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"Sojish , on a scale from 0-10 , you would be somewhere below 4 when it comes to dressing." . Those merciless words of Rani, my presumably decent friend, was reverberating in my ears. She said that , while I was wearing a shirt which was bought just 2 days back. I hate to admit that she hurt me by that piercing criticism. But then, I was no great fan of dressing, neither was I a great fan of Rani. Girls , afterall gets picky of dresses. So I let her words pass through my ears.
Few months later , while returning from a whirlwind bike ride in North India, I was caught infront of Vicky and Abhi. Two friends , who are less than dangerous to hang out with. Abhi was the one who picked up the point again. "Sojish , why do you always dress like this ?" I was wearing a white half-sleeves shirt and jeans , and according to me thats something fashionable. "See, its not okay to wear any dress . You should wear something that fits you.".
Abhi went in and came back with a new white linen shirt which was still in its cover. "Here , wear this. Its tailor made for me by my designer, still it should fit you." I struggled to understand two parts of that sentence . "Tailor made" and "my designer". Uh !! Well, Abhi needs to wear such clothes as his job requires him to socialise. He is a real-estate baron and needs a designer to make sure he gets the attention. Do I need that ?
"Just Shutup and wear the shirt", shouted Vicky. I put the white linen shirt on and felt that its tighter than the ones I usually wear. Abhi & Vicky had different opinions , "Aah , look at you . See the change in your dressing." I looked for that change in a mirror, "All I feel is that, I can take one more mug of beer."
Back in school days, I used to get shouting from my teachers & house captains for my dressing. Dress and dressing was not my area of interests since then. Mr PCN, our English teacher once said, "Dresses are worn by you, not for yourself but for others". I agree completely to that. Thats why I gave dressing and Hindi class, same level of attention. And that would mean, almost nill. Its just pieces of clothes to cover your nudity. Period.
During college days , I used to wear cheap shirts. And the trouser that I wore, never matched the shirt. It was all about, making best use of the money in hand when buying dress. Dressing in the morning was all about the speed in finding a pair of dress from the piles of clothes strewn around the bed. If that didn't work out , its about picking the washed and ironed shirts of the fellow roommates.
I never liked Jeans, so never bothered to buy one. Towards the end of my college days Arun, another crazy friend of mine, forced me to buy one. The only plausible reason for the buy was, Jeans need not be washed. For a bachelor, that is like winning a lottery over and over again. Laundry was for nerds - their only fun activity outside books. The other elite crowd always had a hatred towards washing. Those were days when the elitist of the elitist wore underwear inside out ( fondly referred to as "Side B" ) to escape from washing. Things took a sudden turn in Poornam. I used to sleep on the office sofa (oh , I miss the sofa sleeping ) and go to desk after washing the face. Once Kishore saw me, while I was on the way to my desk. I was wearing a slacky brown shirt, untucked & crumbled so badly. Add to it, the spray from the wash basin had left a lot of dark wet patches all over the shirt. The look on his face said it all. He used to say those days, "This office and its people would have looked more cleaner if I ran a day-care center here."
"Its not in the dressing . Its all about the character . What matters is what you have inside your brain and heart", Anil Madhavan sided with me. I had never seen Anil with his shirt tucked in. However, unlike mine, his shirt would be clean and ironed. Kishore had a tough time convincing me on the need for decent clothing. I never had any role models for dressing up. Hence I started imitating my Guru himself, by buying shirts of Louis Philippe, just to get a crest on my sleeves.
But no crest or Arrow satisfied me after 1 month of owning and wearing. It would get back to its natural state of shabby and crumbled look. Add to it , the merciless criticism from Rani , Abhi and Vicky. After the last round of firing, I decided to try out tailored shirts. Antony (one guy in our company who has impeccable dressing sense ) suggested "Moda Nostra" ( definition - Fashion for made men. ) a local tailor shop. The moment I put on a shirt that they stitched for me, I knew, I'm going to return to the shop again and again. I tucked in the shirt and there is no wrinkles or sagging. If you are wondering if the shirt gave me power , answer is no. It instilled 'confidence' within me.
Getting back to power-dressing , there is nothing as such as a dress that gives you "Power". Its just the confidence that you feel, when you wear your clothes. The dress should be made for your body , with the right cuts and curves. It should not sag anywhere , neither should it be stretched. And finally , the attention to fine details. Wear the right shoes/belt/socks and on formal occassions tie,tie clip and cufflings. The confidence would be there , everytime you wear the same dress whether its after months or years. And people , they respect your confidence and aura , and not the dress.
I'm still in pursuit of finding the right dresses for me. For those who are still not concerned about dressing, I suggest , try out different clothes. Someday, you'll get a pair that gives you that extra edge and extra bounce when you take a step. It helps.
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