Guess The Fashion Faux Pas

Hollywood and the fashion scene seem like two worlds milestones away from the current one we reside in. Their appeal to the ordinary (for a lack of a better word) folks is one to entice fantasy lives where days are filled with the presence of everlasting beauty, peaceful minds even under the influence of stimulating substances, and delicious foods that lack in calories. Those names, part of these two worlds which often collide with one-another, are the object of adoration, lust and power and as quickly as they are buoyed by the public, as easily they crumble at the faces of an entertained crowd. These icons that have become a fixture in our every-day diet, make me think, how much do they reveal and how much of a big masquerade has the world of fashion and film become?

These zealously asked questions came about at the closure of Friday night when I decided to retreat from a group of New York elite society and indulge in a one-on-one conversation with someone who is the equivalent of Tommy Hilfiger. It started out as a game of truth-or-dare, only to reveal insights into the life of this dazzling figure that do not meet the media and consumer driven expectations. In a bundle of fears, insecurities and revelations, this man, as a weeping child, was baring his soul to me and I was there waiting to pick up what was left of it. A talented and awarded designer, his clothes have embraced the bodies of stick-figure models with names bigger then their bodies, and star icons portrayed as transcendent individuals. Of course this was done at a cost that I also had to pay.

Star-struck or simply struck, I strutted down West Broadway past Felix restaurant where dining companions had settled comfortably in their chairs to enjoy a few glasses of wine along with random night-owls on a pursuit of a better conversation, dining spot and/or sleeping buddy. Our play-talk had aroused the slightest of pity; it served as an eye-opener that even those stars ranked higher in a society where gold-membership cards open doors to a world of numberless friends and loneliness, weight over healthy, and name dropping are regarded highly, do indeed burst under their own names and look for methods to compensate for such weakness. Perhaps this is the key to success! After all history does depict a trail of big names that fell victims to fame simultaneously, allowing their talents and contributions to linger into the present and future (hence, Van Gogh and Heath Ledger). If I took one thing with me, it was not his lavishly designed cocktail dress but that life remains its usual self with obstacles and fears, no matter what rank of society we occupy. Could the ones caught in personal traumas, be the seed of talents to come?

By Anisa Hasani