Witness to changing Fashion

Bangalore Emporium has seen it all. For TSG Rao Mirajker, the man who has draped generations in this city, the age of dress-style and fashion consciousness has disappeared. He should know. Owner of one of Madras' oldest tailor shops - the Bangalore Emporium, now located on Club House Road, (near the Arts College Junction), Rao has imbibed the professionalism which his father had held high in this trade. But he can sense fashions change. And all of it isn't really for the good. Nobody cares to dress properly today. That is a fact, says the bespectacled, portly gentleman, standing behind the showcase in the shadows of his shop that treasures a 62-year old tradition. "People wear ill-fitting clothes with weird designs in them," he adds.

It was Mirajkar's father who first set shop in Pursawalkam way back in 1929 and it later moved to its present location off Mount Road in 1953. Learning the ropes from his father, Mirajkar Jr. realised that he was in for cut-throat competition. The Emporium made a name for itself in stitching formal suits and safari suits, churidhars and sherwanis. Being a very exclusve tailor till the late 60's, the Emporium undertook to stitch suits for the Maharajas, Zamindars, senior government officers and city judges. "That was an age when people were conscious of the kind of formal clothes they wore. They had some real dress-sense. All that has gone now," says Mirajkar.

Today, he finds that the demand for formal suits too has gone down. "I guess it is because of the climate," he says. "Plus, there are no occasions now to wear suits." But Bangalore Emporium is still sought after by people whose elder generation has known it for its reputation. And their stocks of suiting and shirting material make shopping easier and a one-stop-affair for their clients. "The custom of wearing one particular type of dress for an occasion is also gone now," says Mirajkar. "Today, people wear as they wish." Fashion changes. And Mirajkar knows it too. But Bangalore Emporium still remains in business.