Delhi polls 2015: The power of the unbranded aam muffler is now indisputable

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have commandeered the Nehruvian jacket and given it a Gujarati modification and even debuted personalised pinstripes in India but there is no doubt that the sartorial accessory of the season is the aam muffler. Dexterously wielded by Arvind Kejriwal as a Biblical Davidian slingshot, it felled all that came before it, including the Gucci and Burberry versions worn by BJP President Amit Shah.

Indeed, the Aam Aadmi Party leader has emerged as the undisputed youth fashion trendsetter by coupling the once fuddy-duddy wintry male accessory with another Nehruvian staple — albeit named after his Mahatma mentor — the Gandhi topi. That inelegant combination has fallen neatly into the anti-style neo fashion trend called normcore that began in late 2013 and found an early (if unwitting) Indian political practitioner in Rahul Gandhi.

It was almost inevitable that the muffler-topi, emblazoned Che-like on youthful T-shirts, would become a politico-sartorial metaphor that even the iconic Common Man could probably covet. And with Indian fashion designers also warming up to the new aam aadmi aesthetic, it will not be surprising if the muffler-topi ensemble finds place in the next few fashion seasons. AAP’s challenge will be to ensure that the muffler remains in the aam pret-a-porter domain .