Clothspeak

Photograph by Jay Mantri

When we used to go shopping as teenagers, I used to wonder how my brother would buy far fewer items for the same amount at the same store than me. I would smirk. How can such drab fashion be more expensive than all this variety we have as women. Now I know better.

Men’s wear has traditionally been aimed at comfort and utility while women’s wear for the most part at looking good. This calls for two very different skill sets — the science of creating durable and practical clothing and the art of accentuating and adorning (except maternity wear)

A man’s body serves a purpose while a woman’s body serves as a canvas.

Back in the day, when the men were fighting wars and Britain was rationing clothing, the women began to wear their husband’s civilian wear and head to work. Keep calm and wear his trousers. Use the rations for more pressing needs like tea. Since then trousers have become mainstream for women.

History, culture, perceptions of gender roles and business influence fashion. And vice versa. Take for example agender clothing that is blurring the lines between male and female clothing, an extrapolation of today’s voices uniting for gender equality. Or the victory of this Australian mom’s petition for trousers as girl’s school uniform!

But coming back to comparisons, one could hypothesize that given women consume so much more fashion than men, they may want to spend the same amount of resources on more items. This means every ingredient ranging from the fabric, to the trim would need to be cheaper. Maybe even the wages of those who make it.

‘Fail fast, replenish faster’ might be the hidden agenda then and not democratizing fashion as they have us believe.

But this impulse to shop, our ‘retail therapy’ as we call it combined with ample supply of fast fashion has resulted in a devastating load on the earth’s rapidly depleting resources.

I think it is the need of the hour for women to see the big picture as choices shape the future of the planet. I know that sounds a bit dramatic, but it is true!

I appreciate that men put comfort over appearances. It is my sincere wish that women will put themselves first too.  But hey, we don’t need to skimp on the appearances bit. We just need to choose smart.

A version of this article was first published here on the 100 Naked words publication on Medium.

The heat of the Hustle

Photo by Redd Angelo for Unsplash

As an ex-entrepreneur, it feels gloriously horrible to hang your boots. You are moved by the worn out ness of the heels. Yet it doesn’t quite look too tattered as you hang them. A sign that there’s more to where that came from. Once you are ready again.

But for now you gently close that closet door and sit on your laptop looking at Linkedin, Fastcompany, Indeed, Angel.co and whoever’s hiring. Maybe not you, maybe you are going to take a break. But I am going back to work. I want nothing more than to learn things I didn’t learn in time, and get a chance to own something again and see it to fruition.

The hustle is a frame of mind where there’s no way out. The only way out is to take a step. So you don’t wait, you take action. Sometimes there’s a burning sensation in your belly, all the way rising to your throat the other times.

How do I pay them? Do I have to downsize? Having the dirty conversations. Walking door to door to find clients. Going to great lengths to service them well for a repeat order. Repeat. Chasing defaulting customers for payments. Building a company culture.

When I look back, I realize I didn’t celebrate enough. I was gunning so hard, I was putting all of my life energies to move my company forward that I couldn’t stomp on the brakes. Slow down. But how? Money was running like a tap.

Sometimes that is a sign for a drastic measure – usually for a pivot or complete overhaul. But these signs need to be flagged for in advance, like red alerts – Road bump ahead. However, in my case I reached a point that said – No road ahead.

You don’t have money to pay the toll.

I remember downsizing. The agony of having to tell my tailors who had worked with me for a whole year, that it was over. I dreaded that day the most. I cried every week religiously, for a month until I took that decision and then some more before I mustered up the courage to have that conversation. First with my co-founder. Then with my lead tailor.

My tailor was empathetic. He’d seen me shrink in the last year. In his words I was ‘losing personality’. But I think he meant vitality. He said that it was not realistic to work with so much loss. He said that in losing to run this business, I had learnt to run one. Yes all that and more.

But its been a locked vault honestly after a stream of writing. A vault I don’t want to shake. I just pull up the relevant details for interviews because turns out this seems to be the most exciting part of my application. So I answer.

‘What could you have done better?’

‘What did you learn?’

‘What would you do differently?’

I think I am ready to dig deeper.