JOIN USGoing through your wardrobe every morning can be as gargantuan a task as getting to the Everest Base Camp some days. While you aren’t probably running on a treadmill everyday and getting used to high altitudes in preparation, the couple of steps it takes to open those doors are much shorter than the time it takes to find something you want to wear. There are probably a few occasions (you can actually count them on your fingers), for which you have clothes pre-planned and sorted. And though it is a lot easier if you just pick the first shirt off your shelf, there is always the risk that your colleague could turn up in the same shade of pink or, heaven forbid, the same shirt.
Standing out
There are moments when it does matter, for example if your clothes happen to match the apparel of the waiters at a restaurant where you’ve dropped in for lunch. Blending in, is suddenly too much of an issue.
Similar shirts are sometimes not such a bad idea; all that matters is how straight you stand and how high you hold your head up. Here’s where it might start to count about where you got that shirt from and what material it is made of. While bespoke clothes and high prices don’t necessarily guarantee good quality and vice versa, it’s about that crisp white shirt that doesn’t look pale pink at a board meeting. It’s about how straight you stand in those trousers and not having to hold your breath most of the day to keep the buttons from popping.
Finding, and keeping your sense of style is much easier said than done today. With high-street fashion from across the world now available at your closest mall, and even online if you don’t want to drive, getting what you want is no longer about cutting out pictures from a magazine. The lines between high-street and designer are now so blurred that there is often not too much of a difference in how much you spend on either. ‘Designer’ brands now mass-produce their collections and most of them are available at the click of a mouse. Exclusivity is no longer the name of the game. Besides, how much you spend on your everyday clothes is not necessarily a reflection of who you are. More than anything, what you spend is not directly proportional to how good you look or feel.
Staying stylish
There is the dilemma of whether you should wear an item off the rack from a high-street store, or whether you should pick that exclusive designer who will get your clothes designed and made exactly to your measurements. There’s always the underlying feeling that you’re at your best when you’re comfortable and poised, and this is usually when what you’re wearing is not over-the-top or prickly.
New Delhi-based designer, Mrinalini Gupta, who has showcased her collections at the Lakmé India and Wills Lifestyle Fashion Weeks for years now, believes in stress-free fashion, relaxed layering and structure. “Through the ages, women have been making themselves uncomfortable for fashion. My philosophy of clothes is to express and not impress. I want my clothes to imply effortless ease as opposed to constructed glamour. Hence, the fabrics fall languidly and the silhouettes are relaxed and easy to inspire a sense of flow.”
Comfort first
And here’s an approach that suddenly makes a lot more sense than spending all your savings on one little black dress. It’s how you feel in the clothes you wear that makes you who you are and clearly not the other way around.
Haute couture is not something everyone can aspire to wear every day, but finding your own version of it is not difficult. Figure out what fabric keeps you comfortable and yet makes you feel like a million bucks. Choose the cut of clothes that works best for you, and high-street or not, get clothes that fit right. Shakespeare undoubtedly got it right decades ago when he said, “the apparel oft proclaims the man.”
More often than not, it’s not what you spend on but how you wear it that counts. Inexpensive basics, when well-accessorised, create a unique and well-defined look that adds character to whatever you’re wearing. Besides, from Homer’s Odyssey to The Devil Wears Prada, the impact of fine clothes and bling has not been lost on society.
Hand-sewn or machine-printed -- what matters at the end of the day is how comfortable you are in what you’re wearing and how confident you feel in those high heels. Find your groove, wear clothes that represent who you are, and stick to that. It is, after all, not what you wear that counts, but how you wear it.