Fashion heads all over Gaborone must be really excited because it seems like the fashion fever is slowly but surely catching up with us.
We have reached the time of the year when people have more reasons to dress up and we see more and more people honouring the art of dressing up and being stylish and fashion forward.
The festive season has always been a season packed with exciting events and parties, but all that the parties ever did was to give people a social outing. Recently though, with the influence of the rest of the world we see the evolution of parties and events that do not just provide people with a social outing but also encourage them to dress up and be stylish at these events.
We used to have parties with titles like the ‘summer bash’ and others that were only all about partying but recently we see parties and events being called by names, such as the ‘tuxedo party’, the ‘little black dress’ and others that force people to put a bit of effort into the way they look when attending these parties and events.
When thinking back for a moment, I remember that dressing up used to be something only ladies did and men never used to be bothered much about. I am sure there were some men who were interested in being artistic and colourful with their outfits but the society we lived in did not allow that.
A man would feel out of place if he was dressed up because his buddies and the rest of the men would all be wearing black, white or brown clothes and some even wearing over stretched t-shirts that were given out to promote company events or a wedding some two or so years ago. That kind of look used to be acceptable within men but thank God things have turned around because if any man came wearing an over stretched t-shirt to any event today, they would definitely feel out of place as the rest of the fellas would be looking sharp in the latest fashion trends and colours.
Generally, most things that we do physically are expressions of what we feel on the inside, we communicate who we are and how we feel to the rest of the world through physical means and fashion is one of those physical means through which we can express ourselves.
At the ‘little black dress’ event this past Friday 9th November 2012, ladies went all out to look fabulous in their little black dresses, it offered an environment where a lady could wear a dress as skimpy as they get without anyone passing judgemental looks towards her and that’s what I call real freedom of expression.
Fashion is not all about impressing the next person with the way you are dressed but it has a lot to do with freeing yourself and expressing how you feel about yourself. Unfortunately some people always think that the way others dress, especially ladies, is all about sending a certain message to the next person and in the case of ladies this next person would be a man and due to this common misconception people are not free to wear what they want wherever and whenever but events such as the one mentioned above give people back their freedom of expression.
One would have thought that because the theme of the event, ‘little black dress’ was very specific all the ladies would end up looking similar. The only similarity was that they were wearing black dresses but it was interesting to observe their different interpretations of the theme. They all had different interpretations of what ‘little’ really meant as some of them wore dresses long enough for a visit to your mother-in-law in (below the knees) and some wore those that were short enough to be comfortably mistaken for tops. The different designs of the dresses were also very interesting but even more interesting was the different colours of shoes, hand bags and accessories that complimented the black dresses and added more life to it. The way the entire outfit came out, the way it looked on their bodies and the way the colour combination complemented their complexions gave a picture that was good enough to tell what the ladies were feeling at that point in time and they were feeling free, sexy and beautiful.
With sweet summer already here, more festive events coming up and the latest summer trends already in stores I am looking forward to enjoying the art of fashion by fashion expressing myself and watching as others do it because fashion is a beautiful art to watch and to be part of.
