Gandhi was big into Fashion

Unless you're brain-dead, you've probably wondered if you could do without fashion, because well, people are starving in the world and it's pretty occult to put your vanity before someone's right not to have to shit in a bucket. We've probably all wanted to know what the least amount of fashion we can get away with is, and if we could really pull off such a look. It's probably a sheet right? Just underwear would be a bit fruity and not as warm. This is just the look Gandhi wore while leading India to freedom.

According to the BBC, when he arrived in London to study law in 1888, Gandhi was pimped out in a white suit. So, let's bet the the guy was into fashion and understood it's power. Newsreels and wired newspaper pictures were making image a big deal in a mostly illiterate country, but the updated meek-shall-inherit-the-Earth-look probably wasn't a deliberate attempt at Jesus chic. Instead the famous Gandhi look was more likely conceived to show unity with the common, untouchable man, as Gandhi was from a pretty swanky rural family, but in later life became big on economic equality.

Gandhi's iconic anti-fashion status wasn't just a superficial thing. His aesthetic was also based on the self-sufficiency he saw as key to independence from the British, since we Brits basically became the first industrial country and got really rich by closing India's cotton mills down and thus dominating the global textiles trade, aka the fast fashion industry of the day. By dressing like this, Gandhi made it possible for even the poorest Indian to make his own clothes and subvert western power—today's equivalent would be not wearing any of the probably 95% Chinese-made contents of your wardrobe, in order to defeat totalitarianism. Hence why Gandhi was always spinning cloth, and why the Indian flag originally featured a spinning wheel. Conclusion: Gandhi was mad obsessed with fashion and anti-fashion.

Kindly, Vice Style intern Ali volunteered to research this story for me.

Gandhi would have found using the bus nearly impossible as no one wanted to sit near me. They would literally jump to the other side of the bus to get away.

The train was even worse, as it required closer contact. The worst thing was a look one Indian guy gave me that made me feel ashamed of myself.

Of course, Oxford Street was where I got the most attention. So many people were filming me, taking photos, and shouting at me. Having 300 people walking past you laughing is a pretty unique experience.

Weirdly, even as über-vegetarian Gandhi, I could rely on McDonalds as a safe haven. At first I thought these lads were going to rip the piss, but instead they filmed me for some grime video called "World on Road 12", which is hilarious.

Gandhi was really hyped on self-sufficiency, so here I am showing the importance of making your own clothes.

Gandhi G.

So we went to the Macbeth, though the club environment is definitely not Gandhi's thing, ordering drinks is easier when you're Gandhi.

Then onto the Griffin, where people shouted at me, pulled the costume, and tried to steal my stick. I sat next to a girl, who thought I was hitting on her. She made it clear that she wasn't interested in talking to me at all, which was awkward.

Here's where it got out of control. Girls in the queue were loving the "toga" costume so much that the guy running the night pulled me out of the line and forced me into the club against my will, as apparently I was a "crucial party guy". He looked so upset when I left straight away.

All in all, being Gandhi for a day is fucking difficult, not to mention cold. It sure looks cool, but everyone either thinks you're disgraceful or laughs at you. Anyone looking to fashion to increase their self-esteem should avoid the look completely, those beyond such petty worries could take on empires.

PS: Obviously, doing anti-fashion as Gandhi is totally fashion, and any normal third world person just wears a pair of sports shorts and flip-flops.

Photos
Jessica Cole

Model and comments
Ali Carman