Every few months people will change their ideas as to what is ‘cool’. But surprisingly for something that’s so changeable, they’ll be complete Nazis about whatever the current fad is.
I of course true to form waded into the bell bottoms-resurgence era wearing skinny stretch genes much to the amusement of all. 10 years later when all the women are trotting about ludicrously in skinny jeans and pencil heels (like a troop of hippopotami), it finally registered that the cut I favoured is uncool. My brain of course had processed a decade-old message and as I started flapping around in a pair of bell botts and flip flops it eluded me why there was so much pointed staring at the immediate vicinity of my legs and feet. Strange, I would comment to myself and hurry off, looking like, I presume, Jumbo about to take flight.
Similarly, I’ve bought several pairs of Patiala salwars two months after everyone changed to wearing tights and short kameezes. I coloured my hair the day after black hair became the rage. I’ve discarded my thick frames because they’re broken from all the times I’ve thrust them into my bag because they’re uncool , just when all the hip people start wearing them.
This isn’t me being an iconoclast, this is me never being able to catch up with these furiously changing fashions. So I’ve now decided that the best course is to simply find out what suits your body type, and face and hair and STICK to it, and if they change, change your style accordingly. Thinking back in retrospect, I’ve done justice to that philosophy. When I was skinny and my legs looked good in skinny jeans, I wore them. When I was chubby I wore bell botts. When I had money I coloured my hair. Simple.
So my message is, if you can’t be one of the fashionable people, call them Nazis and be done with it.
Jokes aside, what my actual point is, style should be more about what suits you and your pocket rather than sometimes ridiculous fads that make people look like they’ve come off an assembly line. Also remember, it can’t possibly look UGLY because it was the height of fashion at SOME time, hence MUST be flattering (at least to 80 year old men). Take my jeans example, I was laughed at for my skinny jeans by the same people who I presume are happily preening themselves in a pair right now as you read this.
Similarly in any other sphere of culture. There are some things you take your life into your hands by admitting to enjoy. I enjoy …do I dare? The occasional Britney Spears/Michael Bolton/Backstreet Boys number, especially when I’m er… boogying. Oh, but if I say that in polite company, I only escape being lynched because they’re squeamish about touching my Bell Bottoms (bad fashion sense is contagious by touch).
There are also fashionable books, fashionable movies, etc etc. You HAVE to say you enjoyed Catch-22 whether you actually did or not. Ditto Pulp Fiction.
Well I DIDN’T OK, I DIDN’T, and I LOVE Michael Jackson. Do what you will with me.
