Sreejita in her favourite South Park jammies
This post began as part of a Skype conversation when I jokingly asked my sister, Sreejita (Solo of this story) to write an article about personal style that I was supposed to do for one of the magazines I write for. She started typing into the IM window, and eventually that became this post. Sreejita is very different from me, especially when it comes to style. So here’s something a little removed from what you usually see on this blog!
it all started one afternoon, when ragini and i decided to watch a movie called the big lebowski. i had watched it once before, but due to some rather profound influences on me, i had managed to completely forget large chunks of it. horrified at that revelation, ragini insisted that i watch it again… not because it was the best movie on earth, but because she was horrified to know that i remember so little of someone i resemble so much. armed with a copious amount of oily food from our favourite cheap food joint, she led me towards what, she in the later years, would term as my ‘personal style’.
unlike women who love to state online and off how they have no idea about fashion and how their wardrobes aren’t too great, i am someone who likes pretty things, but has never really had the time to develop an interest in them beyond what was required for me to look pretty, and once in a while for fashion articles i wrote to help me pay my bills. my wardrobe has largely been defined by loose fits, denim and shorts, with an occasional pretty buy and of course, my glorious collection of jammies.
if i could, i would spend my entire life in jammies. my love for pop culture helped me discover a whole new world that spanned comics, tv shows and even alcohol in a way that glided effortlessly over my bum, making it look sexier than most other bums in the tightest of jeans!
thinking back, even when i was in school, i was the cause of much envy because of my super mario jammies. over the years, my superman, south park, spongebob and budweiser jammies have elicited the same kind of envy in both men and women. and the best thing about it? they are comfortable as fuck!
Another shot of the infamous South Park jammies, this time from 2011
while jammies as a fashion statement can be horrifying (and i can totally see ragini roll her eyes and make faces), at the end of the day, personal style is a matter of choice. the way i look at it, it’s even an extension of your personality. while lesser mortals who claim to have no say about fashion indulge in trends that horrifyingly line up the windows at malls and other such places, very few indian women can break free from the whole routine of trends that have been tried, tested and proven to work wonders. the years that i have spent with ragini has taught me one very valuable lesson which largely made me give up on my eternal quest to maintain sexiness by punishing my body. i have never been fat, no. but i realised the importance of being thin at a very young age. in india, things work pretty simply – if you are thin and pretty and have half a brain, you can not only get men to eat out of your hand, but you are actually made to constantly feel good about yourself by everyone as well. and in order to keep up the flurry of compliments about my body, i have had my fair share of starving myself, over exercising (and damaging body parts beyond repair) and of course, like all other pretty teenage girls, throwing up.
thankfully, with age, i only got wiser, even if not thinner. going from a size 6 to a size 12 (i am currently a size 10) and not being bothered about it is something i couldn’t have imagined, let alone forgiven myself for, had i been younger.
with ragini and the jammies, my perspective about body love changed; i started loving the extra inches on my waist after an accident that had my leg in a cast for more than three months, the very inches that had robbed sleep and sanity from me and made me try every trick in the book (including the godforsaken gm diet) to rid myself of.
but it isn’t like my love affair with the jammies made me shun all traces of femininity entirely. there are days when i brush my hair, slip on some heels, put on makeup and wear a gorgeous dress, there are days i wear shorts and tanks and admire the curve of my bum in the mirror and of course there are the days that are largely defined by denim and pop culture t-shirts. but like they say, home is where the heart is. and here, they belong to these glorious bottoms of mine!
