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The one-shoulder toga dress might be the fashion rage in the capital this hot summer, but it is the one-sleeved theme jersey worn by badminton's all-time poster boy Taufik Hidayat at the Badminton Asia Championships in the city last week that has suddenly brought the conservatively-draped shuttlers into rare fashion focus.
Comfort beats couture in badminton, where players turn out in no-fuss long shorts and men still like their elaborate collars. So, the introduction of the bizarrely bold one-sleeve jerseys created some interest when first introduced by a leading badminton equipment and apparel brand last year. It caught the world's attention when at the semi-finals of the All England, two leading shuttlers Malaysian World No.1 Lee Chong Wei and Danish No.3 Peter Gade took to the court in the one-sleeved attire.
"It first debuted at the Japan Open Super Series," says Vikram Dhar, who heads the brands' India operations , adding that badminton fashion has picked pace and there's much scope for further dolling up of the apparel, especially for women.
The one-sleever is a refreshing break from the prevailing half-sleeves, standard two-colours, and almost straight-uniformed cuts with the ubiquitous collars. The idea behind making the playing-arm sleeve redundant was to ensure that the shoulder movement remained unhampered. The presence of the other sleeve though was to wipe sweaty foreheads. The smash, they say, looks glamorous when fired by the bare biceps of the shuttlers.
The manufacturers, looking for something different, had conferred with the three marquee players on the design - assigning each a specific colour to revamp their playing wardrobe. So, Lee Chong Wei got a sky blue, Taufik was dressed in brick red and Peter Gade was given the white, a common smart black one-sleever handed to all three champions.
For years, badminton around Asia saw white or black jerseys with an abstract splashing of various hues, as if shuttlers had just returned from a Class 5 introductory art class on water colours. The design prevailed for a good two decades with only the base colour changing from deep blue to black or white and the same rioting of random colours.
"Earlier it was more whites with colours splashed on them. Now we're more into mono-toned colours or at best a mildly contrasting band on the jersey. It's more aggressive," Dhar says, the hinted comparison of the new sophisticated avatar being with the splashy jerseys of yore.
Dan turned on the style
The Indians, women especially, kitted by different apparel-makers have settled for whites and the lightest hints of blue as team colours, and a subtle V-neck with a faux standing collar. It is the Chinese, though, who through Lin Dan made the red or the yellow famous - Super Dan fitted into a no-sleeves jersey (the Chinese first tried out the sleeveless at the 2004 Athens Olympics) when he emerged champion at Beijing. The one-sleeve though inviting mixed comments remains the boldest experiment in a sport not known for adventurism. Taufik Hidayat, who wears his attitude - sleeve or no sleeve - shrugs and says, "I win when I play. This is just fashion."
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