Clothes Shopping at “Fab India”
I bought a bunch of ethnic Indian clothes at “Fab India” yesterday. Fab India is an Indian clothing company that has been in business over 50 years. They sell well made ethnic Indian clothing.
Here’s what I bought at Fab India:
- Two pairs of white linen pants that look slightly different
- One blue, short sleeved cotton shirt
- One green short sleeved cotton shirt
- One green long sleeted short kurta
All the above clothes are appropriate for formal occasions, but so comfortable that I changed into them from the pajama pants I had been wearing all day. So now I have clothes that are more comfortable, better looking, and more practical than what I previously had in my wardrobe.
While I did all my shopping in the men’s section, Fab India had a children’s section near the register. Maybe that pedicure Daya got me is increasing my estrogen levels, but 
even I found myself making one of those “awww” faces due to the adorableness of the baby clothes. Note: Need to bring “Fab India” to upscale yuppie breeding neighborhoods in the United States. Noe Valley in San Francisco and Park Slope in New York would be good places to start.
Hey,
Street shopping, and shopping at small stores doesn’t really work. You are right, the clothes are cheap, and made of bad materials, that look like they are ready to rip, with fake logos etc….all in all they’re just tacky, and not something that you would wear.
You need to shop at small boutiques in and around Bandra, or at large retail chains and branded clothing stores, Globus, Pantaloons, Lifestyle and Shoppers Stop are large retailers that carry decent brands under one roof. They carry regular jean brands like Levis, Lee etc. But dont expect to find higher end US brands like 7 for all mankind, Rock n Republic etc.
Else you could go to branded stores like Wills Lifestlye, Arrow, Allen Solly, Lacoste etc which you can find in Bandra on Linking Road and surrounding areas or in Malls. I dont know too many malls in the bandra area…but in town there is a SOBO and Atria. So you could check those out.
Coming to the class conscious society…etc you must have gathered by now that the classes in India are widely ranged from beggars all the way to millionaires (like the bollywood celeb whose house u were at). Generally, i like to categorize them into two somewhat larger groups: 1. Educated and 2. Non-Educated.
The non-educated lot, would be drivers, guards, shop clerks, housekeepers etc. This is nto to say that they are completely uneducated, many have gone to primary school for a few years, where training generally conducted in Hindi or regional language, and some might know bits of English. But generally these people have not been to secondary/high school and do not hold diplomas or degrees. Hence they go for skill-related jobs which pay them limited salaries. Your typical maid probably early Rs 2000 a month (yes Rita is grossly over-paid!) and might have a husband that is a driver or a security guard that earns an additional 6000-8000. The combined income of the family would be Rs 10,000 and they probably have at least 2 kids, that they send to school (Indians , even the lower classes are very aspirational – and thats very encouraging to see). So you can imagine that a family of 4 living on Rs 10,000 per month could only afford clothes from street vendors which are cheap. They are not educated enough to understand the meaning of the fake brand logos. They just buy shirts etc in colours that they like.
The educated lot, ranges from lower-middle classes to millionaires. Even the lower classes are well educated, live in small 2-3 bedroom houses, children go to school, the father usually has a government, teacher, administrative job, small time lawyer that earns him enough, to rent a small house, own a small car (no driver usually), afford a part-time maid (only to clean – the mother cooks), a refrigerator and a television (typically not as far as washing machine however) and send his children to good schools. This class is often known as the belly of Indian society, it is a fastest growing, and must upwardly mobile class in India. And includes families of those in the defense services, police services and other governmental posts. These people would shop partly from small stores, the kids might shop from street vendors, or if they are out to pamper themselves they may shop at one of the large retail chains, including big bazaar, which is not really a clothing store.
Ya thats about it…im tired of writing now…hope this helps!
Cheers 🙂