F for fashion

 I remember an anecdote published in Reader’s Digest.

“A young boy was to attend his graduation ceremony but refused to cut his long sun bleached hair. The girls loved this untidy look of the surfer. Years later when he became a successful businessman, he came to visit his parents. When he saw his graduation day photographs, he exclaimed, ‘I look awful! Why didn’t you make me cut my hair!’ ”

Fashion is a major component of the adolescent world. Every morning anxious moments are spent on ‘what to wear’. The anxiety becomes agonizing if there is a party or an outing. The parents may think that its  trivial or unnecessary, but it looms large on the adolescent’s horizon. Usually, the experimentation stems from the child’s desire to be accepted by the peers. They don’t want to be left out.  

And look at the available choices! Earlier, the boys had only the same old shirts teamed with a ‘one colour matches all’ types trousers.  Nowadays, they sport designer clothes, costume jewelry and streaked hair. The girls have a wider choice. They also experiment with makeup, bags and tattoos.

Most of the times, these fads are just that, temporary fads!  With growing maturity and increasing awareness about future and career, these extreme behaviours tone down.  The compulsive obsessions dry up.

But they can become a major source of parent-child conflict! Actors and singers are the children’s role models. These youth icons are not ‘ideal’ from parental point of view. The conflicts become more severe if the grand parents are involved too. They find the attitudinal change too radical and the costumes, outrageous.

It is very important to remember that grave addictions like smoking, drinking and drug abuse can and do start as fashion.

Though parents may feel that ‘ek noor aadmi,das noor kapda’ should not be the motto of life, they have to accept the adolescent fashion as a temporary but necessary evil.