Trends that need to go

Recently I went to shopping mall buy new jeans. Everywhere I saw a trend that I wish it could disappear. This was the very infamous trend from early 2000s - Low rise jeans.

I personally hated low rise jeans. In early 2000 I was not as slim as I am right now. At that time I used to believe that low rise jeans specifically look good on people who are slim. However after 20+ years now I have understood low rise do not look good on any body type. This is why,
1. The low price jeans are placed below the waist. This results in visually shortening the legs and lengthening the tortoise. It looks really disproportionate even on tall people.
2. Because the waistband of the jeans sit tightly below the waist there is a high possibility of creating muffin tops. Those who know about Muffin tops, they know that they never look good.
3. As the low waist jeans stay at the very lowest end of the pelvic girdle they rarely stay up. The jeans often slip down.
4. Because of their placement at the lower end of the pelvis there is a high possibility of unexpected exposure or wardrobe malfunction.
5. There is also a difficulty towards pairing appropriate tops with the low waist jeans. To look appropriate it is essential to wear long tops with the low rise jeans. The pairing becomes even more difficult.
6. To fit the body appropriately the low waist jeans need to be body hugging which again create visually unflattering effect. They do not look good.

These are only some of the reasons why low rise jeans do not look good on anybody irrespective of their body types. They do not look good irrespective of the genders. It is a type of trend that uses the least anount of fabric and yet in the name of the trend it is sold at high price. I feel this is one of the trends that are heavy on the pocket but low on the decency as well as appeal.

We have witnessed the disadvantages of low rise jeans in the decade of 2000s. As we saw at multiple occasions how these jeans wear uncomfortable and inappropriate, this trend vanished within a few years. I must say it disappeared for good. Now is the time when the 90s and the 2000 ugly trends are returning, the low rise jeans also saw their resurrection. We millennials thought it was a monster that we had defeated but unfortunately now I see it resurfacing. For the love of decency and elegance the low rise jeans have to go.

What should we do at customers in this place? There is something really simple that we can do. We should stop buying the trends that are not suitable for our body. Do not think that preventing the purchase of one pair is not going to change the industry, it has to be a collective action from everyone. I believe there are many people like me who do not like this trend of low rise jeans. All of us should unite and completely boycott this trend so that the manufacturers are forced to stop the production of such an indecent trend. That is the only way to defeat the monster again.

The trend of crop tops neatly goes with the topic "how appropriate dressing can be". For those fortunate ones do not know what crop top is - it is a type of top wear that is generally shorter than the normal length, they may end at the midriff or above the midriff. In short the crop top is a type of clothing that is going to expose the area around the stomach.

Again crop top is one of the trends that began in 2000s and disappeared quickly. The reason was very simple. Most people did not like their stomach being on display. It was specifically very uncomfortable to sit while wearing the crop tops because the rolls of the stomach would be visible irrespective of whether a person had flat stomach. Crop tops was a bad fashion choice in 2000s and even it is today.

Let us dive into this topic and understand why crop tops are not appropriate:
1. Crop tops expose the stomach area and hence they are not considered appropriate for formal settings such as workplace, meetings, and formal events. This is in alignment with the dress code rules that are applied at prestigious Institute and colleges as well.
2. Crop tops are not considered appropriate in most of the settings hence if someone wish you to wear crop tops they would also think about a layering option such as jackets or blazers. Wearing layered pieces in hot climate is going to be very uncomfortable.
3. With wearing crop tops there will always be the restrictions towards movements. The movements towards various activities such as exercise, doing the household work, or doing labour is going to be troublesome because there will always be a possibility of wardrobe malfunction.
4. The crop tops keep riding up hence they require constant adjustment. It looks very in appropriate to adjust clothing in public places.
5. Crop tops are also going to be uncomfortable and chilling in the cold climates making them in appropriate for winter season.

This is not the comprehensive list of reasons. There are many more reasons to avoid wearing crop tops. Let alone for others but I would talk about myself. Call me prude or any other term however I always find it comfortable to go in public where I am appropriately dressed. I never find it appropriate to dress up in crop tops and go in public because I do not wish to expose my stomach area to the world.

Yet there is one challenge that I face nowadays. The crop tops have taken over the entire fashion industry and hence whenever I go shopping I do not find any tops that are of appropriate length. All the tops that are currently in the market are ending at the midrif or way about the midriff. This leaves me to only one option - buying shirts and t-shirts from men's section.

Unfortunately we are in a fashion world right now where for less fabric we are paying unnecessarily high amount. A fashion revolution is much needed. I have decided myself that no matter what I am not going to buy crop tops. If you hate crop tops as much as I do, then I would suggest you do the same as well. One or the other day the fashion industry would have to listen to the customers like us.

