City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Sadar Bazar

City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Sadar Bazar

City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Sadar Bazar

Searching for the stylish.

[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]

The Delhi Walla saw this young man on a street corner in Sadar Bazar. His black topi is embroidered with gold threads and festooned with colored sequins. His maroon shirt has black stripes running along the sleeves. His black waist coat appears to be of leather. His neck is shielded from the season’s cold wind by a black woolen scarf. His yellow trousers are held tight by a white polka dot belt. His sandals are brown. His eyes are underlined with kaajal. There is no one dressed like him.

In Delhi, as in other Indian towns and cities, the race among the boys is to look like the new Bollywood actor everyone is talking about at the moment. (At the moment, he happens to be a Delhi boy called Saqib Saleem). A smarter set may opt for more exclusive fashions.

This man’s outfit is independent of established traditions. Indeed, his yellow trousers may excite complicated feelings in our sartorial sensibilities, which are conditioned by the marketing executives of, say, Benetton. His feelings, however, seem in complete harmony with his dress. He is looking so unconscious about his shirt and pants and belt and topi that he could as well be standing alone in his bedroom.

The boy is decked up to be noticed, yet he is totally unaware of the attraction he is drawing. That’s style.

Color him yellow

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City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Sadar Bazar

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City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Sadar Bazar

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City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Sadar Bazar

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City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Sadar Bazar

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City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Sadar Bazar

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City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Sadar Bazar