Celebrity fashion is now very much part of life and seems to have seeped into the new generation of boys and girls as they see their favorite celebrities sporting latest styles in movies, on television and at popular events. The glamor world has come to stay and youngsters long to be part of it.
Millions of teenagers look up to celebrities for latest styles in terms of dresses and accessories, such as, jewelry, shoes and cosmetics, and use the first opportunity to imitate them. Youngsters love to emulate their favorite celebrities, as for them they are true divas and style icons. “Since decades, celebrities have been the role models for youngsters, as whatever these models wear tends to become a rage,” says Noora Aljabr, a young fashion designer.
Nowadays, however, the trend of emulating celebrities is affecting all areas of life of these youngsters, including the way they walk and talk, the outfits they wear, and so on. In fact, often they end up copying styles that don't even suit them.
“Some youngsters follow fashion habits, which are not worth and end up becoming poor replicas,” says Sameera Javed, a Pakistani fashion-conscious housewife. “We do believe that our youngsters get influenced by watching their favorite celebrities or actors and think that imitating what they see is cool, popular, trendy, modern and stylish. But what is not so readily accepted in society is whatever passes in the name of fashion, such as the growing trend of tattoos and body piercing, which is labeled as a style statement. Not only youngsters but also children have been dazzled by such trends,” she said.
Echoing similar sentiments is a young Indian schoolteacher, Sanaa Hashim. “Our youths are getting smoothly carried away by the trends popularized by celebrities. And they think that they must keep up with the latest ones even though their parents cannot afford it,” she says. “Fashion is awesome and can be adopted but some part of fashion needs to tone down as younger kids are adopting anything in the name of fashion. Being fashionable is not bad but being fashionable by embracing body piercing or tattoos is a problem.”
It is true that people aspire to be like someone famous. And to become that someone they are willing to pay a premium for quality, design and exclusivity. Fashion is not all about spending lump-sum amount on designers but also ensuring that it makes us look good and is comfortable. Everyone is different so what suits one person will not suit everyone.
Young boys and girls are of the view that the older generation must admit that this is a fashion era and they cannot keep them away from it. For centuries, individuals or societies have used clothes and other body adornment as a form of nonverbal communication to indicate occupation, rank, gender, locality, class, wealth and group affiliation. Fashion is a form of free speech. It not only embraces clothing, but also accessories, jewelry, hairstyles, beauty and body art. What we wear, and how and when we wear it, provides others a glimpse of a social situation.
Today an inability to refashion and reshape our bodies while constantly monitoring the cultural ideal leaves us failing the fashion test. Those that pass the fashion test invariably spend their lives absorbed in a circle of diet, exercise, cosmetic surgery and other regimes. This includes the rigors of shopping in search of the ultimate garb.
Our reluctance to give ourselves a regular makeover through diet, exercise, and the conscious use of specific dress styles infers that we have the personality flaws of a weak willed human. We become in the eyes of fashion aficionados somewhat inadequate and imperfect in the fashion stakes. Thus we strive to keep a culturally satisfying appearance so that we feel better, whereas, in fact, we are striving to stay in a particular group or society, whatever type that may be.
“Group affiliation is our prime concern with regard to fashion. As long as some group similarity is identified within the group, our personal fashion, whether current or dated, can belong to any group. It is the sense of belonging marked by how we fashion ourselves that gives us the social connection,” says a sociologist. “An innate characteristic of human beings is the desire to strive for differentiation. And in pursuit of this, they use fashion as a means to identify clearly the many different roles that a person plays.”
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