Apr 02, 2006 05:33 PM
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(Updated Apr 02, 2006 05:54 PM)
Last week, at the Lakme Fashion Show in Mumbai, Carol Garcias took wardrobe malfunctioning to new heights with this flash of mammary flesh. Desperate publicity stunt or accidental oversite? You be the judge. Carol, maybe, if you ate more and worked-out less you could find clothes that fitted better?
Whatever the case was, the visitors to the show aren’t complaining. Infact, most of them are enthralled, so much that they have made a MMS out of it(our favourite pass-time). And, those who missed the live pictures altogether -(unfortunate ones who saw it only 100 odd times, that too blurred, flashed across the news channels) - wait for that message alert sound on your MMS-savvy phones. After all where do you get to see abso-freaking-lutely NOTHING! So what’s next in line? Spouse-swapping, coke-snorting. Been there, done that? After all we follow the wild-wilder-wildest west.
The invention of this term has finally provided us with a way to explain many other situations. Stuck zipper? Wardrobe malfunction. Jeans not quite as “pre-shrunk” as you thought they were? Wardrobe malfunction. Tripping on your high heels or baggy pants? Wardrobe malfunction. Can’t get your arm through that shirt sleeve? You know what to blame. Its nearly universal.
Of course, the term may be new, but the scenarios involving malfunctioning wardrobes have been around for ages.
Our very own mythological Mahabhrata has it’s own share of wardrobe malfunctioning. Atleast Dushasan can claim so as he was trying to wipe Draupadi off her saree. Had the saree functioned normally he would have achieved what he was set for. Guess, we can call it mal-function on the part of saree.
Instances of wardrobe malfunction date back to biblical times. Noah, reclining at his farm after the Flood, got drunk off some of his wine. Unfortunately, his wardrobe malfunctioned and his sons had to cover him with a cloak.
We find another case of wardrobe malfunction in the story of the Emperor's New Clothes. The Emperor's tailors worked hard and long on developing the new wardrobe for their master, only to find it malfunction as that somebody in the crowd had to stand up for what was right and tell the dude he was naked. Now, some would argue that this is only a common sense malfunction, for there was no physical wardrobe to actually commit the error, but the fact that even the nonexistent outfit caused troubles qualifies it for the title of wardrobe malfunction.
Painters through their visual art has from time to time gave wardrobe malfunctioning a new meaning(although the term wasn’t coined by then).
The Reclining Nude's shawl seems to have malfunctioned and fallen to the ground was depicted by Pierre Auguste Renoir in one of his paintings.
Pablo Picasso painted another of malfunction masterpiece. While the wardrobe in his painting is hard to distinguish, it is possibly represented in the abstract shapes and colors surrounding the posing women. In both figure and location, it has indeed malfunctioned and left us exposed to the figures in full. The man was truly a visonary.(Guess, Mr MF Hussain did miss a trick by not naming his bare-all paintings as Wardrobe Malfunction).
After the invention of television malfunctioning of clothes became more frequent than ever before. Somehow, most of the clothes worn by pop singer Madonna, can be said to have malfunctioned.
In Simpson’s, mischevious Bart Simpson got the terrible idea of placing helium-filled balloons beneath poor Willy's kilt. This traditional Scottish skirt was not designed for helium-induced shenanigans, and, sadly, malfunctioned. Poor, poor, Willy.
And, who can forget an event that occured at the Superbowl XXVIII halftime show on Sunday, February 1st, 2004 which shocked the nation and terrified the world. Janet Jackson's tits was exposed by Justin Timberlake live, in front of millions worldwide, as the words “I’m gonna have you naked by the end of this song” were sung.
In grand conclusion of our tour of wardrobe malfunction in history, it can be said that the event has indeed occured many times previous to Ms Garcias’s tits appearance. Justin Timberlake was right on in coining the new term- a term long overdue. Looking back, it can be hard to imagine how a world filled with so many malfunctions of wardrobe has survived without a clear, concise way to describe it.
