The Cage of Cloth

 

A black dress with sunglasses. Glossy hair. A mirror selfie. A post about self worth. An idea to break cycles. And I'm just sitting here, doing precisely the same, and still wondering when dressing a certain way became growth. When self-worth became another classy aesthetic. Every post about it turned into a trend. And I told myself, 'It's not that deep. ' Not deep, yeah. Until representation of the idea of self-worth  mattered. Until the girls were convinced that growth must look a certain way, fit into a certain box to be validated as modern and relevant. You ask why rich girl aesthetic is the new cool, and when original culture slipped away. Well, we were fed the ideas of culture being outdated. It's no wonder everyone's trying to fit in a box.

I'm not saying that a modern dressing is bad. I'm trying to ask why and since when we started assigning roles and meanings to a piece of cloth. 

Clothes are a form of self-expression and culture, yes, but they don't need to be a verdict on who you are and what kind of life you lead. 

A women wearing a saree can still be independent. A woman wearing a shirt can still cook. 

We need to stop being in boxes even while choosing what to wear. Because clothes don't come with verdicts or tags or stereotypes. 

You can wear a saree. You can wear a fur coat and put on some sunglasses. You can wear a cute dress. 

Clothes help you express yourself. And that's kind of beautiful. None of it needs to fit an aesthetic. Or rather, none of it needs to fit a box.