Costume Dressing For the 21st Century Outcast

A SHORT TREATISE ON DRESSING FOR THE AVERAGE REBELLIOUS TEENAGE GIRL circa 2008


The first word on dressing for teenage girls in Kolkata is of course the Mall. This holy institution houses eclectic styles, several designer brands and absolutely no sense of chic dressing. It is a godawful mishmash of fusion trends at the moment. Apparently garish is in. Go Kolkata.




ANYWAY, the kind of girl (see above illustration to SO prove my point) who buys this stuff is usually one very optimistic chick. No amount of gap jeans or Manolo Blahnik shoes or Satya Paul accessories can make you look less

a) pudgy, wobbly, and pouring out of that tight waisted halter-top

OR

b) like a stick insect lost inside clothes that SHOULD make you look good but end up making you looking like a loser of a , well, stick insect with brittle twigs for limbs and cotton fluff in place of a brain.


But then this particular piece of admittedly self-indulgent writing is not about that brand of air-heads, appealing though it may be to rip their psyches apart. No, today I would rather think about the girls that fall outside this category. Like the sporty ones, the funky trendsetters, the punks, the moushumi-s, the romantic ones, the aspiring heroines, and the ones who honestly couldn't care less.

The thing about (us) girls is that we like dressing good, but we don't think the world is coming to an end when we turn up somewhere and the bi*** across the room is wearing our outfit. We're more laid back about clothes and life in general. We don't freak out on accessories and although we do look at winter/fall showcase lines we only "approve and follow" when we "like". Not fanaticism. Just appreciative consumerism. See illustration below.




YES this is going somewhere.

I usually wear jeans and something on top. Mostly ethnic-chic/smart-casuals/punk-grunge if you will, sometimes with a jacket, earrings at a stretch, minimal camouflage, and HEELS. I CANNOT live without heels. I may be topping 5'7ft by now but i still need to feel literally "on top". At all times.
Throw in a ponytail or a bandanna and a bored expression and I am set to go out and conquer.

But recently I've been forced to make some really weird (for me) fashion choices. On the 11th of February I wore a sari. Yes, that's right, a sari. I could barely walk, I was chilled to the backbone from the wind, and it all fell apart as I raced back upstairs to change for my very first date with (bleep), so that I burst into my room wearing nothing but two fistfuls of unravelled sari and a panic-stricken expression.

And today I woke up and put on a skirt.
In self-defence I must say that I never actually went out and bought this thing. Some girls bought it for me for a (disastrous) dance performance in January. I kept it and broke it in today.
It (the aforementioned skirt) is knee length. It is a light cornflower beige in colour. It has TASSELS, for god's sake.
I wore it with a close-fitting white top with long sleeves, brushed open hair and black heels. When I finally worked up the immortal nerve to look in the mirror I swear to god I thought I saw a teenage amazonian version (T/Ray 0.2008??) of Oprah Winfrey. Holy crap.

No guests are ever worth this. Thank god they're gone, so that now i can curse their souls into oblivion in peace.

I will now undress. I will put away this outfit with meticulous care, following all the crease lines along the pretty tassels to perfection. Afterwards I shall don old shorts and a grungy T-shirt, find an isolated corner, and then I will sit and scream for a while, until I'm convinced of my own return to sanity.

Trisha