Abstract
Bollywood is at once inspired by the fashion industry in India both thematically and professionally, and simultaneously inspires the fashion industry. This cross pollination between two industries means artists can cross into parallel artistic careers easily and draw from connections in one industry into the other. Economically this allows for both of these businesses to sustain each other at some level. This close relationship between the fashion and film world is a unique feature in India. The authors, costume designers by practice, draw from their ethnographic research on both Bollywood costume design and Indian fashion to shed light on this close relationship.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Deepsikha Chatterjee
Deepsikha Chatterjee teaches Costume Design for Theatre at Hunter College, CUNY. She studied fashion design in India and got her MFA in the US and gained professional experience at several US theatres. She researches textiles, performance costumes, and masks from India about which she has published in various journals. Currently she is pursuing her PhD at CUNY Graduate Center. [email protected]
Cheri Vasek
Cheri Vasek is a retired Associate Professor of Costume Design and Technology, Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Hawai'i Manoa. She earned her MFA at Virginia Tech, with additional graduate work at Carnegie Mellon. As a practicing artist, she worked as painter-dyer and costume craftsperson with many professional theatres across the US. Her 2013 exhibition for the East-West Center, Bollywood and Beyond, featured film costumes and accessories never previously seen outside of India. [email protected]