Seven Reasons for being allergic to Lawn-o-phobia

It feels good to see such huge colorful banners at winter fall, littered by those skinny models portraying much more than what the traditional lawn has to offer us, a glam makeup advertising the creativity of top notch makeup artist attempting to make it look as close to nature as possible, the leading photographers who put hours of continuous hard work just to make some recognition, and last of all those lawn pieces that are wrapped on the model's figure just as to present the best of the shots ever taken in the history of Pakistani lawn advertisement.

Ambush on our National Dress Code

If this is what impresses our Pakistani women who are more active on household chores, fashion updates and gossips then it is no big deal to capture their attention in semi-shalwar kameez kiosks, held regularly every summers. It is good to see our fashion industry growing at more than doubled rate whose fate rests with the latest tailored outfits, headed by varying degrees of long and short qameezes, ranging from skin-tight to baggy ones.

Where have the Shalwars gone?

However, what is missing in those outfits are the traditional shalwars, which once used to be worn with cultural pride, one miss these days. These shalwars have been replaced by pants, capris, trousers and chudidaars, which have left far behind the Western Jeans for Jeans offer wide coverage of legs, including the ankle, which contemporary replacements don't promise.

The Dupatta Dilemma

Not so long ago, dupatta depicted as a cultural symbol worn by Pakistani women and was considered to be a necessary put on. Today that's true of only a particular class (middle-lower and middle-middle class most probably) who despite mulling over it as an add-on wear it for the sake of acquiescing religious modesty.

Adopting the Western Trend

The necessity of shalwar and dupatta has been put on stake for the first time in the fashion history of Pakistan. What is downgraded is our cultural icon, our traditional shalwar, which has over the time span only ridiculed by the fashion designers, so as to this day one cannot claim those novel outfits that seems more like the hybrid of east and west should be called shalwar kameez. Pakistani women are innocent in making their selection criteria as they solely rely on latest lawn designs carved by the fashion designers in an attempt to make shalwar kameez as western as possible landing up in something akin to shalwar kameez, but not the one to which our culture recommends.

Neither Eastern nor Western

While making our national dress westernized, designers desert our national dress from the prestige that it should be given, this normally places these designer lawns into the category of what one can claim as neither western nor eastern.

Other cultures preserve their national dresses, they are never put an addition to it. Saris remain sari in India, despite the fact that they wear skirts, Jeans, trousers too. Arabian maxis remain maxis to Arab women in addition to the long abaayas, Malay women who prefer to be comfortable wearing silk wrappers wore wrappers along with a decent scarf covering their entire hair. Multicultural and secular nations give privilege to their women to put on whatever they want, what they don't permit is the cultural exploitation in the name of wearing their national dress code.

Making the most from Lawn-o-phobia

Our hybrid new generation in attempting to experiment their cultural code not only exploits the national dress, but also put a huge question mark in the form of drawing something in between shalwar kameez and maxi! Who bears the responsibility for such a change, when our top-notch models, consider running up a new lawn brand more profitable than modeling, and certainly it is. Models prefer to use their names on various brands of lawn rather than to simply pose for them or for being a brand ambassador.

Expensive

I wonder when compatriots claims Pakistanis are poor, we are not. The fact is that Pakistanis rich but Pakistan is poor. Lawn comes in a wide variety ranging from as high as Rs. 7,000 per suit to as low as Rs. 1,200. Designer lawn is usually costly, however when it comes to stitching and adorning with amenities, it goes much high (lawn accessories along with stitching usually cost as much as the entire suit). Suppose the cost of a simple three piece suit (not a designer one) touches Rs. 2,000 with stitching and accessories it would end up almost on a threshold of Rs. 4,000. One must not forget the wonderful fact about wearing lawn clothes, wear it 9 times, the 10th time one is going to wear it out, it would be outdated!