Fashion

HEMLINE MOBILITY 

BY MILLICENT AREBUN

Since the 20s, when hems first became a focus of fashion and the sixties, when the fashion world translated female liberation and sexual freedom to upwardly mobile hemlines, by the creation of the ‘minis’, hemlines has had a hard time, staying put in one place.

The upward mobility, of female apparel hemlines, has so accelerated that sometimes, it becomes a cause /source for concern. Micro/mini hemlines, that was previously viewed as a source of wonder(for you only see people wearing it, on television ,a few years back in Nigeria), outrage, amusement or just a western thing, is now common place on the streets of Nigeria, malls or red carpet events. Popularized no doubt, by the trending fashion sense of our style stars, movie celebrities and music superstars, both local and international. Now the budding teenager, who wants to be regarded as a woman, the bored housewife, stuck in an age rut or the goal oriented female, all resort to drastically short hemlines, of any fashion staple, in order to assert herself or be considered trendy.

Shorter hemlines worn right, are no doubt ultra sexy while making you look glamorous, sophisticated and stylish but that can be said of all hemlines. Wearing super short, micro hemlines doesn’t assert your femininity, stylishness or trend worthiness. It only makes the wearer, look ridiculous, tacky and juvenile while ensuring you become a target for mockery, booing, sexual violence or scandal.

While commending the western world on their brilliant fashion/style innovations, one has to still marry, these style/fashion trends with your basic character, philosophy and social values. Anything short of that, only makes you a fashion victim or clone.

Applying moderation, is key in all aspects of life including our hemlines, so it is time for us to decide our hemline limits, by defining our style self and philosophy, taking into cognizance, the values of the society and culture we were reared in. 

Remember, values is what defines an individual, losing or trading our values, makes us aliens to ourselves, our land and the world at large; for a person without values is a person lost.

Trendy or Tacky? I definitively vote TACKY!