Are People Really Looking At You?

The question I have raised here is in itself a pertinent answer to the age-old enigma of haute couture. As people walk around in their opulent dresses, both men and women, hoping to be looked at and admired, their dresses become an eyesore to everyone.

“Let me go to the party or gathering this evening with this particular dress on so that people around me will look at me or see me in full admiration!”

The imagination goes on: “Let me outshine everyone today! People will really find me handsome or pretty, and I will be the centre of attraction today! Goodness me!”

A notion of this kind is justifiable as it satisfies them to a great extent because they feel that they have chosen the correct dress at the pertinent time, although this could prove to be a conceit that deludes him/her into believing that he/she is important among people around them. This, however, is a hidden reality because human eyes will always admire the nifty dresses of people around them.

Premitive fashion trends

In order to talk about the present, it becomes mandatory for all of us to think about and ponder the way the early cavemen, women, and children concealed their bodies with the skins of animals and even with leaves and tall grasses. This vividly reveals the fact that the prehistoric animals placated these cave dwellers with something to put their bodies under wraps, and as such, they were benighted, having no knowledge of anything except making a living by hunting and using animal skins as their daily haute couture without much care about what they had put on.

Then, as knowledge progressed and people became conscious of their livelihoods, they opened up new vistas of their way of thinking about their dress culture and so on. Wrap yourselves up in the best possible way!

Here, gradually, a sense of competition arose among them to “wrap” their bodies with the best possible dresses they could have their hands on. 

In this way, textile mills sprung up like mushrooms following the industrial revolution, and with the rise of added textile amenities, people gradually started working in various sectors to earn money for their wants and needs, not forgetting the flexible ways of wearing dresses of their choice in order to adapt to the societal demands of the day. By any means, these early garments could have been used for protection from the elements and fit modestly, not as dresses of competition but as a compulsion to neatly cover up their bodies.

Wrap culture changes 

By virtue of the advancement of technologies and the sudden change of “wrap culture” or "vogue,” as you call it, textile manufacturers started resorting to the big business of dress designing for both men and women who hoped to swoon around in public, totally transforming haute couture, and the changed societal norms compelling everyone to believe in the notions of the Germans telling the world, “Kleider machen Leute!” (Dresses make people) signalling towards people who gladly put on attractive dresses. The saying holds true in every respect of its interpretation. Therefore, dress-making people and people-making dresses are two different aspects of textile reality. The very stigma of dresses making people and dresses not attracting people is often confronted by the argument that expensive and stellar dresses are understood as being mandatory to attract large crowds of people. 

Reason 1: People’s aptitude towards preening themselves with various kinds of dresses worn to steal the eyes of onlookers is not just a mirage to showcase what type of dress you are wearing but also to keep the eyes rolling to appreciate the way you have wrapped yourself.

Reason 2: Dresses are seen or understood as qualifying factors of one’s personality among people who see you in your best possible appearances in public in general, but you never know that the public bypasses you with just a glance by not taking note of your “wraps” but to see whether they are your acquaintances or friends by not saying hello to your dresses but to you. Here's Snow White’s stepmother asking the mirror on the wall: “Mirror, mirror on the wall! Tell me who’s the most beautiful of all.”

Had she had no clothes on—naked,  as we call it—she would not have dared to ask this question to the mirror on the wall. Since her haute couture was so perfectly designed to align with her attire and her hair was as black as those of the raven’s wings, she knew that the mirror would not tell her any lies.

So, please decide on your own whether the dress is being extolled here or simply the biological textile “skin” that tells about your looks. This fact can be debated.

Reason 3: Groups of beauties and the whole bunch of cuties look for the endorsement of the dresses they put on and always aspire for societal recognition, but this does not happen as expected. Here, the psychology of the well-dressed differs from ordinary dresses to a large extent because the disparity between looking handsome or beautiful is far beyond the concept of certification. After all, who is going to care about that?

No matter how well a person is dressed, that cannot seamlessly transition into a sensation because the onlookers have no time to stop by and admire your dresses as if they have no other things to do. Do not worry! You are still a pretty girl, a woman, a lady, and also a handsome-looking young boy and a man. Just be proud of who you are!

Rubberneckers going around admitting the dress attic are hard to find these days. However, people with a braggart attitude towards their dress appearances can be found in our society at all times.

Fashion designers

While reading this article, please have the goodness to exclude fashion designers and their stakeholders. Fashion designers, in my opinion, are generally not attractive people, but their ingenuity and craftsmanship can turn people into sensations with their creative knowledge. Hence, they are simply traders in fashion, and about fashion, I am not talking here.

Are people really looking at you?

The answer is once again “yes”! So be careful! They are just “seeing” you and, at the same time, looking at you. So, next time, if you ever decide to go to a wedding party or attend an occasion of opulence or high societal gatherings in your most attractive dresses, be sure that you are the embodiment of your dresses and yourself. It is just the kind of bypass surgery that enables you to wear neat and attractive dresses without causing any harm to yourself. 

I read the following in one brief article, and here is an excerpt!

