A la mode!
Khalid Saleem
One of the minor joys of living in Islamabad is the welcome opportunity
it affords one of enjoying long and pleasant walks early in the morning,
especially as the winter sets in. Islamabad is a trifle ahead of the
southern areas in so far as the onset of winter is concerned. So,
theoretically at least, one has longer occasion to enjoy this rather
pleasurable interlude leading up to the winter season. Allow one to
hasten to clarify that it is not at all one’s intention to dwell on the
vagaries of the weather. What is of interest rather is what one gets to
enjoy - free of cost - as a corollary of the changing weather.
So here goes! It so came to pass that in the course of one such
pleasurable walk one came face to face with a phenomenon that had
hitherto escaped one’s attention and one that one had hitherto given
little thought to. It all began when one came across two rather smug and
comfortable looking ladies engaged in the leisurely pursuit of sweeping
the road – yes, Islamabad persists with the traditional practice of
entrusting this important function to members of the fair sex. The first
thing one noticed, then, was that the duo were operating at that
indolent pace and rhythm that comes only after years of honest - though
hardly intense - toil. The road was being swept as per regulations but
not without the ladies leaving their distinct imprint on the whole
exercise. But one is digressing once again. On the occasion under
reference, it was not the ladies’ work rhythm that attracted one’s
particular attention, remarkable though it was in itself. What struck
one straightaway was the manifest fact that the two ladies were wearing
what in the Western world have come to be recognized as ‘designer
sweaters’. There was no mistaking the texture, the design and the
outlandish pattern that have all become the hallmark of the ‘Rich and
Famous’ in the so-called developed world. And what is more, the brace of
ladies in question were carrying it off as if it was just another day in
their checkered life.
Presently, the two ladies were joined by a middle aged male colleague,
who – going by his (you guessed it!) designer sweater - could easily
have passed off as the indigenous version of an aging Hollywood actor.
This set one a’thinking. Had we in the Land of the Pure, unbeknown to
the common man, been overtaken by an Industrial Revolution of sorts,
wherein fashionable apparel was being mass-produced at affordable
prices? Or, had our blessed working classes struck it rich, thanks to
the intricate web of statistics - based on macro and micro policies of
the financial wizards – as woven by our indefatigable planners? It was
nothing that exciting, regrettably, though. A quick and short enquiry
revealed the mundane truth that the designer apparel in question had
been procured at the ‘itwaar bazaar’ at what can only be described as
throw-away prices.
Thanks to our second-hand clothes’ markets (in some cities known by the
rather catchy nomenclature of ‘lunda bazaar’) our working classes have
found fashion within their reach, at least during the harsh winter
months. This weighty discovery had the effect of stimulating one’s
thought process. The ‘Rich and Famous’ of the Western world spend
virtually small fortunes on purchasing so-called designer clothing just
so that these garments would set them apart from the common herd. And
thanks to their ‘wear and quickly discard’ habits the unwashed of the
developing world get to steal a few moments of glory among their peers.
Let’s look back a bit in recent history. It so happened that the great
revolution of the ready-to-wear garment industry in the developed world
had resulted in the mass production of middling quality garments. This
had the effect of bringing the prices down to within the reach of the
working classes, thereby prompting the ‘Rich and Famous’ to look for
alternate sources for their wherewithal. Their only - and modest -
desire was basically to be (or at least to look) different from the
herd. As a consequence, then, whereas the working classes managed the
means to pick up their suits and sweaters from outlets such as Marks and
Spenser, the upper classes started opting for bespoke tailoring and the
designer stuff.
So much for the developed Western world! The situation in countries such
as ours, one notices, was somewhat different - in fact, reversed.
Whereas the ‘great unwashed’ wear the designer stuff (courtesy the good
old lunda bazaar), our upper classes proudly flaunt their wealth by
making a beeline for the ‘imported’ Marks and Spenser genre. The
underlying idea, nevertheless, is the same: that is to look different
from the multitude and to stand out in the crowd. One man’s meat is
another man’s poison as they say; or is it the other way around?
Fashion, as it has come to be called, is ephemeral - fleeting. The
desire to be different and to look different, though, is engrained in
human nature. It has always formed part of what can be identified as the
class struggle among the homo-sapiens. It has not been highly thought of
by most intellectuals, though. The bard of Avon said (in Much Ado about
Nothing): “I see that the fashion wears out more apparel than the man”.
Oscar Wilde was even harsher when he wrote. “Fashion is a form of
ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months”.
Fashion, in other words, is nothing more than the coarse art of staying
a step ahead of the multitude - in appearance at least. By the time the
common folk catch up with a fashion (thanks to the hardworking
plagiarists), it is time for the select band to move on to greener
pastures, if that is the phrase one is looking for.
In the Land of the Pure, today, money reigns supreme. It is their
wealth, rather than fashion sense, that our haves like to flaunt. This
explains the abundance of shops selling (smuggled?) foreign apparel that
have spawned around the country like wild mushrooms after the rains.
These shops stock items of the Marks and Spenser genre plus plagiarized
designer models from the underground factories of East Asia, all selling
at staggering prices. Money is no consideration for our nouveaux riches,
though, and thus the cult of pseudo-fashion flourishes in this land of
pseudo egos. Money, however, cannot buy everything – at least that is
what conventional wisdom says.
There exists another class of society that, though somewhat handicapped
by a dearth of financial means, has managed to stay a step ahead of the
moneyed class, at least in terms of sartorial elegance. There is, after
all, a certain élan - sartorial and otherwise – that just cannot be
quantified in terms of cash. And thereby hangs the tale of the age-old
struggle between the relatively impoverished but snobbish traditional
and the affluent but vulgar social climber. But that, as they say, is
another story!
|
