On the last day of every year, right around the stroke of midnight, even as I am holed up at my house, I resolve to change quite a few things. My diary entries over the years tell me my resolutions often follow a three-point agenda; exercise more, write better, and do something about my constantly-bursting-at-the-seams wardrobe.
Each year brings with it an opportunity to bury the absolutely miserable sartorial mistakes of the days past and clean the slate for a fresh, new approach to clothes. 2016 is no different. It has been in general a year of losses and while those incomparable losses are coloured by sadness, I resolve to lose, albeit happily, a few more things to the black hole that was 2016.
2017, please let me pave the way to a happier wardrobe!
Trends, Who be You?
I talk the talk but do I walk the walk? A question I was forced to ask myself this year, thanks to a weekly column where I expressed my very strong opinions about style over fashion. I have often (regretfully in retrospect) blindly followed a trend because it was too everywhere to ignore, and the instances where a style just didn’t work for me have been too many to count. This year, I am not wearing greenery (sorry pantone), exaggerated eighties shoulders, or pink in its myriad shades. Trends are going to open my mind to new things but dictate my shopping trip, they will not.
There is a World Beyond Black
The people closest to me will attest to my love for black. Get them going and they will also recount incident after incident when they’ve had to snatch black clothes from my hands at stores. But my resolution has less to do with wearing more colour and more to do with experimenting. I will wear things I like, ignoring whether the world likes it on me. 2017, you are going to be the year I relegate the words safe, lack of confidence, insecurity, and fashion rut to the back of my wardrobe. Not black though, not yet anyway.
Embrace Ethnicity
Here’s the thing. I have always enjoyed wearing what is colloquially called Indo-western. But I have never really explored it fully. So, this year I aim to wear more sarees and team them with shirts, buy more ethnic jewellery and wear it with denims, wear Indian ensembles to an event that I would have previously worn a pencil skirt to. This year I aim to discover my relationship with India, through its textiles, its silhouettes, and its crafts..
Basics, I Love You!
I have been wearing denims for what feels like forever now but I am yet to find that one pair that fits me like a dream. I pledge to devote my shopping expeditions to basics; a great white shirt, the perfect pair of denims, a beautiful cotton saree, a classic blazer; clothes I can mix and match to create a head turner of an outfit each time. I vow to pick quality over quantity. Always!
As you read this, we will be two days into the new year, and I hope (preferably not against hope) that my resolutions are showing an upward crawl on the fulfilment graph.
So, here’s to a 2017 where my old habits are left behind and my resolutions are kept. Here’s to a 2017 where your style dreams are met..
Here’s to a 2017 where you wear who you truly are.
- Shirt Skirt Dress - September 1, 2017
- Dangling Dungarees - August 31, 2017
- Suited Pastel-y - August 30, 2017
