By Sanjay BasakGone are the days when homespun khadi was the essence of the Indian politician. Today, Parliament is mostly inhabited by natty Armani suits and bespoke bandh-galas.A look at some trendy trailblazers and othersWhen Parliam-ent’s sartorial history is written, it will have a chapter titled Shot Gun. In 1998, Shatrughan Sinha walked into the Rajya Sabha in flamboyant Bollywood style, with a hint of bling — black kurta and black designer dhoti with gold edging. He wasn’t there to participate in the debate. He was there to make a style statement.Then came Vijay Mallya and Parliament’s shade card changed forever, from muted to primary colours. Swadeshi was taken off, gently folded in white muslin and kept in storage with scented mothballs. The &ampquot;Gucci turks&ampquot; had sashayed in and were here to stay: Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jay Panda and Omar Abdullah, among others.During the last Rajasthan Assembly elections, Vasundhara Raje would routinely take off like a dragon fly and change colours in the sky. She would slip into dresses that matched each particular constituency’s sartorial identity. She even took a dress designer along on her campaign, just in case.All talk of politicians’ obsession with clothes, however, is incomplete without the mention of home minister Shivraj Patil. He changes his tailored suits virtually every hour. Even when the Capital is under terrorist attack.But most politicians are not apologetic for their design makeovers. As commerce minister Kamal Nath was once quoted as saying: &ampquot;Television is a powerful medium and it makes a politician aware of himself. The politician doesn’t want his voter to be fatigued by his old image, so he’s trying new ways to impress...&ampquot;Designer kurtas to highlight designer sound-bytes.Come Parliament session, along with the ubiquitous TV channels’ OB vans, and you will see most politicians in their &ampquot;classy whites&ampquot;. But don’t mistake the whites to have been spun meditatively at some Gandhi ashram. These are all premium brands. Just like the politicians.A fancy dress partyBy Narayan BarethRajasthan, the land of maharajas and maharanis is the place where royals have always dressed luxuriously to stand above the crowd. But the scion of Scindia family from neighbouring Madhya Pardesh, chief minister Vasundhra Raje, prefers to wear clothes that make the voters break out in a grin and see her as one of their own. While admirers praise her dress sense and say that it often endears her to the rural crowd for the effort she makes, Ms Raje’s critics are not impressed by her fancy dress party.Ms Raje is very careful and picky about what she wears when. For example, when she took oath as the first woman chief minister of Rajasthan, she was draped in a yellow saffron sari. A thank you, perhaps, to her BJP followers and colleagues.From the very beginning, during her Parivartran Yatra which began before the Assembly polls in 2003, Ms Raje started dressing according to the gathering she was to address. So if she was at a huge gathering of Gujjars, she would dress up like a Gujjar bahu. She’d be a Rebari by day and a tribal Bheel or a Marwari in the evening.For a routine work day in office, the chief minister mostly wears saris, but prefers salwar-kameez when she’s on inspection rounds.Few chief ministers would have dared what Ms Raje did in 2006. To promote khadi, she walked the ramp at a fashion show in Jaipur. Attired in a red sari with black border, she walked the ramp with model Rahul Dev.Though she drew criticism from various quarters, including some Gandhians, Ms Raje had put khadi back on the fashion &ampquot;must have&ampquot; list.Marx of a manBy Parwez HafeezLike a true Marxist, West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee leads a simple and austere life. He lives with his wife and daughter in a modest south Kolkata flat. So far as his sartorial tastes are concerned, he is a quintessential Bengali bhadralok.He is always seen in his trade mark kurta which Bengalis call punjabi and dhoti. Mr Bhattacharjee is one of the few Bengali politicians who still prefer this traditional dress. Even during election campaigns, he is seen in the same outfit.Mr Bhattacharjee does not buy his own clothes. His wife Meera shops for him, often from a few select shops in south Kolkata — Khadi Emporium, Uttarayan, Punjabi Store and Kinnor-Kinnori. He prefers kolhapuris which are purchased from KM Das on College Street. &ampquot;Mr Bhattacharjee does not wear any fancy material. He does not like his kurta or dhoti to be made of silk or terrycot. He is obsessed with white malmal,&ampquot; a family friend said.In recent memory, it was only once that Mr Bhattacharjee was seen in trousers and a shirt. In August 2005, West Bengal chief minister visited Singapore and Indonesia to seek foreign investment. For his meetings with industrialists, Mr Bhattacharjee chose shirt and trousers over his regular dhoti-kurta. He does not usually wear any perfume and has no lucky pen or watch — that’d go against his Marxist salt. A chain smoker, his brand is Filter Wills but he sometimes also smokes Classics and India Kings.Modi: A designer brand in himselfBy Deepal TrivediFrom a former pracharak of the RSS leading a spartan life, to the power-dressing Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi has come a long way.Mr Modi’s impeccable dress sense is a matter of much discussion and emulation in Gujarat. Whatever he wears becomes a brand.Given the hot climate of Gujarat and Mr Modi’s hectic schedule, the chief minister took to wearing half-sleeve cotton kurtas in earthy colours. And today, most Gujarat stores stock what’s popularly known as the &ampquot;Modi kurta&ampquot;.The ubiquitous &ampquot;Modi kurta&ampquot; might be appropriate while interacting with the electorate or on routine office days. But