Getting Down to Fashions!

Coco Chanel, French fashion designer, says, Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street; fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening. Fashion has been with us since the beginning of time. As human, we like to look nice and we, more importantly, like to be told that we look nice. There are some of people who do not care about what clothes they wear, but many millions still chase the fashion horse as if their lives depend upon it. Fashion is a form of free speech. It not only embraces clothing, but also accessories, jewellery, hairstyles, beauty and body art. What we wear and how and when we wear it, provides others with shorthand to subtly read the surface of a social situation. If we take a closer look back into the history, we can see from the Egyptians to the Greeks and on to the Roman civilizations that fashion took a central place. From simple loin clothes to elaborate shawls and jewellery, early cultures had their own styles that attracted the eyes and attention of many. Even the feet were paid attention too, with many cultures having delicately patterned shoes and slippers. Even in Asia, fashion was also a part of every day life, with the Chinese having some of the most elaborate and delicately woven silks known to man. Infact, silk became such a commodity that a silk route was opened up from Greece and Italy through Persia and onto China to make sure silk could find its way to Europe. New generations all over the world are day by day becoming more fashion conscious. They want to dress themselves in the most modern designs of the latest fashion. The youngsters are crazy after fashions. The latest fashion is to wear uni-sex dresses and shoes which can be worn both by boys and the girls. The students are the most fashion conscious persons in the society. As for the students in Pakistan, they have become quite fashionable these days. In a college or university campus, one can find both the girls and the boys students dressed in all types of trendy clothes. No doubt, it is an age of fashions. Generally those students, who spend a lot of time to make themselves look stylish, do not take their studies seriously. They have no time even to remove dust settled on their books. Some

students have also a misconception that fashion only means wearing expensive clothes and other costly things. Very expensive clothes do not make a person modish. One can look elegant and voguish in simple clothes also. Indeed, simplicity is the best fashion. Fashions can be used for anythingfor dress, for hairstyle, shoes, manners or etiquettesin almost all spheres of life. Some persons may be crazy to wear stylish clothes and shoes, others to keep fashionable hairstyles, or to keep an expensive library, while others may adopt fashion in their speech and manners. Again, in fashion nothing is stable and everlasting. Here everything changes swiftly like the law of nature. But astonishingly, during the past few years, it seems that things have not only undergone a change but actually taken a one-eighty (180) degrees turn. These days, in Pakistan, with the idea of being fashionable and modern, is attached the concept of being Western. With the drift of globalization, such trends have appeared that are vehemently against our Eastern traditions, customs and values. We indeed have proved ourselves in the fields of science and technology but when it comes to morality, cultural values and respect, we have not fared well. In case of boys, with fashions are attached torn stone-wash jeans, hanging down from the hips, lousy T-shirts with silly slogans, gelled and spiked untwined hair, a ping of Western pop singing and sleek, wealthy and au courant girl friends. As far as girls are concerned, for them the meaning of fashion is none other than wearing caprice pants accompanied with short T-shirts exposing the midriff, lot of lip-gloss and mascara, high heels with pointed toes and trendy hair died in strange and horrible colours. These adolescents are such personalities having no roots in tradition. They are aliens to this society and its cultural norms. So, it is a bitter and harsh reality that we people are madly and thoughtlessly chasing the norms of Western society. We are far away from our religion. The most deplorable fact is that we tend to adopt only the negative aspects of Western society and ignore the positive ones. If they go for skimpy clothing, we start exposing our bodies too. If they do not respect and obey their parents, we start crooning parents just dont understand. We are well-aware of the Western fashion, movies and music and follow the same, but when the matter arrives at scientific advancements, we only observe the latest gadgets but never ever try to apply our minds in order to produce a better or even similar one at home.

Eastern culture is one of the richest cultures around the globe. Our dresses, desi cuisine, classical music and moral ethics are remarkable. But, west never borrows anything from our magnificent Eastern civilization. We may live in a modern age but some things should never change. Otherwise, the consequences are extremely destructive. Fashions spread very quickly around us but being Muslims, we should be on our guard. Our religion teaches us to live and lead a simple and clean life. We should not follow the ways of other nations. We should follow the teachings of Islam. We should decide and comprehend what is right and what is wrong. We should value our Eastern traditions and stop following unkempt Western society blindly. It is time to understand the true meaning of fashions and undoubtedly modernization and isolate them from Westernization. For after all, fashions and modernization are essential for survival in the world but Westernization is not at all. Pakistan is an ideological state. It has its own ideology and identity. We must keep this factor in mind while adopting any aspect of fashions.