It goes without saying: everyone dresses up for Eid. Meanwhile, in Ramazan if we are not preparing iftar, or attending iftar parties, another popular pastime of females, young and old, is to ask each other what-are-you-wearing-on-Eid, or shopping in the malls for fashion-designer outfits we cannot afford but simply must have, or joining the crowd of Eid shoppers on Tariq Road and Bahadurabad for good-looking apparel we cannot afford either but are less costly than the fashion-designer thingies. In the end, every female is happy, looks glamorous and pleased with herself on Eid day.
Nobody calls these stitched clothes 'ready-made' now. Its not a suitable term for clothes which cost an arm and a leg. We call them fashion wear, designer fashions, trendy outfits.This Eid high prices will match the high summer. It is not the season to doll up in silks and satins, it will have to be cottons and lawn embellished with sequins, embroidery, tinsel, silver and gold (synthetic) thread. Fashion designers and textile manufacturers have naturally prepared to cater to Eid clothes suitable for the sweltering summer.
It is scandalous that a humble material like cotton and lawn worn by everyone from the working class to the affluent should be so expensive. It is not because of the high quality of cotton materials, Pakistani cottons are the best in the world. The price is, I think, 50 percent due to the fact that the best textile brands have prints designed by leading fashion houses. If it was just about over spending for Eid clothes, one could forgive the high prices, but they will stay costly and the price will creep up and up through the year. This makes it daylight robbery.
The price of fashion wear and quality cottons and lawns is artificial, driven by the fact that no matter the cost, sales are high. It is boom time for the apparel and textile industry year round. Economic pundits explain this is because of a growing middle-class population. Middle-class psychology is exploited. In America, when its middle-class began to prosper called this mentality 'keeping up with the joneses' and the joneses keep up with the super rich. It's the same mentality here designer wear is priced for the affluent class in Pakistan, but look into the fashion outlets. You will note the majority are not wives and daughters of multimillionaires. The price tag is not calculated in rupees, it is always calculated in dollars. That is one major reason for the high price. And it also helps to make the elite feel exclusive, and the middle-class wannabe feel they belong to the rich club.
Another population group which is driving the profits on designer wear and lawn textile is the growth in the young population of Pakistan. Market experts believe the young are the main target of the fashion designers and textile manufacturers.The exuberance of youth is reflected in designing. Patterns of textiles are a mix of different design elements: confused designs for a confused nation. Sophistication and elegance is not visible anywhere, neither in the fashion wear nor the textile designs.
Fashion trends among the young dictate how much cloth is sold per suit. For example, when the pajama style of leg covering were trendy (they still are, but less so) the textile for a suit included just enough cloth for a pajama. If you wore a shalwar you would have a hard time working out how to sew it. The result was that every one from elderly women, young people, the housemaid and the dhobi's daughter wore pajamas. The ones from the designers looked elegant because they were cut like trousers, but the ones worn by the majority looked like the bottom half of nightsuits.
Pakistani cottons and lawns are durable but hardly anyone wears a suit from one year to the next. In fact, with lawn manufacturers introducing new designs every few months, some launch at least 50 design prints each year, they have ensured if people are not spending their money on food stuffs like kababs and burgers and pizzas and all kind of fresh and fizzy drinks, they will spend it on clothes. Eid is just and excuse to buy more clothes just as Ramazan is an excuse to eat more fancy foods at iftar.
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