Contemporary South Asian youth cultures and the fashion landscape

In this article we reflect on the timely dialogue which took place to address how economic growth and the expanding middle-class youth population in South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) influences sartorial identities. This working note is based on an ongoing research project: ‘South Asian Youth Cultures and Fashion’ and the related symposium at the London College of Fashion, which explores how South Asian sartorial identities have been previously classified and how they are changing in the face of an increasingly globalized world. The conversations which took place reiterated the very reason why the symposium was organized. Whilst there has been some study of South Asian fashion and dressing cultures within history, anthropology and its diaspora, little work has looked at the transnational implication of the changing cultural, economic and fashion education environments on dress cultures on youth.