Energy-saving apparel
Friday, 28 August 2009
Maswood Alam Khan
IN an international magazine I read a few years back that not less than one billion American dollars could be saved every year on account of electricity consumption if office and factory workers in Tokyo alone could ditch their neckties and wear only half-sleeved shirts without any jacket. A few more million dollars, I then surmised, could perhaps be saved if blue-collared workers, if not the white-collared ones, could wear only half-pants and T-shirts in their workplaces.
Our Prime Minister has broached a brilliant idea by suggesting that wearing trousers and plain shirts instead of suits, switching off air-conditioners for at least one hour a day and turning the air-conditioner dials above 24 degree Celsius during hot season from March to November could save much of the electricity that goes into cooling office rooms. Such a noble move, we believe, will reduce not only electricity consumption; it will also save thousands of tons in carbon dioxide emissions as a measure against global warming.
If we follow our Premier's advice a new trend of wearing form-flattering, open-neck and half-sleeved shirts and loose trousers of different hues and shapes made from ultra lightweight fabrics may come into fashion and keep our working men and women look smart and preppy as the thermometer rises. If we don't wear a tie to save electricity, we would then look for button-downs or snap-downs to prevent collars from flying haphazardly and aim for shirts with ornamental collars to add a little flair to a no-tie look.
Wearing suits and stuffing our necks with a tie, in spite of ourselves, is a sartorial fashion we have borrowed from the British who were our colonial rulers. Our ancestors enjoyed punishing themselves by mimicking the British style and fashion, which was seen as synonymous with being chic and modern. They wanted in vain to be 'brown sahibs'! So, as a legacy our office executives-the fashion victims-now find it prestigious to chill their car and office chamber to 18 degree Celsius so that they and their guests can wear pinstripe suits and silk ties wrapped over the designer shirts when the weather outside is extremely hot and humid and when the general people are sweating and panting due to power outage.
Fashion is a contagious phenomenon. When a celebrity wears a new dress, no matter it was deemed gaudy the day before, that dress becomes the latest fashion for fans to copycat. A designer company consults with sartorial professionals to gauge the probable public reaction to a change in fashions before they approach a celebrity to sponsor their newest design by wearing their new apparel on a public occasion. Fashions thus have lamentably been dependent more on the image a celebrity can leave in the minds of his or her fans rather than on comforts the costumes or the ornaments can offer to the wearers.
But, a wind of change seems to have been blowing in the world of fashions. 'Dress as you like' is poised to enter the realm of designer world as the latest fad. People all over the world appear to be on the verge of completely passing up formal dresses that many, especially in the business world, felt they were obligated to wear.
In the business world, there is a conflict of opinions when it comes to the matter of suits, boots, and ties. Some management gurus opine that wearing a boot, a suit, and a tie only reduces motivation and energy, especially on hot summer days and workers should be liberated from the yoke of dress codes, while others stick by the tenet that 'a suit, a tie, and a boot' are collectively a symbol of authority, trust, and confidence. Many return to the fact that a job well done is not thanks to the boot, the suit, or the tie, while many others also return to another fact that an army is bound to fail in its war mission if the captain allows his soldiers to dress as they fancy.
Smart people to prove their own personal stylishness are no longer using suits and ties. Of late, fashion designers are coming up with more comfortable punjabi-like-shirts made from cotton fabrics that wicks sweat away from the skin. There are also more stylish cuts and free combinations people are turning to. Celebrities like Sharruk Khan are often found wearing their modern suits or shirts without ties. Single-breasted jackets and chic dress shirts no longer have to be accompanied by ties. The obligation to wear ties, even at official functions, appears to have been fast disappearing!
The image of dress freedom presented by the new US President, Barack Obama, no doubt has played a large role in freeing the obligatory dressing codes that once were in vogue in the world of fashions. This young president, who looks as if he had stepped straight out of a page of a men's fashion magazine, seems to support the 'freedom look' as we often find him wearing informal dresses-a sartorial behaviour not much found in any of his predecessors in the White House. His personal style and élan suggests that a suit is not always dependent on the dress shirt, the tie, the matching pants, the jacket, or the shoes.
