“It is the fashion of the day!”

Things which seem to have become fashionable….

The guy isn’t your typical teenager who’s rough around the edges. No; the white on his hair is taking up more and more space. Maybe he can even be the father of kids in their early twenties. So what? Well, it was inside a financial institution and this guy’s jeans were down halfway the part of the body which most probably no one wants to lay their eyes on; except the nurse who is forced to give some injection. Look, I don’t want to sound intrusive; what one wear’s is one’s choice. I mean if pulled-down pants are his way of making his day brighter, so be it. But here we are talking about a fellow probably in his late forties and in a public place! What about the sensitivities of others? If he was making a statement I don’t think any of us ‘spectators’ got it. And if there was any embarrassment it was not on his part.

I could imagine coming across a friend;

“How do I look in these pants?”

“Great! You’re dressed to kill.”

“You know, my wife wasn’t very happy about it.” She shouldn’t be! How can any wife be happy about her hubby displaying the most unsightly part of his body in public?

“Don’t blame her; you know how it is with wives.”

Aha! There you have that macho talk. He’s not sympathizing with her. The guy is blaming her! It’s like “You know, she is worried the pretty girls of the town would set their eyes on you.” Some friends are real nice, aren’t they?

I ask myself, “Am I alone in this?” Maybe; maybe people have more important things to worry about in life than about how this guy or that wears his pants. I could feel some souls saying, “Hey, wise guy, your mind needs some revamping! It couldn’t even figure out pulled down pants the fashion of the day.”

Fashion my…whatever! A guy closing on the half-century mark pulling down his pants so low in public places! Come on, there must be better ways to impress, if that’s the guy’s aim.

Look, I brought up this pant-pulling thing because it seems to be going out of hand. If you use minibus taxis for transport you’d know what I am trying to say. The chauffeurs’ assistances pull down their pants so low the bare body parts are there right under your nose! Disgusting!

 Sometimes the human body could be so repulsive! Hmm. I have seen a few heated exchanges with passengers demanding assistances to pull up their pants. Not once were the comments accepted; not once!

In the old days, there was those bellbottom pants where it was hard to see even the brand of shoes people are wearing. Come to think of it now, the opening must have been good for the flow of some fresh air! (Maybe pulled-down pants do the same!) Hmm. Even souls like us with chopsticks for legs used to wear it! It was the fashion of the day, dummy! That is probably what the man I was talking about would say to me… “It is the fashion of the day, dummy!”

I can’t forget the mother of three who had on the back of her pants the sign “Bite me!” I am still not sure if that was an invitation or a challenge. What was she thinking? What about her kids in tow? I mean, in a country where communicating in English is seen as the pinnacle of knowledge, her kids are bound to ask “Mom, what does it mean?” Would her answer be “It is the fashion of the day, dummies!”

These days fashion is also about possessing smartphones the size of mini-  laptops; about who got the best ringtone, about selfies, about profile pictures, about the fifty-five inch flat screen TVs.

Tattoos seem also to be making some sort of resurgence. The girls who once peddled jokes about local ladies with tattoos are now having them even on beyond-the-radar parts of their body.

There was also the Afro-hair age. You look at old photos with a ton of hair on your head and lament “Now, wasn’t that nice!” Hey in those days there were even ways for people to make their hair coarse. Beer! Yes, people washed their hair with beer!

The next time I come across a middle-aged man with pulled-down pants and he asks me…

“How do I look?” my answer would be an outright winner…

“You look like the prince who rescued the princes in distress…”

And the guy would actually grin! Any other answer, and he’ll probably try to kick me all the way to Hell. Maybe, just maybe, I should look a career in fashion designing, of which I know nothing about. I mean the country is in a mess because many of us are in things we know absolutely nothing about.

The Ethiopian Herald July 31/2020