Are people just rich or is this influence? or even worse societal pressure?🤔🤷♀️
What is fashion? You would think the answer to that is pretty obvious. But is it really?Fashion has become one of the only few things Pakistanis ever talk about, especiallyin Karachi. After food, fashion is the only other activity that comes to mind. Cut throatcompetition exists in markets, where all brands come head to head every 3 monthswith a new collection. And people actually buy from all the collections that are putout. Are people just rich or is this influence? or even worse societal pressure?
Societal Pressure to wear new clothes everyday to work is one of the main reasons why these brands have existed and survived the markets for so long. Fashion has an expiry date less than some shelf brought food these days. Women queue up and fight one another at a Sana Safinaz or a Sapphire sale, not because they enjoy making malls a WWE ring but simply because there’s no other way to look good and spend less money at the same time. Some people may argue otherwise but for most people if you’re not wearing a brand why are you even wearing it? It is not only an item of clothing on someone’s back it is their ability to represent themselves as ascertain social class. These practices are more common in younger ages especially teens who just want to appear richer and better among their peers. In a culture where more money means more friends eventually meaning more power, the best way to stand out is to adopt a western lifestyle
, dress like them, talk like them and act like them.
No matter how hot it really is you’d see youngsters wearing tracksuits, sweatshirts, jeans or even boots. I mean the Karachi weather is really not made for wearing boots is it now? Have some mercy on your feet please. Funnily enough, brands like Outfitters, Mango, Mantra etc., actually do produce and market such clothes because they too realize that anything done by the western culture will sell like hotcakes in a Pakistani market. With a top as expensive as minimum 2000 Rs each you’d think the demand would be lower right? No, that’s not the case not even close. Most youngsters would save up money or pressure their parents into giving them the amount to fund such kind of a luxury just to be able to fit in a community. This is one of the sadder yet harsh realities of our society we must face.
The main role in this influence has been made by Media. content which is easily available for everyone to consume. This includes TV series and movies mainly. It is not only restricted to the availability of actual western content, it is also the content that it being put out by Pakistani Media industry. Our media is a by- product or as some would say a rip off version of the content produced in Hollywood.
One of the greatest examples of this is the movie ‘Karachi se Lahore’, where the girl who is supposedly very domesticated and naïve wears thick glasses and Shalwar Kameez but when she wants to look modern and better she is given an outfit change where she then confidently sports denim jeans and a sleeveless top. Being confident is now associated western clothing. Being modern is a direct equivalent of how many English songs one knows. When this content is exposed to younger audiences their mindsets which are still being shaped get shaped with this theory. Which they then later apply to their lives when they grow older. They start to look down on those who don’t adopt the same culture as them. Consider them as somehow being less deserving or of a lower social class. Which has actually developed into being the root cause for stereotypes and bullying even. If someone doesn’t comply to the given sense of fashion style they are either labelled as someone whose an ant conformist or just someone who lacks a fashion sense.
Who would’ve thought this is what fashion really is. A way to label someone for aslong as they spend time with in a certain social environment. Use it as means ofdemoralizing them, instilling a certain image of themselves into their minds. Puttingan unnecessary amount of pressure on people to spend more on their appearances. 🤷♀️
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