80’s pop-sensation, David Bowie’s encounter with mime artist Lindsay Kemp, left a lasting impression on his own concert style and that of his fans. Ziggy Stardust, as he was fondly known, was strongly taken by Kemp’s belief that clothes were a way of projecting self-expression. And so Bowie, in all of his flame-haired, bright shimmering glory, became an icon of concert fashion. Cut to 2017, where a loose jersey with basketball shorts and sneakers is considered as ‘high fashion,’ if the famous Bieber is donning it.
Standing amidst a throng of puberty-stricken teens and their patient parental chaperons at the Justin Bieber concert in Navi Mumbai, my eyes move across child-to-child and parent-to-parent rather voyeuristically. There are no eye-patches here, nor is there dark lipstick, shiny eye shadow, or heavily made-up faces. In fact, the only dramatically dressed human being that makes an appearance, is model and actor Elarica Johnson, best known for her role in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince , and host to a sun-sapped crowd. Clothed in a nude, beaded, costume designed by Varun Bahl, Johnson seems rather overdressed in comparison to the crowd that tries to ape “The Biebes” quite literally.
It’s an interesting pool of style barring the sweat that’s made its way into an unwilling fashion wardrobe. While some squealing 12-year-olds adjust their crop-tops that read ‘Bieber is my BAE,’ mothers sway in comfortable cotton salwars, and tie and dye kurtas with leather sandals/kohlapuris. I hear an excited mom point to a group of kids wearing the 23-year old singer’s Purpose tour merch, and shout “matchiiiinggggg,” to her rather horrified 13-year-old daughter who is wearing the same outfit pasted with the doe-eyed boy’s face.
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Dads on the other hand, are at their comfortable best, almost as if it’s a Sunday afternoon picnic. Denim shorts, striped collared T-shirts, high socks, and caps is the father-theme of the day, including one who’s used his cap as an eye-mask to take a quick power nap before the much-awaited act of the evening. “I toh only came for Alan Walker man,” drawls a young teen who stands as the odd one out dressed in a loose jersey with the Norwegian DJ’s logo. The 19-year-old song producer and DJ, is the opening act for Beiber, who ensures no other singers take centre stage before he comes on. Walker could be the spitting image of Darth Vader, dressed from head-to-toe in a black hoodie sweatshirt, pyjamas and his patent black facemask. With that amount of clothing, it’s a wonder he hasn’t melted away in the scorching sun.
But as the evening sets in, the little ones have stopped trying to look presentable in their sheer bodysuits, peeping shoulder tops, white sneakers and chokers with Selena Gomez and Bieber emblazoned across them. Now only one thing matters, and he comes packaged in a white casual T-shirt, with ‘palace’ written on it in a triangle. Bieber has walked out onto stage, suggestively adjusting his pyjama strings, and much like the exhaustion of waiting, all those fashion-preps too have taken a back-seat.