City Style – The Classy Delhiwalla, Connaught Place
Searching for the stylish.
[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]
The Delhi Walla saw this man-boy in the park above Palika Bazaar parking in Connaught Place, Delhi’s Colonial-era shopping district. Talking on a black-and-red cell phone, he was in black trouser, black shirt, black waistcoat and black shoes. A black dinner jacket lay folded on his left arm (The winter was ending and it was too warm to wear it). However, it wasn’t the black, but the red of his glasses and tie that caught my eye. No one was dressed like him.
While imposisble to source the exact origin of his chic (his innocent amorousness? His punk haircut? His slimness), a part of it definitely came from his hesitantly independent spirit that knew the shock-value of colours. Not dolled up in Ralph Laurens and Guccis, he showed that style is independent of barcoded tags. Sometimes it could be created by a striptease of black and red.
Focusing the camera lens at the man-boy, I’d hoped to capture the understated tones of his color-coordinated vigor. That got lost in the arrogance of an accessory that I noticed only later – the man-boy’s red shopping bag, the porn-like voluptuousness of which added a naughty swagger to his black-red-black style. If he weren’t unshaven, the man-boy would have made a perfect red meat for the city’s predators.
The red revolution
Eyes closed
Straight look
Red & White
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