The jhola-style-bag has quietly crept back into the fashion firmament. Once upon a time, you thought jhola and you thought scruffy journalist/artist in khadi with the said bag slung over one shoulder. No more. The jhola has reinvented itself everywhere into a stylish new avatar – whether on the ramp, on the big screen or in city colleges. The colourful, all-carrying comfort bag is back.
Ask Murali, the percussionist of Jus Drums, for whom ethnic is a way of life. “The jhola bag I carry is made of jute. It is convenient and it goes with my overall look.” Murali confesses to owning three of such bags but tells us that he uses only one… “since all my papers are in it all the time and I am not really into matching a bag with what I wear.”
Matching the jhola with what you wear may not really be the point, but making the right fashion statement just might. Anuradha Reddy, president of Ellements the women’s club says the jhola is at the moment high on her list of accessories since it is quite `in’ right now. “If it were out of fashion, I may not carry the jhola,” says she candidly, as she goes on to describe the reactions she got when she accessorised a raw silk sling bag with a sari recently. “People told me how elegant it looked,” she tells us, going on to say that though the sari-jhola combo may be unusual, it’s the way one carries it off that is important.
It’s all the rage in college, Shivani, a visual communications student tells us, even as her fellow second year student in M O P Vaishnav College, Shamim Abdul Razak describes how the long, cotton khadi-type sling bag is what everyone carries. “When you see someone wearing khadi carrying a jhola, you would usually think they are a writer or an artist,” says Shamim, who adds, “But everyone in college are slinging on a jhola bag – today it’s all about style, and about projecting a cool, casual image.”
Designer Chaitanya Rao agrees that jholas with prints of Gods and Goddesses and heavy embroidery, etc, are back in fashion. “Fashion does a recycling act periodically,” he states. But ask him whether he carries one and he emphatically declares, “I would not trade my backpack for anything!” Sarala Biswajit of Artworld, the art gallery is not an ethnic person either. “But all things Indian and ethnic are `in’,” she says as she talks of how Europe is on an Indian makeover at the moment. The lady and her husband toured Europe with an art show this summer and says she, “I saw the jhola and other ethnic stuff all over Europe. Everyone is into it.”
Aparna, a second year student of Electronic Media confesses to carrying the jhola because it’s trendy and cool. “Yes, it is a comfortable and casual bag,” she says, “But more than that, it is the fashion now… A trend that is sure to last till this academic year ends.” It’s the perfect accessory, Aparna tells us, for college and for hanging around.
“It is the campus look at the moment,” concurs designer Binu Jha, “It’s returned in a really big way… But if I were to carry the bag I would give it a funky shape like the conical or a trapezium. The kitschy look is back and the jhola is the perfect accessory.”
Fashion can take surprising turns and this time, it’s all in a bag. Whether hip or hippie, cool of kitschy, the jhola is the flavour of the season – and let’s admit it – it’s colourful and it’s fun!
1 comment:
Man, o man this is a really old post, 7 years now with this comment but still relevant today. Jhola Bags do carry a real punch as a style statement
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