It's cold but i'll take the risk

So i was walking back home from school just the other day and i happened to encounter a couple. I did not know them but they seemed to attract my attention, only because they were the only couple in my view. Okay, so the girl was average height about 5"4 and the guy was like 5"10. So this is me walking in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. It was pretty cool that day so i decided to use the former and latter to keep me warm. I was watching people-something that has just recently become a habit.

So the couple were right in my face. You know the guy had on a pair of pants and a t-shirt, but the girl-oh the poor girl. Imagine this, in Fiji and for us locals we all know that when it's like 30 degrees out there-well thats a bit cool for us. The weather can be harsh and there's always a 50 percent chance that it might rain. Again the girl-the poor girl was wearing what seemed like a spaghetti-summer-dress. You know the kind with the criss-cross at the back, and in the front it really outlines your cleaveage and all-oh and the dress was an angel white. She had this black thin tights knee-lenght but she looked COLD. Believe me i know because even the guy was folding his arms and tucking his hands under his pits.

Okay the girl was Cold. And what really confirmed my assumptions was that she admitted it hereself. While they were walking past me-or rather while we were walking past each ohter i heard her saying to the guy-i'm assuming that was the boyfriend-she muttered to the guy in an honest Indian Accent-'Aree yaar, I'm cold'. I couldn't help myself but laugh at her remark-well not letting them both aware of it.

So here's the thing-what's up with the idiom-'Dress to impress'. Why couldn't the poor girl just throw on a something a lot warmer instead of having to admit to the supposedly boyfriend that she was cold and allowing me the pleasure to eavesdrop and let me write about this in the end. Hey, lets be reasonable here, isn't it better to look aweful rather than catch cold or Swine Flu or what they have now termed as Influenza A H1N1? Which one of you would be sensible enough to choose the former and which one of you would choose the latter?

On a scale of 1 to 10, most fashion outgoing females (since they are the main victims in this case) would fall on 8. The number representing that they would go for fashion than comfort. This is now an evident perception with quite a handful of Pacific island women. And the number is still growing.

Whatever happened to preserving our identity and maintaining our integrity by covering our bodies? But this of course could be an argumentative point because history tells us that our great-great-bubu was walking around the village rara (grounds) in a just an above-the-knee grass skirt and going topless. But then again the pre-colonial period brought about many changes and some of these changes we have accepted and linked them with our culture. Which is where the issue of clothing and hiding our sacred bodies come in.

The western world has impacted our lives at great heights some of which we are not aware of. For instance, out of a Vogue issue-one sees the picture of say, Pamela Anderson, and her many times breast-implant bosom. She's wearing a low-cut spaghetti top and a mini denim skirt. She's looking FANTABULOUS. Hey if Anderson wee here in Fiji she'd probably rate what we locals call COLD as oven-hot. For you my fellow loyal and sane citizens-pliz listen to Mummy Nopa just this once-do the right thing and wear the right stuff where its convinient.

You can still be the prettiest and hunkiest bloke around if you cover your body especially if the weather is not really agreeing with you.

Bell-Bottoms

So let me take you on a retro tour. Ahhhh the 60's right through the 70's were the Days of Bell-bottoms and Afrodisiacs. Hey if you weren't wearing pants that were flarry at the knees right down, out on the streets or while washing your car-you would probably be called an outcast by your neighbours.

I mean come on people, these were days where even the most scandalous United States President-Richard Nixon was wearing b-bs and probably would have gone afro if it weren't for his position as the most powerful man alive (at that time of course); and if that was not enough, even the local Dailies deliverer would wear this ridiculous and yet intriguing pair of pants while on his bicylcle throwing papers on the path or in the bushes where the dog finds and buries in the ground in the backyard.

But I wouldn't know anything about the above of course except history has a way of repeating itself. I'm talking about back on the island. Now this is where the real flash-back's evident, the old ABBA, Eagles etc. wanna-be's you name it. You'll notice this-one thing that never ceases to amaze me is the time the oldies take to doll-up themselves. I mean Granny Queen Elizabeth II would probably sue bubu and tutu for taking more time to dress up than herself. As soon as they step out of their only-god-knows-what perfumed room, can you only guess that they probably had a week to think about what they were gonna wear that day.

Dressing for church becomes a great hassle for most of them. I once had this bubu who has gone to another dimension (God bless her soul) who one day went to church with a thigh-high dress. And i'm not talking about a knee-length dress-i'm talking about the want-to-turn heads-thigh-high costume (although at that time she didn't think so). Boy, you could only guess the amount of heads she was able to turn from the elders' seat and the village-gossipper.

But we were talking about bell-bottoms. Wow, i'll tell you this for reference but off-the-record as well. Ever watched the video-clip of Stayin' alive by the Bee Gees? Watch it then you'll get this. I once caught my tutu and this is only recently, wearing a pair of b-bs, holding a brush in his hand and staring into the mirror humming something through his nose. He had combed out his hair-which my bubu continuously maintained out of a pair of old-surgery scissors. I had just come out of the the rest room so i decided to peak into their room. As he reached the climax of his humming, i realised that he was singing an old number from the Bee Gees- Stayin' Alive. As he came to the chorus where Barry Gibb tenors 'Ah, ah ah ah.....' i realised that neither i nor the accessories and numerous tablet bottles on the dressing table were the audience, my bubu was all the while on the bed cheering my tutu on to reach the tenor voice as if his life depended on it. He was tapping to his imaginative beat, and the somewhat poor old, worn and torn out pants was swishing against his cuffs like the coconut leaves after the storm. You can imagine the excitement that merged inside me when my parents got home from work...hilarious!!! Talk of the century!!!

So lets come back to prospect. Yes if you look closely and observe the tutu's strolling in town you will notice that one out of ten is wearing that old flarry probably-older-than-i-am b-b's. And as surprising as it may sound, it actually suits them.

So now the world's fashion magazines are taking the 70's style in. The other day i was looking through one of Women's Weekly editions mag. and i happened upon the picture of Katie Holmes. Well low and behold-yep she was wearing a pair of b-b's and boy did she look ravishing. Even Hollywood's favourite teen rock band-The Jonas Brothers wear b-b's.

It's like the in-thing now!!. Not owning a pair of b-b's jeans could be a crime. Or maybe that was a little bit far too stretched. Only a fashion idealist and the Cosmopolitan Editor would only think that. But hey this is just how it is nowadays. The clubs are rocking with masses of people every weekend and you'll find some throwing on a halterd-neck top and a pair of this very comfortable, sylish slacks. Hey ask one of the girls who works for Jade or Joji's along the seafront in Suva and they'll tell that they love b-b's because it is comfortable and for-all-occassions outfit.

Thanks to the Just Jeans factory or whatever clothing line came up with the bell-bottoms style, we can now enjoy the 60's and 70's at present. Just hopefully our kids can write about this too andjust might earn a whole lot from it.