Some thoughts on clothes, particularly good clothes.
When we all dress up formally to go for a 'function' or a party, what is the sociological background of the thing. When a whole bunch of people congregate for a marriage, all very well-dressed, I find it looks somewhat absurd, like a charade or a show. Whom are we dressing up for ? What is being achieved by it, especially looking at it a society, what is the usefulness for society ?
Sometimes, there is a background or implicit contest among the women about whose most well-dress or costliest-dressed, but I don't think that's a healthy thing.
Probing a little deeper the question is about the difference between normal dressing and fine dressing by the same people. What is normal dressing (like what we wear when we are in the house, when we go out to do some work, or when we go to work). What happens if we dress 'normally' to a party. What is lost ? A first level answer which seems valid is the straightforward one -- we do some things every day and we do some things rarely. So we may dress more elaborately for those rare and important occasions. But that doesn't seem to be all. When you take the collective of a bunch of people all dressed up, it seems somewhat absurd. But the alternative would be that some people dress up and some people don't and that doesn't sound very sensible either. There would be a jarring lack of consistency.
Perhaps the problem is overdressing which one sees in India nowadays. Clothing that is dramatic and eye-catching is becoming common and its in such a scenario that things look overdone. Would a room of tasteful discreetly well-dressed people gell better ?
5 comments:
Clothes??? Ok Babu, you're officially losing it :-)
Sajini
i think it has to do with celebration. some of us celebrate life more than others.
So this doesn't seem to have gone down so well.
Is there a point comment being made in the second point or is it an 'ad hominem' attack ?
Vijay
1. All those who dress well, as a means to impress others, deserve serious loathing.
2. All those who dress well, as a means to impress themselves, need serious help
3. All those who dress well because they think it is art form, may their tribe increase.
4. All those who dont dress well, as a means to impress others, deserve serious loathing
5. All those who dont dress well, as a means to help themselves, need serious help
6. All those who dont dress well, because they think it is an art, may their tribe increase.
Despo falls under (5) 70% of the time. 25% of the time he falls under (6) and 5% of the time he is falls under (3).
As for me, I think I am 50% in 5 and 50% in 6.
following up on #2 - no ad hominem attacks intended. actually i was somewhat in agreement.
it is odd that people feel like celebrating life so much (or maybe it is odd that some of us celebrate life so little). the lament in the last line of your post is well taken. the seeming lack of an aesthetic sense, especially when it comes to living daily life, is appalling. and especially in prosperous western cultures. while it is not fun to carry the burden of a too finely developed aesthetic sense - makes one go through life like a jaded zombie - it seems unavoidable.
after thinking about this it seems that my way of staying in tune with clothes as a relevant part of life is to watch young people. they make it seem important and fun and acceptable all at the same time.
see “the devil wears prada”. it makes a valiant attempt at validating the fashion world as it exists today.
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