When flaunting is fashion, fad and fun
After a summer lull, colleges are buzzing back to life. There is an air of excitement at the beginning of a new academic session. The campus is brimming with enthusiastic youngsters.
As I step into college, I find many new faces in colourful and copious attires with anxiety and animation visible in their body language. The sight fills me with pride and delight. Their attires and accessories enthrall me, specially the girls who are dressed in chic and cool style and spirit.
I recall my days in college when we invariably wore salwar-kameez. Many of us wore white salwars, mixing and matching it with different kurtis and dupattas. The ’70s was time for tight-fitting suits. Then came the long kurtis and geniestyle salwars. The ’80s saw churidars and Patiala salwars followed by anarkalis. These suits used to be the basic attire, summer staple and all-time favourite of most of us. Some who were bold and tomboyish wore jeans with short shirts.
Simplicity was the ultimate form of sophistication in those days.
Looking at girls in college in bright and beautiful attires today, I feel a tinge of joy and their energy is somewhat infectious. They zoom past on their two-wheelers and four-wheelers with passion and panache. Their attires have undergone a sea change. The simple salwarkameez has been given a nod, a spandex version, keeping in the spirit of updating and upgrading the suits such as long kurtis with palazzos, trousers, skirts and cigarette pants. They answer ease and elegance. Long floor length anarkalis is the latest addition in style. No doubt, these experiments have enhanced the aesthetic appeal of suits.
Ribbed jeans, short-length capries and high-waist shorts are popular. Plain and unpretentious shirts have been replaced by ones with embellishments, colour-blocking, floral prints that make a style statement, a spectacular spectacle to match contemporary thought and trends.
Youngsters are incredibly fussy about the way they dress up, reminding me of words of the ultimate style icon, Marilyn Monroe: “Style is the way to say who you are without having to speak”.
Flaunting is fashion, fad and fun. Fashion styling is second nature to this generation. Downplayed, scuffed-up versions are injected into looks with deliberate scruffiness, trying new looks and styles.
They want to follow the latest trends, while their parents sometimes prefer conservative clothes. I believe the young generation wants to be recognised as an independent individual with peculiar wants and wishes, dreams and desires, bruises and bumps. Spurring creativity with a courageous crusade, they want to celebrate each milestone with freedom to falter and learn on their own.
Is it not amazing? I feel this change is welcoming as how dull and drab it would be if they too dressed like us and thought like us. I pause and smile, yes it is that time of the year again time to meet new faces in the classroom, time to forge new bonds, time to learn new lessons from my pupils, time to savour the delight, to think afresh, a privilege only energetic and enlightened youth can bring.
I pray to see their wings grow larger everyday and wish for a better world in which they stay.
IT’S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR AGAIN WHEN YOU MEET NEW FACES IN THE CLASSROOM, FORGE NEW BONDS, LEARN NEW LESSONS, THINK AFRESH AND LET THE ENERGY FLOW