guy

[imomus.livejournal.com]

No, it's not a gender issue. But the women do sport the most gorgeous colours.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

So we don't wear saris because we've bossed sari-wearing people around, huh?