Dare to wear the dress

Four men wearing pastel ochre, grey and turquoise dresses radiated an edgy vibe in a fashion photo shoot at New Delhi.

'Why can't a man wear a sari?' — it was this query on Quora that 22-year-old Damini Deshwal stumbled upon, a year ago, and decided to extend the female garb to the male frame in DiversityNOW! 2017, an online international competition conducted by the London-based All Walks Beyond Catwalk. The brief said, 'Your work must celebrate the diversity and differences in body shape, size, gender, and colour'. "I remembered what I'd read on Quora and made up my mind to design dresses for men," explains the fashion design graduate from Delhi's Pearl Academy.

Deshwal's collection includes woven jute, linen and chanderi silk. From the very beginning, she wanted to keep the clothes simple. Instead of professional models, she chose dancers and performing artists as models. What's truly intriguing is the reactions of men who worked with Deshwal on her project. "For the last seven years, I have shot various models but this was the first time I captured men in dresses, with no make-up. Dehswal's collection is imaginative and bold," says photo-journalist Javed Sultan.

Wearing the dress and posing for pictures proved liberating for 17-year-old Manish Chotala, a professional contemporary dancer. "I felt alive and colourful, as when I dance on stage," he says.

Deshwal did not expect to win the People's Choice Award earlier this year. "I was caught off-guard," says Deshwal, whose aim is to conquer mindsets and break stereotypes. "My designs are a way of telling people that they are free to wear whatever makes them feel beautiful," she explains.