Tuesday, September 29, 2015

The Social Facets of Clothing


There was a time when clothes were worn just for covering our skin from external weather conditions. But times have since changed. The first striking feature of a person living in today’s society is the attire that he/she sports. Thanks to the developments in the apparel segment world over coupled by wide publicity, most of the people are conscious about what they are wearing. They want their character to be projected to outside world just by means of their clothing. It is no way an exaggeration to tell that the modern day’s clothing has turned out to be a testimonial of a person’s thoughts!  


Some clothes provide ‘identity’ to a person – like a Brahmin can be identified with a dhoti and ‘Yagyopaveet’ (sacred thread); police personnel, nurses, fire personnel, etc. can be identified with their respective uniforms; and, so on.  Such personnel are recognised not by their name but purely by their attire.


Fashion has invaded every noticeable industry and apparel industry, in particular, that we now see countless styling patterns in whatever we wear, right from a cap to a shoe. The choice is made by a person depending on what suites him/her the best. But this very ‘choice’ has stirred up a hornet’s nest in today’s society.  
                                          

‘Comfortability’ has a red line:

             There is a section of people that talks about the factor of ‘comfortability’, mostly as an excuse for what they are wearing. But comfortability has a definite limit in today’s society. None is living in an absolutely goon-free society. This mask of comfortability has the potential to raise the eyebrows of these goons and provoke them to cause harm to people, particularly to, female gender. Of course, whatever clothes that we wear should be comfortable on us but not at the cost of our very own precious lives.


              Here, the question of ‘gender’ arises because there exists gender based clothing and provocative clothing has a definite place in it. It is wise to refrain ourselves from picking up such clothes lest there is a trouble that one always carries in one’s pocket. Ultimately, the clothing is a necessity but not a show of obscenity!


Clothes are deceptive:

             Clothes can conceal the deceptive thoughts of a person. One cannot become a ‘gentleman’ or a ‘gentlelady’ merely by their attire. They can be ascertained only by their thoughts and actions. There are myriad of incidents where in a gentleman by dress turned out be a real villain at the end and vice versa. So, attire is not at all a parameter to judge a person’s temperament. 

                                                            
              There is also another sect of people who say, “Attire is not what matters, but it is the attitude that matters the most”. They are right until they do not cross the boundaries set by our society. This doctrine is employed by some of the globally top corporates while recruiting their employees, albeit in different forms, like conducting a personality test, stress interview, etc... In such situations, clothing is irrelevant, it is only how you project yourself with your thoughts and actions that matters.


               Clothing is among one of the ‘basic needs’ of a human. But the need should never become one’s frailty and that depends on one’s perspective and ideology of looking at things!



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