We all have to admit, especially the women, that fashion wields a great deal of power over us. Fashion is a constant search for the perfect look. Each season sees us scouting for 'what's new' to reinvent ourselves and achieve our own degree of perfection. After all, our clothing is one of the few things we can readily change about ourselves. Our clothes are visible symbols of who we are and what we want to be.
One look at your shoe collection can make you virtually draw a personality sketch - an Ashley, a Zeta, a Lotus Bawa, a Rinaldi, a Joy - shoes can speak volumes about who you are - athletic, comfy, quirky, and sexy. Nearly every piece of your wardrobe spells out whether you are a free spirit, a trend junkie, and an upbeat society girl, an arty bohemian or just simply elegant. The style you wear labels you. A sari or a pair of jeans is not just a sari or jeans, it is a lifestyle ingredient. When a man buys cream flat front trousers and a frosted pink shirt with a black leather jacket, he's not just buying an outfit; he's buying an attitude.
There is the magnetic appeal of the world of fashion - the glamour, the glitz, the chutzpah - it's feisty fusion of art, entertainment and business all rolled into one. We are drawn to it by the sheer excitement of everything we think it stands for. Fashion is built on contradictions. It is fun but frustrating. It is creative but commercial. It can make us feel beautiful but also ugly when we can't live up to the established ideals. Fashion makes us strive to attain, and it also makes us think about everything we don't have. We know a nice outfit can brighten your mood one day but you hate the frustration of "having nothing to wear" for that ooh-la-la party. We love shopping for the spate of Diwali parties but hate to look at the expenses incurred. We love shopping for just another T-shirt to relieve our stress but can't take the stress of tidying our wardrobes. We love how high heels make our legs look sexy but hate the blisters that threaten to burst the next day.
Being a well-dressed person can elevate you to 'screen idol' proportions and on the flip side, fabulously talented people are sometimes swept aside because they don't play the fashion game (not that it matters!). Fashion can make us do crazy things. It makes us take those innumerable trips to the stores every change of season. Long coats were in for winter, you promptly got one. Beaded jeans are out, you dump the pair you got just two months back and buy the latest boot cut ones. We sigh over the exorbitant price tags but still are lured into spending fat amounts on that delicious salwar kameez in the show window.
Even though fashion has become enmeshed in our everyday lives and one can cast a critical eye on the 'good and the bad' of it all, we certainly can't undervalue 
the ways in which it has enriched our lives. Who can deny that a bride glows ten times brighter when she's wearing her dream lehnga? Who can deny the fillip in your confidence when you stepped out for your first interview in that smart linen pantsuit?
Fashion has contributed aesthetic beauty and art to our world. Clothes serve to enshrine the most wonderful times of our lives - the outfit you wore on the day you found the love of your life, the tiniest pair of denim dungarees your child toddled around when he took his first step, the outfit you were wearing when you were asked, "aren't you that famous model?" My father's favourite shirt bought in 1969 was white with embroidered panels - to this day the mere thought of that shirt makes me smile.
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