I was watching a YouTube video to kill time. The video was from a fashion influencer who was almost as old as me. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, "WEAR WHITE, BEIGE, CREAM OR ANY NEUTRAL COLOUR TO LOOK RICH AND WEALTHY. THESE ARE THE ONLY COLORS THAT ARE GOING TO MAKE YOU LOOK ELEGANT AND SOPHISTICATED. YOU DO NOT NEED COLOURS IN YOUR WARDROBE. JUST THROW OUT ALL THE COLORS AND KEEP ONLY THESE NEUTRALS". I stopped watching the video right there. That made me chuckle. Not only that the opinions of the influencer were not matching with mine, the main issue was it was "misleading".

In recent years, especially after the COVID pandemic, I have seen this sudden surge in the fashion industry of using only white, beige, and cream. Every fashion house is pushing the neutral colour scheme, calling it a sophisticated and professional clothing. They are pushing the narrative that these are the colours that are going to make you look rich (fake rich of course). Every fashion influencer is repeating this narrative in their content. A lot of youngsters have started believing it to be true. This is where I have my "facepalm" moment.

In my opinion colors are important, this is why
1. Debunking the theory of looking rich: Look at all women from established royal families (the wealthiest families). You will always spot them wearing rich and saturated colours. Do they not know the "influencer created rule of neutrals"? Give a serious thought.
2. It is very well established that the colours stand out whereas neutrals blend in. It is upto the individual to decide if they wish to stand out in the crowd or they wish to be invisible in the crowd (I am the person who prefers to stand out).
3. Each colour is associated with a wavelength. Human bodies react to these wavelengths and frequencies. Each colour has an effect on our bodies. Warm colours (eg, yellow, red) are known to create certain emotions (eg, love, passion) and bodily sensations (eg, hunger). Cool colours (eg, blue) have overall calming effects. When the colours are eliminated, their effect on the bodily functions get eliminated too.
4. This is my personal opinion: With neutral clothing a person's individuality gets diminished.

In 15th and 16the century, use of colours was considered to be a sign of wealth. The colour dyes were difficult to make, time consuming, and costly, hence only the wealthy class such as royal families and aristocrats were able to afford them. This goes again to prove how colours were perceived to be in various eras and cultures.

A disadvantage of neutrals that I clearly see is the maintenance. One stain can completely spoil the clothing, making it unusable. This issue arises less with dark and saturated colours.

In general I would say that the trend of "only neutrals" should definitely go. I am not completely against the neutral colours but the Wardrobe needs saturated colours as well. They will boost the mood. They will help anyone show their individual identity. They will give a unique character to your fashion sense.

Allow the colours to enter your wardrobe and they will change your life.

I had visited one of my cousins. This cousin had a daughter who was around 18 or 19 years old. She was a college student. During my visit she had come to speak with me. She was telling me about her course and college, "In my college like we have a lot of courses. Of those courses I have like selected the ones which I find like interesting. My professor had like told me to like go for some course which would like include like science and such subjects. But I was like I want to take like something different. So I like selected literature". While listening to her, I felt as if I was going to end up with a brain damage. I had never heard such an exaggerated and unnecessary placement of "like" in a conversation.

This was not only with my niece. I have seen a lot of youngsters specifically between the ages of 15 years to 30 years who speak in this manner. The use of word "like" is done in excess and also it makes no sense when they use it. When we listen to these people speak, I completely lose the track of the conversation. After every sentence they say I need a moment to pause to remove all the "likes" from their sentence and make a sentence that makes sense. I am not a shamed to say that because this is what the reality is for me. I was educated in the way to use short and presides sentences that make sense. However with today's generation the sentences are neither short nor they make sense (Note: I am not taking down the road to understand their slang/casual language. I think I am too old for that).

Unfortunately this is the reality of today. Young generation is consuming the content that is easily available over the internet. They watch a lot of content that is created by influencers. I have observed that the vocabulary of the influencers is very limited and they use "like" as one of the fillers along with "I mean", "you know", "literally" and "all that stuff". The younger generation is learning how to converse by watching these influencers. A lot of them believe that speaking like the influencers will make them sound "cool". Then there is another bunch of youngsters who think that the way influences speak is normal and that is how they should speak with others. Both possibilities are equally horrifying and uncomfortable to listen to.

The youngsters believe that it makes them trendy to speak like the influencers. I am not denying that it could be true. I am not a part of that generation to understand what is considered to be trendy among their own peers. However I am among the group who is trying to make sense of what they say. I probably belong to the group who is going to interview the youngsters for jobs. And from that point of you I can definitely say that the over usage of "like" is not good. The interviewer are not going to be impressed with the broken sentences and overusage of "like". They are not going to find it trendy. Hence the use of "like" should minimized, so that what they say is clear and concise.

