by Vani Viswanathan
[box]Vani Viswanathan isn’t a fashion freak by any measure. So, here she is, well, fretting over fashion.But, hold on! There’s something she has learnt to appreciate too. Read on.[/box]I have never quite understood the fuss over fashion. What makes it the billion-dollar industry that it is?
What comes to your mind when I say fashion? I get visions of crowded, frantic backstage areas, spindle thin models, shoes and bags made of the most exotic (!) skins around and people designing clothes which nobody in their right minds would wear.
I’m sure there are many like me. People who find fashion a little extravagant, over-the-top, and not quite necessary in the world.
Over the last year, though, while the above opinion I hold hasn’t necessarily disappeared, its intensity has watered down to a certain extent. A bit of exposure to this world has led me to appreciate fashion as a form of art, excessive though it is. After all, the people involved have an extreme, eccentric imagination, and the better ones – in my opinion, those whose clothes are less odd and more practical – have the ability to influence what people wear the next season. It is an incredible form of expression, and I have been awed by the beautiful prints, the genius of the designer to choose the perfect fabric for the design, the subtle make-up on the pale faces of the models – done up so well that you can’t notice the blemish on the model’s face unless you look hard – and of course, the hair done up oh-so-well that you croak in anguish at your own tresses. Who can deny the talent and dedication involved here?
But of course, despite acknowledging all the above wonderful aspects, the dissenting voices creep in. I watch the tall model strut away with great difficulty on those six-inch heels, her back so dangerously curved due to the pressure of walking on towering heels that I’m worried she’ll fall back any minute. Make-up that sometimes borders on the verge of being plainly gruesome. And of course, then there are the bags that are made with the most shocking material, ranging from the usual cowhide or goatskin to snakeskin or crocodile or alligator leather. The extents to which we go to satisfy our
vanity, I tell you…
Which brings me to the next point – the clothes. Some of them are simply delightful to look at, no doubt – but some are purely hideous. Some look as if somebody designed a beautiful dress and decided to snip off various parts of it in anger – and voila, you have what they call a masterpiece! Nice clothes have been unnecessarily forced with weird additions that simply make them… well, bizarre. And of course, topping the clothes are the accessories. I remember a show themed on ‘jurassic’ where models came out wearing hats with a tiny skeletal model of a dinosaur or a dino ‘bone’ that became a bracelet, and these nutty accessories accompanied decently good looking outfits. Creativity, expression, I understand, but aren’t we taking this to a laughable extreme? I remember trying hard to resist my impulse to giggle during this show.
Of course, you may just put me down as a dim-witted plain Jane who has no eye for fashion. I must confess this is true. Being a lover of music and words, I can understand why fashion – as a form of art – has such a great following world over. But, I can never forgive the effort, time, and not to forget, the loads of money, that go into the processes of this art, inaccessible as it is to most of the world’s population.
Picture courtesy : nosuchsoul – http://www.flickr.com/photos/nosuchsoul/
[facebook]Share[/facebook] [retweet]Tweet[/retweet]
