LET us consider the first documented fashion statement to be the fig leaf… well ladies and gentleman I want you to hold that thought.

Growing up as a young girl, the perception of beauty was more or less restricted to facial features – from beautiful actresses and models to singers and pop stars, from celebrities to socialites and neighbours, friends and classmates, it was all about the face or what is referred to as ‘classical beauty’. In the sixties all that changed which is chronicled in the music, the movies, and the way society began socializing. This was just the beginning or the dawn of the transformation to a ‘sex sells’ industry, evident by the popularity of revealing fashions and also by the trend setting magazine of the time, Playboy.

All through this phase, India, which was still in the process of creating its own identity, stayed on the sidelines and away from this movement. Indian movies during this period were the only tiny sliver of a reflection that we were at par with the West. Shammi Kapoor and Fred Astaire symbolized the sexy seventies. Both western and Indian cinema had music and dance, were set in amazing foreign locations with mature storylines and had happy endings.

Marie Antoinette wore tightly laced corsets and voluminous skirts, the height of fashion in her time, which cleverly hid all but her false waist, cleavage and her true smile. This was very much like the sari, where only the hair, eyes, mouth and cleavage were visible and became the only parameters of beauty. It has taken five hundred years since that time for the introduction of the thong that allows men to finally get exactly what they see!

This period was followed by the electric eighties, a ‘revealing’ culture where you bared your mind, body and soul in various ways. At that point India went into censorship mode with the exception of a couple of Miss India’s like Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi who made their debut. They were extremely popular and became our only poster girls. But we were still in the dark ages.

By the time I came to live in India, which was in the mid-eighties, the concept of beauty had become very westernised. Blonde streaking of hair, wild makeup and crazy prints were all there, but still no real emphasis on body shape or size. Over the years I spent as a fashion model, the major desired look in the modelling world was the sexy woman (as depicted in some of the bikini clad cola ads), or the mysterious woman who had it all. The wholesome, homely, family oriented, miss goody goody, sari clad woman selling you detergent with a sparkling smile, also jostled for space!

With Farah Fawcett and Jane Fonda came aerobics, spandex and bottled water. The ‘body obsession’ had arrived. But in India we were always body happy. We were a motley crew of models of all shapes and sizes and no one really bothered about what one weighed and what ones measurements were. We were individually fitted for fashion shows and, most important of all, we never dieted or exercised and we were comfortable and confident.

But things have changed with the surge of media exposure. We now view imported television channels and MTV videos and see an endless loop of sexy women gyrating in tiny clothes to both English and Hindi movie songs. There is an abundant stream of fashion magazines with endless airbrushed adverts where everybody looks perfect, followed by strategically placed adverts for miracle diet pills, easily obtainable mail order equipment and cosmetics to enhance everything from your smile to your breasts. There is a barrage of information but nothing to help one enhance or address the essential ingredients that make a woman beautiful and sexy – personality, grace, self- esteem and confidence – attributes that project a great self-image, something that money cannot buy.

 

I know many women who have a really unhealthy self-image. They don’t just want to look younger or like they did when they were 18, they want to look like a Barbie doll – blonde, tiny waisted, huge boobed and with endless legs. Look in the mirror girl, you are only five feet short! And, the real 18 year olds are worse. Influenced by endless western magazines, all they want is to be fair, blonde and try to bribe their parents into permitting them to have cosmetic dentistry and laser hair removals in order to get better grades or accept an arranged marriage or even just agree to go to college. A young girl’s birthday wish now includes a new nose or plumper lips with a larger you know what, topping the list. And, I am talking about young women in all the metros in this country without exception.

The size zero concept is a complete farce. I have been a small size my whole life which at 5’6" is a regular size. Yet, I find that in countries like the United States they have knocked off all the sizes so that larger people can feel better about themselves – hence the amazing ‘size zero’ which is just a regular small. A brilliant marketing ploy proving once again that size matters. So while a couple of years ago I was a regular small or a zero, I am now a double zero or an extra small!

 

Last London fashion week I was at an after party and failed to recognize any of the supermodels like Kate Moss or Sienna Miller, as they looked so different from their highly photo-shopped images! They were frail, pale faced, wrinkled and terribly thin, with veins running down their anorexic arms, thinning hair and acne! Yet, both these girls make millions of dollars on endorsements based purely on their highly visible erratic behaviour and good bone structure thanks to photoshop, the instant magic wand of the new millennium. We too are heading down that road. Our film stars look good in tabloids here but not when they grace red carpets elsewhere, simply because here they spend a fortune making them look perfect. I just finished a photo shoot for a glossy magazine and will not be surprised if I don’t recognize myself at all. The good news though is that things are changing in countries like Brazil where underage and underweight models are being banned after two young girls succumbed to extreme starvation trying to stay super thin in order to make it in the harsh world of fashion.

In France too, often considered the Mecca of fashion, they are banning underage, anorexic, reed thin girls from modelling. A top fashion magazine in Paris recently came out with a cover featuring a 100% natural look, a bold statement negating the unnatural shape of extremely tall thin women. A British publication had a large size beautiful model posing naked to encourage women like her. Women all over the world applauded the move. Words like anorexia, bulimia, vegan, botox which one had never heard of before are being whipped into your New Oxford dictionary, while ageing gracefully, self-esteem and just being plain happy with what you are, is all being wiped out.