However, energy saving attires like a half-sleeved shirt without a tie instead of a dress shirt with a regimental tie or a half-pant instead of a full-pant or a pair of sandals instead of a pair of oxford shoes will not alone alleviate the sufferings we are now enduring due to load shedding in electricity supplies.
We must not expect that our government will send agents to our offices and apartments to tone down the thermostats of our air-conditioners and freezers and switch off the fans when there is nobody around. What we need to do is keep our moral compass always on before our eyes. We must stand before the mirror and ask ourselves whether we have committed what we were supposed to have omitted or omitted what we were supposed to have committed. Do we know that in our air-conditioners each degree set above 22 degree Celsius will use 4.0 per cent less energy? Do we make sure that our computers and monitors are switched off when not in use? Have we swapped our old-fashioned incandescent bulbs for low-energy 'compact fluorescent bulbs'? Had we switched the printer and the copier off before we left our office? Have we looked for the most energy efficient options before purchasing a new electric appliance? If not, we must not claim that the soil of Bangladesh belongs with us.
On the other hand, our government should also not advise us to take two meals a day, instead of three to solve a food crisis. We, like loyal citizens, have abided to accelerate the velocity of our watches with a view to saving daytime as our government instructed and we would again dial back the hands of our watches when the day would be shorter in winter. But, there is yet to be a respite from the suffering due to frequent load shedding.
How long should we wait to see our government fulfill their electoral pledge that there would soon be an end to our sufferings caused by frequent power failures? If the government fails to generate enough electricity within a short time to meet our growing demands and if public emotion is pent up to a breaking point out of frustrations, men and women, I am afraid, may forget to wear even their scanty dress like a half-pant or a sleeveless shirt before they pour onto the streets on a hot summer day to join a long march raising protesting slogans at the top of their lungs!
The writer is a banker. He may be reached at e-mail:
maswood@hotmail.com
IN an international magazine I read a few years back that not less than one billion American dollars could be saved every year on account of electricity consumption if office and factory workers in Tokyo alone could ditch their neckties and wear only half-sleeved shirts without any jacket. A few more million dollars, I then surmised, could perhaps be saved if blue-collared workers, if not the white-collared ones, could wear only half-pants and T-shirts in their workplaces.
Our Prime Minister has broached a brilliant idea by suggesting that wearing trousers and plain shirts instead of suits, switching off air-conditioners for at least one hour a day and turning the air-conditioner dials above 24 degree Celsius during hot season from March to November could save much of the electricity that goes into cooling office rooms. Such a noble move, we believe, will reduce not only electricity consumption; it will also save thousands of tons in carbon dioxide emissions as a measure against global warming.
If we follow our Premier's advice a new trend of wearing form-flattering, open-neck and half-sleeved shirts and loose trousers of different hues and shapes made from ultra lightweight fabrics may come into fashion and keep our working men and women look smart and preppy as the thermometer rises. If we don't wear a tie to save electricity, we would then look for button-downs or snap-downs to prevent collars from flying haphazardly and aim for shirts with ornamental collars to add a little flair to a no-tie look.
Wearing suits and stuffing our necks with a tie, in spite of ourselves, is a sartorial fashion we have borrowed from the British who were our colonial rulers. Our ancestors enjoyed punishing themselves by mimicking the British style and fashion, which was seen as synonymous with being chic and modern. They wanted in vain to be 'brown sahibs'! So, as a legacy our office executives-the fashion victims-now find it prestigious to chill their car and office chamber to 18 degree Celsius so that they and their guests can wear pinstripe suits and silk ties wrapped over the designer shirts when the weather outside is extremely hot and humid and when the general people are sweating and panting due to power outage.
