By Srishti Chauhan:
Some time ago, when actor Sonam Kapoor’s film Aisha released a lot was said about how the movie lacks a storyline and all that the director focused on was styling and presentation. More recently, the same actor has been at the receiving end of a lot of flak at chat shows where other members of Bollywood have been “advising” her to focus more on acting and less on upholding her image as the “fashionista”.
On a completely contrasting note, actor Vidya Balan has always been a victim of fashion disasters. Receiving constant criticism for her clothes the actor had to publicly make a statement that said “I am an actor. There is more to me than my clothes that people should focus on.”
This, and more, got me thinking as to how much fashion is too much? Should people be allowed to judge and criticize how you dress and how much you dress up?
A while ago, when Hollywood actor Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise’s 3-year old daughter Suri was seen wearing high heels; both actors were frowned upon by the world as a whole. Most people were of the opinion that a child as small as Suri has no business wearing heels. Newspapers were flooded with pictures of Holmes carrying the tired child in her arms and with articles by health experts saying how it is absolutely unadvisable for a child her age to wear heels. This raises some questions about the fashion sense of the actors Holmes and Cruise. Is it necessary for the child to dress like a grown up for her to match the fashion echelon of her parents?
Singer Britney Spears has been in the limelight for wearing “itsy- bitsy” shorts and shirts with “popping” buttons. Self-proclaimed fashion experts condemn her for being a mother of 2 and wearing clothes like she’s fresh into her teens. On similar lines, actor Lucy Liu was denounced for dressing like a “marshmallow” at an awards function. Closer home, actor Urmila Matondkar was claimed to be wearing a dress which looked like a “dead parrot” by a leading fashion magazine.
These examples may make one feel that since these are famous names and are always in the limelight so people automatically acquire the right to act as fashion advisories to them — free of cost. If so, think again. How many times have you commented on a random person walking on the street or someone you saw in the mall regarding how they have dressed up?
In these times, we have lost the right to dress as we like. Now, a person who is most comfortable wearing loose kurta-pyjama will have to don a suit because that it what is expected of him and that is what he must do.
How much fashion analysis is too much fashion analysis? Is it okay? Is it not? Are we being wrong in doing it? Are we being right? Well, these are answers we may never get. For now, check out some fashion magazine and see who’s doing what wrong and who got what right!!