Fashion Needs & Consumption Part II

In extension to my previous post about my fashion needs and consumption, I am now going to try writing about the fashion needs in context of my immediate environment. Like I mentioned in my previous post, my buying patterns were mostly influenced by the society I grew up in. The environment around me as a teenager was that what you wear, how you dress, how you look is important part of the social life. People regularly judged each other on the basis of how they look, what accessories they carry, and more recently as an example what mobile phone you carry or what car you drive. This all, ultimately, drives people, because of the fear of social judgement, to buy stuff they don't need to but other people want them to. I would not call this as mindless consumerism but consumerism or buying out of social pressure.

Then there is pressure of proving it to yourself. There are people who always want to own the latest and greatest when it comes to latest gadget phones and cars. I had friends in my school and college who prided themselves on owning the latest iPhone. There is a sense of achievement people have in owning the latest mobile phone or a bigger car. And very less of it arises out of need or even personal 'want' in a lot of cases. Visiting a relative's home has always been linked to checking out their house in terms of how big it is or well decorated it is. I think it should be judged, if at all, on the basis of how efficiently the space has been used, how it looks elegant even when it looks simple. People need to understand that minimal house space is the most responsible thing a person can do in their lifetime.

Advertisements all around us does not help the cause because all of them target the mindset of today's consumer to buy bigger and better and latest. Just look at the example car advertisement below. It asks people to have pride in buying a bigger car. This is high time that we move towards value addition of items in our life rather than getting pride/show off/illusive happiness out of it. Fast fashion is the term given to such fashion and advertisement trends where we target the relative mindset of the consumer to tell them buy bigger than what you have, latest trends, latest mobile phones leaving behind what yo already have without worrying about the impact of such a decision on the environment.

Over the last few years, I have started to get better idea of what my life should be like. It should be about how the person is and not what he owns. This applies to oneself and others around you.