Fashion is a contagious phenomenon. When a celebrity wears a new dress, no matter it was deemed gaudy the day before, that dress becomes the latest fashion for fans to copycat. A designer company consults with sartorial professionals to gauge the probable public reaction to a change in fashions before they approach a celebrity to sponsor their newest design by wearing their new apparel on a public occasion. Fashions thus have lamentably been dependent more on the image a celebrity can leave in the minds of his or her fans rather than on comforts the costumes or the ornaments can offer to the wearers.
But, a wind of change seems to have been blowing in the world of fashions. 'Dress as you like' is poised to enter the realm of designer world as the latest fad. People all over the world appear to be on the verge of completely passing up formal dresses that many, especially in the business world, felt they were obligated to wear.
In the business world, there is a conflict of opinions when it comes to the matter of suits, boots, and ties. Some management gurus opine that wearing a boot, a suit, and a tie only reduces motivation and energy, especially on hot summer days and workers should be liberated from the yoke of dress codes, while others stick by the tenet that 'a suit, a tie, and a boot' are collectively a symbol of authority, trust, and confidence. Many return to the fact that a job well done is not thanks to the boot, the suit, or the tie, while many others also return to another fact that an army is bound to fail in its war mission if the captain allows his soldiers to dress as they fancy.
Smart people to prove their own personal stylishness are no longer using suits and ties. Of late, fashion designers are coming up with more comfortable punjabi-like-shirts made from cotton fabrics that wicks sweat away from the skin. There are also more stylish cuts and free combinations people are turning to. Celebrities like Sharruk Khan are often found wearing their modern suits or shirts without ties. Single-breasted jackets and chic dress shirts no longer have to be accompanied by ties. The obligation to wear ties, even at official functions, appears to have been fast disappearing!
The image of dress freedom presented by the new US President, Barack Obama, no doubt has played a large role in freeing the obligatory dressing codes that once were in vogue in the world of fashions. This young president, who looks as if he had stepped straight out of a page of a men's fashion magazine, seems to support the 'freedom look' as we often find him wearing informal dresses-a sartorial behaviour not much found in any of his predecessors in the White House. His personal style and élan suggests that a suit is not always dependent on the dress shirt, the tie, the matching pants, the jacket, or the shoes.
However, energy saving attires like a half-sleeved shirt without a tie instead of a dress shirt with a regimental tie or a half-pant instead of a full-pant or a pair of sandals instead of a pair of oxford shoes will not alone alleviate the sufferings we are now enduring due to load shedding in electricity supplies.
We must not expect that our government will send agents to our offices and apartments to tone down the thermostats of our air-conditioners and freezers and switch off the fans when there is nobody around. What we need to do is keep our moral compass always on before our eyes. We must stand before the mirror and ask ourselves whether we have committed what we were supposed to have omitted or omitted what we were supposed to have committed. Do we know that in our air-conditioners each degree set above 22 degree Celsius will use 4.0 per cent less energy? Do we make sure that our computers and monitors are switched off when not in use? Have we swapped our old-fashioned incandescent bulbs for low-energy 'compact fluorescent bulbs'? Had we switched the printer and the copier off before we left our office? Have we looked for the most energy efficient options before purchasing a new electric appliance? If not, we must not claim that the soil of Bangladesh belongs with us.
On the other hand, our government should also not advise us to take two meals a day, instead of three to solve a food crisis. We, like loyal citizens, have abided to accelerate the velocity of our watches with a view to saving daytime as our government instructed and we would again dial back the hands of our watches when the day would be shorter in winter. But, there is yet to be a respite from the suffering due to frequent load shedding.
How long should we wait to see our government fulfill their electoral pledge that there would soon be an end to our sufferings caused by frequent power failures? If the government fails to generate enough electricity within a short time to meet our growing demands and if public emotion is pent up to a breaking point out of frustrations, men and women, I am afraid, may forget to wear even their scanty dress like a half-pant or a sleeveless shirt before they pour onto the streets on a hot summer day to join a long march raising protesting slogans at the top of their lungs!
The writer is a banker. He may be reached at e-mail:
maswood@hotmail.com