24.10.08

Designer exploiters

Getting disgusted won’t get me anywhere, but once again something at a fashion show has put me off. Look, why don’t these people stick to their sticks walking the ramp and stop messing around with social issues? The last time I got upset was when they had exploited toilet cleaners; now they are using blind women.

One of them embossed Braille on the front of one garment and the English alphabets at the back. She said, “It is the blind that feel and ‘see’. The ones that have vision are really blind. The blind don’t want compassion, they want respect.”

Is this respect? The bloody gall of designing clothes with Braille. Do they think that the visually impaired are stupid? Do they imagine that they are going to run their hands over their clothes to read about fabric and silhouette and such other details…or is it detailing? And as this picture shows, the blind women are not even wearing the so-called designer clothes; they were brought in as gimmicks.

If you want to help the blind then, even though it sounds insensitive, make your models walk blindfolded. Watch them trip (and please do not try a wardrobe malfunction trick to capitalise on boobless boobs) and then play some violin music to convey tragedy, darken the auditorium and flash the social message - the blind cannot see, but ‘see’.

Damn. They might even take this suggestion seriously.

Another cuckoo case this ‘season’ dealt with the issue of fascism. And how did he convey it? By using Nazi skinheads! As though we don’t have home-grown fascists. Here, too, we cannot get rid of our foreign obsession.

Some are now trying the no-makeup look with models dressed in sack cloth walking barefoot. Honey, if you are so desperate at least make sure the ‘super model’ has nice feet. Stop kidding around. Fashion is about clothes, beauty, upfront physical appeal. Leave the issues for another time.

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This is an extract from an earlier post…Fashion, my foot:

We need to shut shop. This fashion parody has been going on for too long and makes no sense. I believe there was one show where all the male models were dressed as Sikhs because it was a sporting line and Sikhs are sporty! What next, a cocktail line should have Malayalis because they drink like crazy, and a lounge line ought to have Bengalis for they are always lounging?

There is this Bong designer, Sabyasachi Mukherjee. I remember his early days when he would smile and do ordinary things with clothes which made them wearable. Now he talks about using leather and jute and all that crap and he invariably gets the models to look deglamourised in a trendy way – they mostly wear large glasses and bindis with any kind of outfit. It just looks terribly stagey and hardly dramatic.

What is the point being made here? That you can be a plain Jane and carry it off? Who the hell is some designer to convey that? These clothes are pricey and lack basic aesthetics. Talking about silhouettes is not going to change the fact that wearing long tunics over short capris will always make you look like you are a behenji who has rolled up her churidar for a little dip in the beach waters because your shauhar said, “Chalo ji, kuchch paaon tau geele kar lo!”

I am really tired of this….then they go on about cuts and lines. We are Indians; we have curves. Real curves. And we like it. As women. We don’t give a damn what some men, and to hell with designers being gay, want. If you care so much for the flat look then just dress your male models as women, like you made them dress like Sikhs. Not too tough. The androgynous look is what you want, and what you will get.

10 comments:

  1. FV:

    Bingo! fashion without any passion, only as a farce.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Farzana, you seem to have a knack for picking topics that I have violent views on ...thanks ... first of all whats fashion , i guess ways and means of looking better...and trying new things to make the sober human body look different (not neccesarily better) and this has become such a farce that fashion industry doesnt know what they want ....Clothes are making statement so here is my problem with all this...why does a woman's outfit, watch , purse and shoes have to make a statement, nature has given the woman a complete body and a natural flair for style that the two need to complement each other...feminity is a style in itself ..models look so Zomby and drugged that they leave aside the huge tangent of being a woman.In my view, women and men are "look and feel" you cant make a judgement call based on pure looks......sometimes a very very pretty woman will not look attractive and stylish but a usual next door woman would floor you with just with her expressive eyes, hair, words, her intellect and overall persona ...they dont have to be straight out of Die ...made size 10 ...what wrong with a woman size 16 ....women dont need to be gorgeous but very feminine...they had a charm ...the "zomby" models have nothing feminine in them ...

    Second, Men in general are scared of Intelligent woman but not pretty women, intelligent women focus on their intellect and they know their USP is being deep, pretty women are harmless , they are so lost in shades of lip gloss that they dont confront the man intellactually.......that is why rich men marry pretty women ....and organise Fashion Shows ....thats how the rich kid gets the pretty doll :)....Manish

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  3. Since it clearly rubs you up the wrong way, why continue to follow the fashion world? Change the channel/turn the page.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The way you expose hi fi society is sharp.Pg3 is full of this and people think every one is like that.Delhi is worse than Bombay.

    ReplyDelete
  5. PS:

    How do you get the passion in it? Give tips, please:)

    - - -
    Manish:

    Great that you feel so violently about this...ghussa kaayam rakhna.

    I dislike the whole idea of creating uniformity; style and fashion are two different things. few understand that.

    "Men in general are scared of Intelligent woman but not pretty women, intelligent women focus on their intellect and they know their USP is being deep, pretty women are harmless , they are so lost in shades of lip gloss that they dont confront the man intellactually"

    True to a large extent, but I think intelligent women can enjoy their lip gloss and eat it too!
    - - -

    Mask:

    It's a bit more than rubbing me the wrong way, as the phrase is usually used. Going by your advice, I must not write on any of the issues I do because they "rub me the wrong way"...for me, turning the page/channel is tantamount to looking the other way if a crime is being committed.
    - - -
    KB:

    This is the point: It is assumed that many people of a certain class are therefore like this. We are comfortable with herds.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Haha, all I'll say is- up, up and away!

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  7. a teeny weeny correction

    ....and the English alphabets at the back

    There is only one English alphabet and it consists of 26 letters.

    ReplyDelete
  8. mea culpa (latin...)

    I usually take full responsibility only for major errors. Teeny weeny ones...I just took that from the noose-paper and did not put it in quotes.

    You say, "There is only one English alphabet and it consists of 26 letters."

    Even English 'alphabet' is Greek - alpha+beta, and if we include all those other sounds then there would be many more. Like cat would be Kat:)

    Thanks anyway for the kurrecshun

    ReplyDelete
  9. @fv 11/1/08 5:48 PM:

    Touchy, aren't we? Thought you respected feedback.

    Apologies.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hellow!

    I thought I'd just have some fun with words and I genuinely like exploring languages so took off. Pity my attempt at humour made it seem touchy.

    No need for an apology, please.

    Cheers,

    ~F

    ReplyDelete

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