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Your whim, your fancy

Want to be more individualistic? Try embellishments or graffiti on your jeans. Check Lee's customised offer at Shopper's Stop

PHOTO: K. ANANTHAN

DRESS UP YOUR JEANS You could get your trousers painted, block printed, chemically treated to lend a particular look or have sequins and beads embroidered on them

You are young. You want to look different. Rather, look cool. And you decide to do various things and customise your appearance. Like streaking your hair in different colours or bleaching it. Or wear those innumerable rings wherever you fancy. Or even better, try your hand at what you wear. And what better way to flaunt this creative streak in you than in a pair of jeans that bear distress signs to complement your efforts?

And if there is an outlet actually aiding such creative efforts free of cost, it is certainly worth stopping by and letting your innovative thoughts flow. For, the Shoppers Stop outlet, providing the platform for Lee to aid such artistic minds in their pursuit of individualism, lays no restrictions or barriers on what can or cannot be done on a pair of distressed jeans.

Thus, you can buy your pair and have it customised according to your fancy in any of the Shoppers Stop outlets. In case you run short of ideas, there is a catalogue to provide you with the inspiration and turn out the most arresting pair in your neighbourhood.

As customisation involves not just giving ideas but executing them too and this execution may not be done to perfection when done by amateur hands, professional help is readily available. In other words, you need to make suggestions with help from Lee and your suggestions would be executed on the pair of jeans you have chosen.

Turn the reader red

You could thus have your pair painted, block-printed, chemically treated to lend a particular look, have sequins, stones, crystals and beads added, embroidered, or even better, have graffiti that papa won't like.

Says Chakor Jain, Business Head for Lee: "The idea is to get a deeper perspective on how youngsters think, allow their imagination to run, and popularise casual wear." According to him, people want more out of jeans where they can make a statement. "Jeans is the most evolved category of apparel. Customisation is not confined to just teens but extends to adults too: only the type of detailing desired varies."

Nevertheless, it appears to be most popular amongst the age group of 18 to 22.

Customisation, again, appears to be confined not just to men but women too. "Women are equally eager to add detailing to their jeans. Only the pattern varies by opting for beads, stones, embroidery and sequins. Men go for the rugged tattooed looks."

As for the most outrageous designs so far, he finds it difficult to pinpoint as "this festival is happening in all the Shoppers Stop outlets in India. But plenty go for tears at the right places, pockets ripped, a blue patch at the back, a cut and rugged stitching on one side and so on. The idea is to out-do the other in evolving the most shocking of designs."

With all this customisation and need to look different, one wonders if the basic jeans is fast going out of fashion. Says Jain: "The basic jeans is still much sought after. But customers are increasingly showing preference for some detailing, however minimal it may be."

Customisation with beads, crystals and paints could call for a gentler use of jeans and a higher degree of care. But wouldn't that defeat the very purpose of jeans, which is meant for rugged use and low maintenance?

Jain is however quick to allay such apprehensions. "The care certainly depends on the kind of customisation opted. But if it is done right, it requires only standard care and the jeans would last as long as the basic ones."

The Lee festival is on at all Shopper's Stop outlets till June18 and may get extended if there is popular demand.

NANDHINI SUNDAR

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