A request to my readers: if you have youngsters in your life who is guilty of over using "like" in their conversation, then I request you to please have an honest conversation with them. Inform them that the conversation which is ambiguous may hamper there future and career progression. Invest some time in them so that there conversational skills can improve. I believe it is our responsibility to shape the future generations and we should do that starting from today.

Based on true events.

I heard a conversation from my colleagues and they wanted me to participate in it. It was about an old movie.
"That movie was fantastic. The costumes were amazing. But I did not like the story. It was very puff. Why would a famous writer have difficulty in writing? Why could he not come up with ideas for his book?" One of my colleagues was furious with the filmmakers.
"I liked the film too. I find it believable. The writers may run out of ideas. It happens with all of us, our mind goes blank. It happens more frequently with people in creative fields," the other colleague explained her stand with reasonable explanation.
"No that is not realistic. I do not think it ever happens," the first colleague said firmly.
"It does happen. Writers block is a well documented phenomenon," another colleague pitched in.
"You guys are making things up for argument. This does not happen," the furious colleague was not ready to listen.
This was one of my latest exposures to the battle of facts vs opinions.

In the days of internet, the line between facts and opinions is blurring. Earlier the belief was "if it is written then it must be true". In the modern days, everything is written somewhere. Be it fact, fiction, or opinion - it will be documented somewhere. This is why we cannot consider every word to be true. But importantly people have lost the understanding of what is a fact and what is an opinion.

For starters, fact is proven while opinion is individualised. Opinion can be based on facts or personal belief. Fact can be challenged with evidence. Opinions can be challenged with facts. But what happens in the recent times is the facts are challenged because they are not supporting someone's belief system. Facts are challenged because someone feels uncomfortable with them. Many times people provide the justification "I do not like it, so I am not going to believe it". This is just the tip of iceberg.

The battle of facts vs opinions intesifies when there is a bigger issue at play (eg, health emergency, change in government policy). In such instances, people state their opinions as if they are facts - "I feel this, I like this, that is why this is correct, no matter if it is not as per what is real". Such opinionated people do not believe in evidences, they only believe their feelings.

In recent times, I have also seen that people with different opinions fight ruthlessly with each other and attacking rach other with verbal insults. It is really sad to see that opinions have taken promimance over the relationship. Difference of opinions has become one of the biggest reasons for disrupting relationships.

I miss the times when people would say "let's agree to disagree" and carry on with their lives. Unfortunately, today nobody wants to take this stance. Everybody wants their opinion to be considered as a "fact".

In many discussion I try to convey this message of "agree to disagree" but it is poorly received. I will still trying for it. Else we will be at a juncture where we would be distant from our near and dear ones because of the opinions and feelings.

This instance took place when I was working at my corporate office. I was with a colleague of mine. We were peacefully having our lunch together. Another colleague decided to join us for lunch. This colleague considered himself to be a health expert. As soon as he joined us for the lunch he is started commenting on every food item that was with us in our tiffins.
"Do you know wheat is really unhealthy. Rice is not good for health, it increases the weight quickly. Spouts should be consumed raw. Buttermilk does not have any health benefits. Indian food is not healthy. Traditional oils are bad for health. Ghee is not good for health," the list of unhealthy food as per him was never ending. Me and my friend were tired of his constant commenting and criticism of food. Furthermore both of us were healthcare professionals hence we knew better about nutrition than this colleague who was from finance background. But apparently being a "gym bro" gives someone more knowledge than someone who had actually learnt about health and medicine.

Unfortunately this was not just the story with the uninvited colleague. Nowadays this has become a trend that one person gives unsolicited health advice to another person is respective of their qualification. This unsolicited advice generally comes from a YouTube video or the social media content of a health influencer. Whereas most of the health influencers have no clue what they are talking about. Health influencers themselves are not very educated and generally they speak about the content that has been provided to them either by the script writer or the brands who are sponsoring their content. Yet a lot of people blindly follow the advice of health or fitness influencers and based on what they see or hear they feel that they are qualified enough to talk about the complicated topic of health and nutrition.

In my opinion trend of commenting on food choices, health, and nutrition has to stop. I believe that commenting on anybody's food choices is completely this respectful and humiliating. The study related to health, nutrition, and diet has a specialised stream. There is a reason why several people give years to study from this stream and become professionals. It is safe to see that these people earn their degree and they deserve to be called experts. Only these people are qualified enough to advise anybody on which food is healthy and good for nutrition. Not a person from social media who had no qualification to talk about it.

My humble advice is that whether you are qualified to talk about the health and nutrition or not you should keep your mouth shut until someone ask you to advise. If they have not come to you to get an informed advice regarding the health and nutrition you should not give unsolicited advice. You may think that you are helping someone however in reality you are just being purely disrespectful to the other person.

Hence I believe the trend of advising someone about their health choices needs to go.