People seem to be very formally dressed here remarked a friend who was visiting Cyber Hub Gurgaon from Mumbai. I am not, I retorted- pointing at my casual jacket, jeans and green sports shoes look! As we laughed and moved over to other conversations, the spike of my feet kept me beaming from pride. I couldn’t really pin point whether the reason was the comfort of my shoes or my “I-don’t-care-how-others-dress” attitude.
Sports shoes is the best footwear ever and how I wish I could be in them everywhere I went- From office to shopping malls, to fine dining restaurants, to even night clubs! A pair, which was presumably bought to ensure I follow my exercise routine, turned out to my biggest fashion blooper every time I step out of home!
For all the stares I get, for all the questions I get asked, for all the “out-of-place” feeling my heart invokes, I pause today and ask- who is the owner of the invisible board that reads “not allowed” for my sports shoes when it’s worn in all those places I mentioned above?
Why are Punjabi aunties who wear shoes with their salwar-kameez made a joke of?
Why is being fashionable with the best looking shoe considered more pious than being practical?
Corporate world is shifting from a formal dress culture to a casual one, meaning employees can choose to dress the way they want in office. People walking in casual chappals and torn jeans is an accepted norm these days. So when the big, huge, dynamic world of corporate honchos agree that dressing is no way the reflection of a person’s character or performance, why can’t society at large? Why a woman should be judged as “Low-society” or “Oh, she lacks fashion sense” when she dodges her high heels for a comfortable pair of shoes, because dancing in high heels could be more detrimental than being called the fashion perfect diva!
During a recent international trip, I got into a similar argument with my husband. Expecting his wife to match the dressing standards of the European tourists there, he casually remarked, “In Rome, do as Romans do”. And I said, “If seeing me, 5 more girls step out casually tomorrow, it would be a different Rome!”
I say that, because I believe that if everyone starts giving importance to being comfortable and practical while choosing what to wear, rather than what is “expected” to be done, then the number of people who would “expect” you to wear high heels would anyway become a minority!
I know my rants are limited to a very few like-minded women. Most of my gender equivalent lovelies like dressing up and so do I. But in my mind, being practical comes a few notches above “following the herd”.
One approach is obviously not to care what the world thinks and do what you feel like. However, the problem with that approach is that you would always be the “odd-one-out”. So, in an attempt to grow the population that believes that wearing your most comfortable pair should precede your most fashionable pair, I sign off!
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