A renowned international supermodel made news for all the wrong reasons recently. She arrived at a party with her tresses looking suspiciously fuller, and was instantly the centre of speculation and much envy. As the evening came to an end, it soon came to light that the locks did not belong to her. She was left red-faced when her false hair-extensions fell out in front of a crowd of eagerly clicking news-reporters and happy people who were envying her just a while ago.
What could have been the reason for sticking false hair onto her hair? Perhaps the fashion pundits declared that long tresses are “in” this season. So our supermodel decided to just stick some on, to portray the semblance of long hair, rather than wait for her real hair to grow that long. Who knows, by the time she would get around to growing out her own rather short hair, flowing tresses would be passe and short hair would be uber-cool instead. So what better, than an instant and temporary solution if it allows you to appear fashionable, eh?
I guess beauties do need to stay in touch with the latest fashion trends, as fashion gets beauties noticed and beauties get fashion noticed in return.
Fashion gets beauties noticed
The right fashion encases beauties, presenting them as even more beautiful and glamorous. Take the case of ravishing model, actress, business woman and now, swimwear designer Elizabeth Hurley, or Liz Hurley as she is more popularly known. She was a virtual nobody till she slipped her shapely form into a Versace dress ingeniously designed with large gold safety pins holding it together and accompanied then boyfriend, actor Hugh Grant, to the premier of his film. Well, no one spoke about the film or Grant because Liz and her outfit were the only things that made headlines the very next day.
Men instantly adored her and almost certainly wished that the safety pins would have come undone. Women instantly abhorred her and surely wished the safety pins would have come undone, and stab her till she bled to death. After all, who would imagine that a chic dress designed with few fashionably and strategically placed safety pins would change a person’s life in just one evening?
Fashion influences the common man too
If you thought that only celebrities take fashion seriously, you couldn’t be further from the truth. There are many people who religiously update their wardrobes in accordance to the dictates of fashion pundits.
If red is declared to be the new black, their wardrobes are instantly splashed a vivacious crimson. And as if to make up for the festivity of wearing a bright colour for an entire season, the wardrobes are soon just about mourning the next season with grey, which has now been declared the new black. And when the fashion pundits are bored of spinning the colour wheel to choose a fashion colour, black is finally declared the new black yet again.
However, the return of this colour of mourning is surprisingly almost always a celebration, as it cleverly camouflages the unwanted layers of guilty indulgences on all shapes. Besides being known as the “safest” colour of the palette as one can almost never go wrong with it. What with the fashion mantra being “When in doubt wear black.”
Wearing colours that are in fashion is somewhat acceptable, even if certain colours might make some resemble an exotic bird. It’s when people blindly follow fashion trends in clothing, that it gets visually disturbing. Very recently cigarette pants, or skinny pants as they are called, were very “in”. As the name suggests, they are awfully slim and form-fitting pants, which look really great on skeletons or similarly formed bodies. But it is an assault to the senses to see women shaped closer to a cigar wearing them, or rather bursting through and spilling out of them. I guess if you follow fashion blindly, you stop seeing how it looks on you or to people looking at you.
Sole of fashion
Colours, apparel and styles are all very well but the soul of fashion for most women lie in, the sole. Yes, shoes feature right on top on most women’s wish-lists. The latest styles, and where to acquire them are discussed almost religiously. Women proudly strut about in the latest style of heels that are referred to as ice-pick heels or the t-bar heels [they aren’t called stilettos any longer, dahlin] and then go home and nurse swollen feet and aching calves.
Why do women’s souls lie in their soles? Because shoes don’t have prejudices, they don’t require their wearer to be thin or tall, beautiful or rich. And why do women have to have so many shoes, in spite of having just two feet? Because someone once rightly said “Really and truly you can never have too many pairs; they are all different. You need a pair for every mood – and everyone knows that women have a lot of different moods.”