for special occasions he has special clothes designed and tailored.So if he is filling up an election form, he’ll sport a saffron kurta, complete with a matching churidar. If it’s Navratri, he’ll delight audiences with a formal silk kurta and a Gujarati style achkan.And when the chief minister is calling on industrialists or is out wooing foreign investors, it’ll all have to be done in a stylish three-piece dark Italian suit.Most of Mr Modi’s clothes are styled at Jade Blue, an Ahmedabad store. Jitu Chauhan, Jade Blue’s owner, is not willing to shell out details but says that his best tailors are reserved for the chief minister.He adds that it is not that Modi saheb blindly follows fashion but that whatever Mr Modi wears becomes fashionable.Paresh Patel, a fashion victim and a Modi fan, saw the chief minister wearing a stylish pair of chappals — flat, brown, with double straps. &ampquot;It was very contemporary. I found out that they were sourced from Chavda, located the shop and the shopkeeper immediately gave me a pair of ‘Modi chappals’.&ampquot;Though the chief minister never shows off his love for luxury brands, his choice of designer goods endears him further to Gujarat’s plush-with-money electorate.Mr Modi loves branded accessories — from Bvlgari rimless glasses to Mont Blanc pens and designer flat-dial watches. You might even spot him using a gold Cartier pen on special occasions.The scent of a kingBy ASIT JOLLYHeir to a king’s fortune, Amarinder Singh retains several subtle hints of blue-blooded credentials. Maybe it’s royal tradition, but the Maharaja’s six-yard-long turban must be dyed and starched together just like it used to be for his ancestor, Baba Alla Singh who established the Patiala throne.This is a most elaborate procedure, using pure vegetable colours and organic starching agents and can only be done by a handful of specialists ;left from a fast-disappearing tradition. And though largely constrained, by politics, to dressing up in his trademark white, short-sleeved shirt-kurta and churidaar pyjama, Capt. Singh never fails to wear his favourite Aramis 900 cologne.The scent is perhaps the only thing that lingers when he travels abroad and his sartorial style changes to shirt sleeves and trousers and overcoats from Harrods or Burberrys.Back home, however, Ludhiana Pringle jerseys or, on more formal occasions, an achkan is the preferred winter dress. Unlike most of his ilk, he shuns ornamental jewelry, not even sporting a ring.The King’s clothes are all stitched by Jassal Tailors, Patiala-based apparel-makers who inherited the royal warrant from Master Kartar Singh, who retired once he was unable to thread a needle.Monotonous MayawatiBy Amita VermaIf anyone were to ever get a peep into Mr Mayawati’s closet, the sheer monotony would be mind-numbing. Hanger after hanger of beige-coloured salwar-kameez. But it would tell you that Ms Mayawati has no time for distractions. Not in her life, nor her wardrobe.The way Ms Mayawati dresses reflects the way she looks at life. Her dress sense is simple, straightforward and monotonous. There’s no room for any distraction. Much like her political and personal life. She remains fully focused on her political tasks and does not leave room for anything else.Ms Mayawati wears beige-coloured salwar-kameez on all occasions, in all seasons. Her full-sleeve kurta has a loose flowing cut while the salwar is more traditionally stitched. The cloth is synthetic — doesn't crush and does not need frequent changes. Interestingly, the dupatta that she drapes around her neck like a muffler is also made of the same fabric and Ms Mayawati is said to be very particular about its length and width. For special occasions like her own birthdays and swearing-in ceremonies, Ms Mayawati seems to have a thing for pink brocades and silks. She is even known to wear pink Banarasi silk sari on her birthdays.Ms Mayawati, according to sources, has never visited a boutique or consulted a fashion designer. &ampquot;She goes strictly by her instinct and the design she has created for herself has been done keeping in mind the functional aspects of the attire. She is cautious not to assert her femininity and wants to be treated not as a woman but as a political commander,&ampquot; says the wife of a bureaucrat known to be close to Ms Mayawati.Though no one is allowed to peep into her private world, sources say the BSP leader's favourite tailor is in Delhi.She has simple taste when it comes to footwear. She wears sturdy sandals through the year and shoes in winter. She prefers socks even in summer to protect her feet from skin allergy. In winters, she drapes Pashmina shawls and was even seen sporting a trendy brown coat last year which she picked up during her foreign sojourns. Perhaps the only politician who has never been seen wearing sunglasses, a brown bag she lugs around seems to be her only &ampquot;must have&ampquot; accessory. As no one is allowed near her, nobody knows whether she wears perfume or not.Venkatgiri, with a splash of YSLJaya PradaFor me, sense of dressing is a very important component of my overall personality. As I travel a lot because of my political and film commitments, I take care that what I am wearing goes with the occasion and the weather, and that I feel comfortable in it. I’m not very brand conscious but if I like something then I don’t think too much about the money. I never plan my shopping, but do it spontaneously.Mostly, I buy my clothes from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Venkatgiris and Procham Padus are my favourite saris and Neeta Lula, Archana Kochar and Tarun Tahiliani are some of my favourite designers. Tulip in Delhi is one of my favourite outlets and RockyS myfavourite brand for western dresses. Someof the brandsI prefer forperfumes, footwear and other accessories are Versace, Gucci, YSL and Davidoff.As told to K Kailash