Fashion: In tune with the times

The transformative power of fashion is often seen as frivolous but trends are heavily influenced by the by the surrounding times

Fashion is in a good mood. The colour of the season is a bright happy sunshine yellow. Amid a pandemic, with inactivity, social isolation, pain and many losses that befell us last year, the bright hue comes as a golden balm soothing our many wounds. The new year brings with it hope and fresh optimism. From little lemon-yellow dresses, canary flowing maxis, to chartreuse billowing gowns and mustard gold sarees, 2021 will bolster up our flagging spirits.

Some believe fashion is all fluff and flakey and does not serve a serious purpose.

What with that long-drawn debate about a hemline or a shade of lipstick! For fashion naysayers, these are not real challenges of day-to-day living and do not influence any kind of human progress. But interestingly, fashion trends are born out of charged social, political and economic environment. As a need or response to the times we live in, fashion designers quickly interpret these phenomena and paint it in the language of colour, texture, print and sartorial details.

Fashion is then used as a transformational tool to uplift, heal, connect, empower, be inclusive and inform.

A visual that gets enough said without a single word being spoken. In really hard times, the role of fashion is to comfort, through texture, form and detail. In these unprecedented times, fashion sends you the sartorial equivalent of a big warm hug! Do accept with grace and style.