Moving around shopping markets, I have come across families shopping for the just ended Christmas and New Year celebrations ahead. It is such a beautiful sight of couples united in the shopping spirit, but miles apart in fashion sense.
Women are neatly dressed walking side by side with shabbily dressed men and children. It cannot be a mere coincidence that most of the women were coming from work while their men and children just got informed of their travel destination in the shopping markets because I have been noticing this on different occasions.
Go to weddings for example, women are dressed for the occasion while most of the men will not hide how patriotic they are to their soccer teams through wearing of replica jerseys. Even in places of worship, the difference in dressing is so visible making it clear that men are left behind in terms of fashion.
The difference is notable even in children, especially girls who go months without changing hairstyles while their mothers literally get a beautician to work on them every weekend. With just about four days left to finish this year, I thought women should start considering being on the same page with our spouses and children as regards fashion.
Perhaps for starters we could look at why men lag behind in Fashion.
Mwai Namaona, designer and proprietor for Nzika, attributed poor dressing by men to their lack of fashion sense by men.
“Unlike women who are mindful of their appearance, therefore, invest in dressing, men lack fashion sense and how they dress is less of their worries. Men do not even care how many times they repeat an outfit while women will not hesitate to change attires more than once during the same occasion,” said Namaona.
Namaona further said men sometimes dress poorly at functions to deliberately relay a message of lack of interest in the event at hand.
“Men find gatherings such as weddings less entertaining and are usually forced by their wives to attend. Instead of turning the whole invitation down probably for fear of disappointing their spouse, they will dress so poorly to convey the message.
“Sometimes the men have other casual functions to attend to so decent attires are seen as a great inconvenience, thereby, opting for casual wear,” said Namaona.
He, however, encouraged women to help their spouses in choosing attires for different occasions.
“Women should not give up on their men, especially those with weird fashion tastes because men are naturally not fashion enthusiasts. Women can assist even by buying second hand, but better clothes for their spouses because men use the exorbitant prices their clothes attract as a scapegoat for poor dressing.” she said.
Harriet Gondwe, however, said women should be patient in trying to convince their spouses, who lack fashion sense to start dressing better.
“Sometimes women are angry at their spouses and speak harshly while ordering them to dress better forgetting that as humans our tastes in fashion differ. Marriage is about communication, therefore, women must communicate in a loving manner only then can they convince their spouses,” Gondwe said
She further urged women to consider children and spouses when buying clothes.
“Dressing tells a story and poor dressing surely tells a bad one, women must therefore make sure every family member tells a good story.” She said.
May every family member in 2016 dress well to avoid embarrassing the rest of the family. n