In that, the following question was asked:

“Do people notice you if you dress well?”

The short answer is “yes”! Your appearance greatly affects how people view you. Studies show that well-dressed people are more confident and respected by their colleagues. They are powerful and pay careful attention to detail.” Yes! I will not, in any case, give the above opinion a blue ribbon of stupidity, nor shall I refute the ideas expressed therein.

My argument here is not the glory of well-dressed people I want to talk about but the kind of feeling that normally gets generated when he or she feels while walking past the gatherings. If you ask me, I will still cherish seeing men dressed in britches and ironed shirts and women wearing laced corsets and satin shoes like they did in the 19th century. This is now not possible at all because people have already embarked on a new territory of dress ethics.

Glorious national costumes

It always evokes a sense of pride and nationalism when our Nepali men and women proudly cocoon themselves in their traditional outfits, which they normally do on all occasions. Some dress or haute couture statistics reveal that most of the flamboyantly dressed people do not believe in wrapping themselves tight; rather, they prefer to compete with others with the impacted body-exposed dresses, and many do not want to taste defeat in their dressings and appearances either. 

In a smooth and well-crafted, easy-to-follow narrative, criticising the dresses sometimes and even being abusive will not make any difference here because the right to gain access to and wear any kind of dress is inherent in everybody  and that does not impede the prevailing norms of the given dress codes of the countries concerned. One thing is for sure: the profanity in dressing and bedizen dresses cannot be by all means attractive to decent dress-loving people.

Whispers of appreciation

In my personal opinion, people with any outfit should try to captivate whispers of appreciation around them and not frown upon them in any given circumstances. This point could be up for debate! Bravo to those people in society who dream of making it big when it comes to career-making by virtue of their dresses and do not hesitate to go beyond mining emotional depths in order to fulfil their cherished dreams of looking good at all times. However, there is a danger when this is seen through the lens of simplicity and joy, when their impulsiveness often leads them to make bad choices about the dresses they are going to wear, failing which their entire choices could get tinged with melancholy.

One thing is for sure: no dress has yet been introduced that would catapult men and women alike to the “edge of their seats," except in cases of national and international beauty contests and the glory-wearing of the time-honoured national dresses. These do not need any compromises to be made, nor do they call for any criticism in the true sense of the term. People will waste no time admiring the myriad national costumes of the world because these are dresses you do not wear every day. They will make people swoon around, as they are the weights of national identities.

People will look at you

Next time, if you attend any public gatherings with an exception to national celebrations, please do not expect that people will come just to look at you. They will see you too. That’s it!

On the other hand, you cannot attend parties and celebrations like the way the cavemen and cavewomen dressed themselves up in those pre-historic times anymore, except for go-as-you-like parties and celebrations. Here, people will certainly love to see you and even look at you if you come to the gatherings with full admiration, believing that you have brought a piece of clothing history with you for people to look at and admire.

Personal style

Next time, if you ever attend a public gathering, it is advisable to put on neat and benevolent dresses befitting your skin and personality. You should be seen and looked at, and if this does not happen, then you do not have to have a brush with self-destruction.

While writing this article, I did feel that I was going too far in dictating how one should generally dress up, but my inner intuition is encouraging me to admire the go-as-you-like dresses as being the intimate choices of people with whom I have more or less nothing to do at all! No infringement on the right to dress of others! Still, it is quite advisable to be in the grip of haute couture, which definitely puts you in the glow of your personality.

Confidence

Confidence is yet another aspect that emanates among well-dressed people by even becoming infectious and attractive at all times. People who are beautifully wrapped are often, without doubt, associated with impeccable grooming and hygiene demeanours.

While reading this article, you may have a barrage of questions regarding my fanatical enthusiasm for talking about dresses other than arguing about things that are far more important and conspicuous in our society. 

Having said this, I am not petrified at all by my arguments here when I am respecting the haute couture of everyone in the society we live in, and this makes me as “happy as a clam” in doing so! I would still lay stress on the fact that there should not be an undertone of regret in the things you do with your dresses.

Cultural fusion

Most importantly, we cannot combine the definitions of regular dresses and national costumes. National dresses reflect our society, and they visually represent our values, beliefs, attitudes, and, above all, patriotism and national identity. These cannot be commented upon and compromised with, as the traditional dresses are deeply rooted in historical authenticity by incorporating the dress culture of the nationalities without undergoing significant alterations. Our traditional clothing is a reflection of our cultural heritage and a certification of our identity.

Be sure that you, with your dresses, do not look like “throwing a big chunk of meat to extremely hungry tigers!”

Lastly, please make sure that your dresses are not frowned upon by people uttering

“Textile falling, skin exposing....heeeeeeehee quinki heeeee...qunkihee!”

You do not even have to array yourself in furs and diamonds. Just remain attractive and charming!

Eyes can go really bad at times!

Hence, it is always advisable to maintain a soigné appearance in public at all times!

Finally, as Demi Moore puts it, “Be better to your skin than the dresses you wear because you will wear the skin every day for the rest of your life!” Achtung!

(The author is a former broadcaster of Radio Nepal.)