Signature Style

I read an email forward about the difference between a man and a woman. One of the points said that a man who walked into a party and saw another man wearing the same tee-shirt wouldn’t give him the cold shoulder but instead greet him like a longlost friend and they’d share a beer together.

This Friday I wore an old favorite tee in bright red (my favorite colour!) and dark blue jeans. I was appalled to find SNC wearing a tee in the exact same colour and dark blue jeans!!! And worse still, another colleague wearing the same colour combination. When I gasped and said “Oh noooo!!!!”, they both looked at me stupefyied (damn, how DO you spell that word??).

Okay, its a female thing I admit. So I want to look different. I’ve always had this thing, even when I was a tomboy. I hate the thought of looking like gadzillion others. I hate the idea of blending in. Okay, I am a vain peacock. There’s a reason I love bright colours and strange combinations. Few other people dare wear them and those that do….there’s not much chance they’ll come up with the exact same get-up as I. So I stand out.

The best way to ensure that no one else looks like you is to wear stuff that most people wouldn’t wear. So I’m bizarre sometimes but honestly I really do love that fake leapord print bag with red trim. And the maroon beret. And the knee high boots. All of them together. What are the chances someone’s going to copy that???? In fact I think what I love most about them is the fact that they are so OTT different that no one I know is going to have the gall to buy them and wear them. No one but me, that is.

The not-so-artful dodger has written a good post about saris. Now that’s style. But umm…its style I find very inconvenient in day-to-day Mumbai commuting. Still, for occasions, its top class. If one can suffer in stilettos, then one can very well learn to handle a sari gracefully. No smart lehengas, no fashionable shararas, no designer salwar-kameezes for me please…..its always an antique Kanjeevaram. I mean, who wears that except for women from our parents’ generation? I’m certainly not going to be mistaken for them….certainly not with my tattoo and red-streaked cropped hair! For moi, if it means I’ll be one of my kind, I’d gladly do it…..ah, my sometimes impractical-female-vanity surfaces!

However Dodger pooh-poohs my suggestion of FabIndia with the reply that there’d be several others wearing the same thing. I disagree. I’ve never had one of those embarassing situations. And that’s because I buy stuff like spaghettis with bandhini prints or formal shirts with wooden buttons. I know there’d still be a few other weirdos like me who buy the same thing. But there are such things as accessories that make a dress quite different from what you started off with. Highly unlikely that someone will match it down to that detail.

A friend of mine says that I remind her of a cat….the preening female cat from Tom n’ Jerry cartoons. That makes me 🙂 . Sure I’m vain. I love dressing up. My body is my canvas…and it carries my signature style every day!