Manou began documenting street style in 2009, inspired by Shoichi Aoki’s Fruits, a Japanese fashion magazine. His travels took him to the Northeast of India and he spent almost a year travelling across the states of Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya. His pictures showcase a burgeoning sense of style that’s uniquely glocal — think Naga shawls over bomber jackets and cowboy hats with traditional beads. “These places are so much more than the tribes and scenery that is portrayed in most generic descriptions,” he insists, adding that once he spent enough time there to make friends and soak in the culture, he saw how each place had its own unique style identity.
Manou believes that this is partly because clothes are really cheap there and you often find couture brands like YSL or Issey Miyake, Dries van Noten or even Yohji Yamamoto. “Really good pieces that are export rejects or from the Salvation Army, or surplus from Burma get picked up by all the fashionable youngsters,” he says.
Another possible reason for the striking street style seen here? “These places are not as suburban as Delhi or Bombay, there aren’t many places to hangout in the evenings. So the kids spend more time online and are exposed to the culture from the West, and fashion ends up being an outlet for them to express themselves,” he observes.
One thing he has noticed in particular is that anything from the East, especially Japan and Korea, resonates with the Northeast. “When I talk to the youngsters I click and ask them what music they’re listening to or what they’re watching on TV, a lot of them mention K-Pop songs and Korean TV shows. Now cosplay, from Japan, has become really big, and Kohima even has a cosplay event in June and July where young people dress up as their favourite animé character.”
Preferring to photograph people who mix their traditional clothes with western wear, he keeps an eye out for the experimental dresser. He looks for a traditional element that adds some identity, “otherwise I think the way they dress could work anywhere — here or London,” he says.
And he does have a few favourites among the street style stars he’s photographed. “In Mizoram, the woven traditional skirt (puan) has a distinct identity of its own, and for weddings and special occasions they combine it with long jackets and overcoats and different tops. Naga shawls as well. There are 16 different main tribes and they each have a different identity that they show off on their shawls, with patterns and colours. When combined with different clothes, they make for great pictures,” he concludes.
Manou blogs at wearabout.wordpress.com. He has previously collaborated with brands like Burberry and his work has been displayed at the V&A Museum, London