Every city or town had a market place or the Mall road equivalent with a unique flavor of the place and character to its shopping spaces and the things sold. When one has visitors from another town, they would all make a trip to an MG road or Main Street or Linking road or the 17 sector, to check out something which they don’t find in their streets back home or things unique to this town like chikkon kurtas or kolhapuries etc.
Today you walk these roads/streets and find the same brands and the same clothes or accessories any city you go to. Nothing new or novel about visiting a market to shop or browse in a new town. And they talk of shopping experience. Brands can get so boring!!
2 comments:
I agree... Its disturbing to see each city losing its essence where its getting increasingly difficult to differentiate one from the other!
I have been opposing IP like trademarks and branding in the crafts arena, although AICA, ATA, many in the design community have been gungo and now many NGO's in the crafts sector have also jumped onto the band wagon.
The Gis and craftsmark only helps the larger firms like Fab India or Anokhi in their exports-no one buying in India cares whether it has a GI or craftsmark or not. The joy in a uniquely crafted product or woven textile was the variability and unpredictability, Unfortunately, the Brands we see in the mainstream marketplace have removed all character. Whether it is the choice we had with the unbranded crafts, clothes, food or other products, and the simple pleasures and even high we gained through the discoveries from our treasure hunts or the great bargain in the nondescript and "non designerly" stores and/or book shops like Premier book store we shopped earlier, these simples pleasures can never be attained from the glitzy but often boring branded stores in malls and places like brigade and Vital malya road in Bangalore. What we also lose out on is our own unique cultural landscape for a mostly western one in this neo-liberal capital driven economy that provides branding designers and lawyers more opportunities. Those concerned about safeguarding the tangible and intangible cultural landscapes must resist the vested interests of those that promote the IP regime which includes GIs and brands in India
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