Sometimes, it is just hard to justify being fashionable. Right from the time you begin to explore the world of clothes and looks, you are judged for being trendy and someone who cares about what you wear. The first ones to look down upon being fashionable generally being our very parents, who don’t really approve of anything that can distract us from our studies. The brush with adulthood and (the highly overrated) college life begins to give us wings and generally is the formative period when we experiment more with the way we look. However, if you are among the more trendy of the lot, who has learnt the art of looking good, who has experimented with several styles, prepare to be judged heavily, looked at with envy, made fun of unnecessarily or never being taken seriously, because hey! he/she is too fashionable to be nerdy or serious!
Then, certain “study” results come out that further confuse you and you question,”Why Be Fashionable? Why Be Stylish?”
The study in question being the one in which they recently told us that the most successful people (read: rich or important people) such as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg never conform/ed to fashion. Instead, they continued to wear the same outfit day after day, year after year. The reason is simple to comprehend. It reduces the number of decisions that they are required to make everyday. Imagine a Mark Zuckerberg peeping into his closet and wondering whether to wear a white shirt or a lavender one while he is being waited on by hundreds of his employees before an important company update. You get the drift? So this study tells us that since being fashionable is not really in “favour” of being productive, we should really stop making hard decisions about what we wear and simplify.
But really, is it that simple when it comes to real life? Can you imagine spending the rest of the next year, let alone the rest of your life, in the same outfit?
It is like your parents saying it all over again, “You will be distracted unnecessarily by fashion. Concentrate on your studies!”
The fact of the matter is that fashion and the way we look has effects that run deeper within our psyche. It is easy to say that we can simplify our lives by removing the seemingly unnecessary decisions that we impose on ourselves by deciding what to wear every morning. However, what we wear each day has a significant impact on how we feel and how we perceive ourselves to be.
Here are 5 reasons why being fashionable is relevant, important, and yes, meaningful too:
- Fashion is a method of expression: Moving away from couture fashion, which definitely is more of art and an extreme form of expression, even everyday fashion is a form of expression of what you are feeling, of how you represent your identity and your beliefs. I would any day prefer to spend 10 minutes to decide what to wear if it allows me to express myself on another level. If you feel fashion doesn’t express, try looking at various images of people in different types of clothes. A peasant skirt symbolizes some form of carefree-ness, an Indian kurta expresses subtle elegance, while a pantsuit screams that you mean business.
- Fashion is art: For some of us, it indeed is art. If I can be an artist with my body as a canvas, why not?! Imagine boho earrings, phulkari dupatta, bold colors or color blocking, intricately designed rings….if this doesn’t give you some form of artistic freedom, what will?
- Fashion imparts confidence: Yes, it totally does. Try wearing shabby clothes one day, while on the next, wear neatly tailored, trendy clothes. If you are a woman, simply see the difference that comes by wearing heels! The lack of confidence you may otherwise have can be successfully masked to some extent by the sharpness of your clothes. So you can fake it till you can’t make it!
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- Fashion is a positive energy: Waking up and not finding any motivation to go to work? This is a common problem that many of us face. But dressing up gives you that powerful boost of energy that no great cup of coffee can. The process of dressing up your best on your worst days works as a great “pick-me-up”, hence it cannot be called a chore that wastes time if it is giving a kick-start to your day. It is more of that beautiful energy that envelops you and gives you a great feeling about yourself and a positive vibe!
- Fashion inspires you: The saying is not really wrong, that you can have anything you want if you dress for it. Dressing well inspires us to become somebody successful, to be creative, to bring out all our good energy and put it in one place. It really isn’t an exaggeration to say that to dress up well and show up is a quarter (they say half, but I believe a quarter, you know hard work and smartness do count!) of the battle won.
So what do you want to be? If you do aspire to be the next Jobs or Zuckerberg or Obama, then by all means, chuck fashion and focus on your productivity, because yes, for some of us, those extra 10 minutes may mean a lot. For the rest of us, fashion gives a reason to be creative. Hence, why be fashionable? Here’s why.
It is a conversation starter and hence, an ice breaker. Fashion adds color to our lives. It is an expression of changing times. It enables us be our best, most complete selves.
What do you think? Do you think fashion is overrated? Can you live without it? Add in your comments!
**All original artwork done by me 🙂
Loved this piece!!! In even the tiniest bit, fashion does help as a positive influence.
🙂 I’m overjoyed that you liked the piece, Poorva! That’s the point I was trying to put, the one that you summed up beautifully in your one liner, that it helps us in it’s own tiny way!