ABSTRACT
Fashion has always been international. Even in the eighteenth century, small dolls dressed in the latest styles were circulating among the French and English royal houses, where the new fashions were initiated. India not only has a gigantic home market, but its so-called Bollywood films serve an enormous Asian market as well. The fashion industry should have a similar potential, certainly in view of the fact that for centuries India has had an extensive textile industry which until recently was mainly exploited by Western companies. Indian culture has been a familiar phenomenon in England for more than thirty years. It has generated its own garment industry, which in the meantime has had a springboard effect in that it has attracted the interest of Western women as well. Traditional cultures are playing a greater part in the game of fashion than is generally thought, as the example of India illustrates.
