Fashion

Bernard Shaw wrote in his famous play 'Man And Superman'; 'Decency is the indecency's conspiracy in silence. In the same way 'fashion' is the word that covers every possible craze of a particular age (how insensible it may be) in sophisticated glamour. When handsome and charming Lord Byron, who walked with a limp, started writing poetry; it became a fashion all over England to walk with a slight limp.

The word 'fashion' is usually related to dress, but it also relates to manners and ways of behavior. With the fast-growing consumerist culture-every thing which is advertised in a glamorous and charming manner-becomes fashion. For example, the advertisements for ice-creams are so attractive that nowadays it has become a fashion to have ice cream in elegantly decorated ice cream parlors.

During our independence struggle, it was a fashion to wear khadi and speak Hindi. The British Raj faded but the relics of its past were so fascinating that speaking English came into vogue. But nowadays, when our culture has shaken hands with western culture, the use of a queer mixture of both languages has become a 'fashion'.

This can be implied in many aspects of socio-economic life. Where does the 'fashion' originate? It fact originates in the minds of great economic authorities of society, who influence society in every possible way in the market, by producing new goods, in the field of media, etc. Middle and low-class people are simply hypnotized by whatever they want to feed to our bodies and mind.

Since fashion keeps changing, it expands our area of wants and desires. It is not a bad thing to be influenced by any 'fashion' but one should always try to find out the logic behind that 'fashion' so that one could not become a mere victim of the consumerist culture by spending money on every possible new 'Craze'.