Get up, stand up, wear it on your sleeve

Think back to the first time you realized that you tend to dress a certain way for certain occasions. The demarcation is made so early in life, that for the most part, we do it unconsciously. The shimmery pink, gota-edged pieces are definitely for Eid mornings. A uniform for school, ‘party dresses’ for birthdays, plain, quiet clothes for funerals.

This dressing for the occasion grows up over time. You have the work looks, beach looks, the idgaf looks, all accessorized appropriately, of course.

Then there comes a time that you want to be exactly who you are and you want the clothes you wear, or the length of your hair, or the way you walk through the world to reflect that. And then finally, you reach the point where you’re ready to be ‘that guy’ and wear your intent like a picket. E.g. a friend (me) wore a Lahori Ink tee bearing the legend ‘mein baaghi hoon’ so often, when they didn’t wear it (on laundry day), something seemed off. There are times when maybe you want to scream out loud and just say what you want, what you need, who you are, but you know how it is: your opinions may be perfectly legitimate, but they might not be palatable to everyone.

Of course, neither Lahori Ink, nor the person mentioned above invented slogan tees or intentional dressing. Clothes, however trivial you might think they might be, speak for you.You’re not just throwing on a kurta one day because that’s all that was ironed. You purchased that top intentionally, because it says something of your mood, your comfort, where you’re going, and yes, your politics too.

Expressing your politics through your fashion isn’t the huge act of rebellion it sounds like. At this very moment, you could make a choice to cut out fast fashion to reduce waste, say no to brands that use underpaid labor, or exploit cheap labor from developing countries, you can say no to labels based on the politics of its owners, and you can simply become an ally of the masses and the planet by consuming less.

Please note that these choices in no manner mean that you must sermonize about them to your friends and families, as they are also then free to consume as less of you as they want.

That said, simply a tweak in how you tend to dress may speak for you. As crimes against women increase in Pakistan – and this is simply an observation, not at all studied scientifically – women are changing how they dress. The length of the kameez may vary year to year, but the silhouette remains largely loose. The button-downs are slouchier, the tees are oversized. Very rarely or in very intimate settings will you see women dress more revealingly. We can also attribute the more breathable cuts to women wanting to move around with ease: did you know that women’s jeans are cut higher at the crotch to allow their legs to appear longer, but basically squishing their lady parts in the most unforgiving manner? No wonder mom and balloon jeans are a thing now. Women would rather allow their jeans to take them around the world in 80 days instead of looking like baby giraffes.

That said, we take for granted that sometimes what people are asking for is the most basic of rights. And that’s where fashion becomes serious. You may just be seeing a peace, love, and rock n’ roll vibe, but here are actually kids so tired of their very stable lives they feel the need to dress as differently from their parents as possible. In sharp contrast? The Civil Rights Movement in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

People often speak of Pakistan being more progressive in the ‘60s and ‘70s. You will often see well-dressed men and women living it up in a club in Karachi. What changed?

A post-partition, first-gen Pakistan breathed more easily. The war had been won, and now they could be free. What happened then? When did we decide that women on television should dress a certain way? What did we do when that particular directive was removed? How did we jump straight into denim jackets, mullets, and sharp Teejays clothing?

You aren’t what you wear, but what you wear is who you are.