All In The Name of Vanity

How many times it has occurred that you have compromised your natural instinct of survival against the furies of nature to live up to your sense for fashion and just when you hoped everyone’s appreciating your sense of style and not lack of it in the ‘common sense’ category, someone comes up to you and asks you if you are not feeling cold in that dress.

Especially when it comes to members belonging to a chronologically higher age group, or members of your gender not so endowed with a propensity to dress up on the slightest excuse. To your dismay, they always ask this question, with the level of decibel in their voice and the crease of not so genuine concern on their forehead that inevitably makes you hope you were wrapped in at least two more layers of clothing.

The logic behind the quizzing feels further warped when you attempt to decipher the answer they could possibly be expecting in return to that question. What is one to say, ‘No I am not cold, I was born with an extra-layer of insulation that has a great resemblance to human skin’, or ‘Yes I am cold, but if I hold my breath tightly for long I am able to control the goose bumps and shivers that are running down my spine’. The rationale of the question is entirely evasive.

To all those who believe that the weather is an alibi to give up one’s sense of fashion, and assume that it is mandatory for everyone to look like a product of an assembly line production, devoid of any hue or curve, here is the response to your question, ‘The attempt to adorn the dress in spite of the weather is all in the name of vanity!’