On most days, Anna Lepcha is commissioned to make Christian wedding gowns and ‘designer bakhus’ by her clientele in Gangtok, Sikkim. On one of my visits to her boutique she showed me a ‘designer Rai dress’ that she had just finished for a local bureaucrat's wife. Following the latest trend of glitter, sparkling beads, and exceedingly bright colours, the dress was a far cry from the plain prototype, which bore close resemblance to the traditional wrapper and blouse that had been worn by the Nepali women of the hills. I had started my research five years earlier and what struck me most was that in that time the Rai dress had acquired a new form, complete with sequins and vibrant colours, which made it easily distinguishable from other ethnic dresses.

Anna's boutique is one of the numerous bespoke tailoring houses that have emerged in Gangtok and cater to a growing clientele for ethnic clothes designed with a fashionable twist. Smaller shops sell cheaper, wholesale versions of similar products, thereby making these items accessible to a larger number of customers. 10th mile road in Kalimpong bazar is one such market, popular in the hills for locally produced items like noodles, incense sticks, silk scarves (khada), buck-wheat flour (tsampa), and hard cheese (churpi). Shops in this bazar are run mostly – if not exclusively – by Tibetan speaking Marwari businessmen who have harnessed this demand for ethnic clothes, jewellery, hats, and other items. Those who want more ‘authentic’ clothes or jewellery source it through friends, family, and retailers in Kathmandu.

The growing acceptance and display of ethnic distinction of this kind – especially through the wearing of clothes and other tangible cultural signifiers – is facilitated to a large extent by the close geographical proximity of Sikkim, Darjeeling, and East Nepal. While it may be difficult to determine the point of origin and direction of these cultural exchanges, the political impact generated by these exchanges is almost uniform across the region: the manifestation of ethnic identity through clothes, cultural performances, and architectural structures has become a key tool in the construction of group identities, which have been eventually converted into bases of political mobilisation.