India, Oct. 11 -- Somewhere in a steel trunk, folded between naphthalene balls and a mother's wedding Banarasi, sits the outfit many young people will wear to the pandal or the garba ground this year. Sharad Navratri runs from October 11 to 19 and Durga Puja falls in the same stretch and with a colour set for every Navratri night, starting with orange and ending with peacock green, the season asks for nine looks at a time when few college students or first-jobbers can afford nine new chaniya cholis.

So Gen Z, the generation raised on fast fashion, is looking backwards, turning old silk into flared skirts, dressing plain dupattas in gota patti and mirror work, and combing Kolkata's Gariahat and Ahmedabad's Law Garden for the one blouse or...