Blog@GraceJunction

“Aaj kal key log pehley kapdey dekhtey hey (Nowadays people look first at your clothing)”, says the punchline on a hoarding.

I was wondering what did people look at in earlier days?! Were they looking with eyes that could penetrate into the soul??! Could they see through? Didn’t they look first at clothes too?

Haven’t clothes and apparel always made fashion statements? Haven’t clothes always rode on the winds of change in society? Have they not represented rebellions, revolutions and new worldviews and philosophies? Have not clothes almost always expressed the views and opinions and allegiances of people? Have they not always been associated with bit of controversy?

Clothes are to the eyes, what music is to the ears and food to the taste buds.

Also, clothes, I think have very well represented the state of the mind of mankind throughout history. The state of mind (in a struggle), where a part wants to hide all that is possible and an another part which wants to show off all that it can. The bold and the beautiful have always traversed on the border of both these views often meandering, or to put it more strongly philandering, into the latter than the former!

And since the wearer and the beholder face this struggle and participate in it holding different positions, clothes have always been watched very closely. They have always formed the first impression.

Now coming back to our punchline, I suppose, it should have been written as, “Nowadays people look only at your clothing”. That’s more like a proper representation of our times. It doesn’t matter much how and what you are inside, as long as what you wear makes a statement.

Another punchline from the same company says, “Dekhavey ka zamanna hey, to dikha do (These are the times of showing off, so show off).” This is more apt.

One of the benefits of having a uniform in school, college, companies or even the army is not just for identity and team spirit.

Uniforms, firstly, and very importantly, dilute the economic disparity in peers. Secondly, it makes it more important for each individual to portray his individuality through character, efficiency, creativity, and real content inside him. Lack of uniforms fosters a milieu where much of the statements, impressions and talking is done by the clothes one wears, and there is then no room left or often even needed to show what you really are on the inside. Clothes even decide the cliches.

Now I am not championing the cause of uniforms in colleges or anywhere, although, I feel it is a good to have them, but I really have apprehensions over the shift in our culture and values, where clothes do much of the talking, reducing the wearers to behave more like mobile mannequins! Isn’t that the state of the majority, cutting across societies worldwide!?

Advertisers, are really good at seeing through value changes and the thinking patterns of a generation. They are paid for it and they do get a good job done, almost always. So if they are speaking it, its because a large population is going to buy it. So the increasing presence of more and more advertisements like this is alarming. The person is not valued as much any more as much as what he has and what he wears.

Of course, the champion of this cause in the advertisements is none other than MS Dhoni, the Indian One-day cricket captain, who is valued more for his worth than for his clothes, yet, the trend in general is to form opinions and perceptions based on what is worn.

My friend, among the elite in Mumbai, told me during my recent visit to that city, “Presentation is very important. How you look and what you wear will decide, how much impact you will make!” Good in a way, but yet disturbing in many more ways. 

If only we could see through the clothes, now not as you have perhaps already started thinking, but see through into the inside of a person, value him for what he is and what he is worth, and if only we could see that he perhaps deserves at least as much as what we already have, or atleast even a fraction of it, and if more and more people did it, then world could have been a better place.

But alas, I am sure, that will never happen. Not seeing through the person is paying enough, is pleasurable enough, then why look beyond? Who has time for all that? There is so much happening out there in the world, who has the time to look inside people.

Let’s not forget that this principle applies to one and all. It applies to others. It applies to us. No wonder, though the population of the world is increasing, more and more people are lonely. Let’s not get emotional and forget that some of our priceless life moments were when someone looked through us and saw us and accepted us for what we were/are.

I believe, there is a glimpse of God in each one of us, and a glimpse (or more than a glimpse) of evil too. We need to train our eyes and heart for the former. It is difficult, because the latter is more entertaining, lucrative, tempting, and easy. I use the Bible as a guidebook in my quest. It helps me value individuals more than what they have. What about you? Are you seeing through?

Tags: advertisers, apparel, Bible, Big Bazaar, change, clothes, colleges, culture, Fashion, God, impression, individuality, lonely, mannequins, MS Dhoni, One-day cricket, personality, presentation, rebellion, revolution, see through, show off, Trends, uniforms, value systems

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 3:14 am and is filed under Fashion, Geo, Purpose of Life, Society, Spiritual, Thoughts, Trends, Youth Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.