BENGALURU: While clothing is a basic necessity of the social human being, man is not satisfied by just covering himself.
He strives to add value to everything that he does and clothing is no exception. And this introduction of thoughtfulness into our attire is called design.
When this design is subjective, it becomes fashion. When it is objective and draws its principles of design from nature, then it becomes enduring in practice. Fashions come and go every year, but the basic elements of our dressing remain enduring.
If you look at the human body, there are several systems that keep it alive – the pulmonary system, the circulatory system, the skeletal system, the muscular system, the nervous system and so on. These are functional systems that are in a dynamic balance within the human framework and this human framework finds its protection and interaction with the external world through the external layer of the senses.
The skin is the protecting layer that covers all the internal organs and is in turn connected, nourished and sustained by them. The eyes and ears enable us to see and hear and thus protect us from accidents.
The mouth and nose enable us to ingest nutrition and air and provide a means for the sustenance of the body. These senses and limbs are however not merely functional, they carry aesthetic embellishments. The eyes are beautifully shaped with eyelashes to protect the eye. At the same time, the embellishment of the eyebrow which is seemingly disconnected from the eye exists. This eyebrow decorates the eye and also helps the human being express his emotions. Even the human limbs are shapely and aesthetically designed.
The ends of the fingers are embellished with nails, the joints are marked with lines on the skin and so on. Every natural embellishment enhances a function and also protects the owner.In the same way, ornamentation or embellishment that a human being wears must also enhance his ability to function in society as well as protect him or her.
In Indian traditions, when a woman enters into matrimony, she is extolled as the mate who will take the man across the troubled waters of the world and the worldly, and enable both of them to reach the high heavens. She is decked from head to toe. On the head she is decked with the sun and the moon and on her braid she wears the 27 stars – thus carrying the entire cosmos within her.
Her eyes are lined with kajal, ears with earrings, nose with a nose ring, neck with necklaces, hands with bangles, waist with waistband, her toes with toe rings, ankles with anklets, and limbs with the decoration of the auspicious henna.
She wears a silk sari and sparkles like a celestial being when she is given in marriage. The groom though tries to leave the traditional Indian wedding ceremony and walk away to the city of Kashi, a place of renunciation.
He is then brought back with a gift of footwear and with an umbrella and other gifts and convinced that he can achieve through marriage what he meant to achieve through renunciation.
And the marriage is consummated. In a situation where a woman is becoming intimate with a man, she removes her jewellery, her embellishments. These surface attractions are no longer required and are taken off. Thus the act of removing jewellery is a natural act on her part when she is trying to become intimate.
This message is intuitively known to the man too. I have travelled the world and jewellery for a woman is as much in demand and sought after in western societies as it is in other parts of the world.
Only the choice and style of jewellery varies and based one’s skin colour or occupation, a woman may choose different kinds of jewellery. Even tribals wear jewellery and they make it from various kinds of materials such as clay, wood, stones, beads, seeds, etc.,.