 

At a recent dinner with the girls, all fashionable ladies of a distinguished flock, I noticed there was no one who really cared about discussing a good book, a great restaurant, a good recipe, global warming or world peace or even about the neighbour’s child who just got into an Ivy League school. It was all about the latest handbag, dermatologist or the most important man in your life, which in most cases was not the husband, lover, or boyfriend but instead, the new personal trainer! When he is on vacation, these women become ‘wrecks’.

Last but not least, they are obsessed with the latest secret diet plan and not so secret bowel movement schedule, with endless diets propagating low carbs, vegan, high protein, macrobiotics or just plain not eating at all. The body is no longer a temple, it has become a dart board at which to throw anything and everything, and to abuse it further with extreme exercise.

There is, of course, no question that exercise is great, but that is not as important as the gym membership with the right ‘audience’ to watch your butt get tighter in the latest designer wear and accompanying accessories with the obligatory massage, steam and sauna that keeps a lot of women busy all evening, delinking them from all the stress of teenage children, straying husbands, pending bills, ageing, and real life. Living longer, thanks to all the medical advancement, the forties are the new thirties, and life now starts at fifty when ones kids are educated and well on their way. One has built ones house, and the ‘me’ time finally takes off.

 

Watch any advert and the clear rule to sell any product is seduction. Beautiful, slim, airbrushed enhanced women, urging you, seducing you, making you ‘want’. The reality is that everyone watches the women. The men watch the women and the women watch the women. So from looking forever young to being thin is in ones face all the time. This is dangerous for a generation growing up with totally western ideals of beauty, behaviour and body types that lead to a deep sense of low body image, low confidence and damaged self-esteem. I personally cannot understand why we use foreign faces to advertise products in a country with our darker skin tones.

Since time immemorial, beauty and power have ruled the world. We will always chase an ideal. Men do fantasize about the perfect woman but will almost always agree that the woman they are with is the perfect woman for them. Women, however, fantasize about themselves looking like someone else, rather than about other men. The fact is men don’t like bones, they like a women with curves, a woman who is sexy, confident and makes them comfortable. Look at the cover of any male magazine and you will not see a size zero model for sure!

Most men think cellulite is just another cell phone application but women are obsessed with cellulite, yours truly included, and that’s when I discovered why women have cellulite and men don’t, because it is nature’s incredible way of protecting all our vital organs since we give birth. How amazing is that! And since we do not farm and walk a million miles to fetch water, or do any hard manual labour like in days gone by, we will never have the beautiful bodies that village people in India have. Natural beauty will remain way up there in human sensibilities and hopefully in their senses too, but will you get a better job being better looking? Hell, yes. Will you make a better match? Hell, yes. Will men open doors for you, or will you get into the best clubs and restaurants, or get kicked up to first class? For sure. But, will you get a raise? Will you find true love? Will you be successful? No, not if you are not a well educated, smart, wonderful and a hard working person.

 

We live in a world where models, still in their teens, die of anorexia; where one gets dumped because there is always someone better looking; where old, rich men buy younger wives; where there are de-addiction clinics for cosmetic surgery addicts; where low self-esteem is directly linked to ones bra size and people no longer look like their pictures do. Thank god that in India we are in a comparatively safer environment, still shy of the neighbour’s family members and peers. But generation next is in imminent danger of being born beautiful and never ever being allowed to see themselves like that.

In an emerging economy like ours, everyone is in ‘competition mode’. It all began with jewellery and clothes, then it became cars and houses, and then vacations and credit cards, and now it is health, youth and beauty.

Today, beauty is a status symbol which can be bought. Superficial physical beauty has become a reality. If you’re got it, flaunt it, is the popular mantra chanted around the globe. We want instant noodles, botox shots and instant youth without any hard work. We want centre lean pills right now which promises one a lean belly without diet or exercise, and plastic surgery instead of great diet, good habits, less stress and enough sleep! Waiting to see a friend at the Escorts hospital one morning, I noticed a kindly old man watching me. I smiled at him and as I did, he walked up and asked me if I was Feroze Gujral. I smiled and said I was and his face lit up with a big smile and he said, ‘Do you mind if I measure your nose!’ I was taken aback. He was one of India’s leading plastic surgeons who does over two dozen procedures each year wanting to copy my nose! As one woman who has surgery every few months and endless other invisible procedures, aptly put it when I asked if she was ever going to be truly happy with the way she looked, ‘What is the point wearing lakhs worth of diamonds, clothes and accessories if you look like death!’

 

Fashion fades and style survives. Look at all those great style icons out there. What would Jacky be without her sun glasses; Marilyn Monroe without her peroxide and that breathless voice; Maharani Gayatri Devi without her chiffons; Rekha without the South Indian saris. Style breeds immortality. Icons know that. So, mirror mirror on the wall who is the fairest of us all? That simple old age ditty has turned into the frightening mirror-mirror on the wall, who the hell is that looking back at me. Thank God, beauty will always lie in the eye of the beholder and not in that mirror on the wall. The current ‘go green’ movement brings us back to that first thought of the fig leaf, so why did man ever need the fig leaf to cover up… shame …fashion is to blame!