Tickle them pink

KARACHI: Pink it’s my new obsession Pink it’s not even a question `Cause today it just goes with the fashion Pink it was love at first sight, yeah - “Pink”, Aerosmith The tradition of pink being appropriate for girls has been around since the 1940s and continued into the 21st century. But this tradition is now changing with pastel colours making a comeback for men.

The flamboyant style of characters like Chuck Bass on “Gossip Girl” has made wearing pink - gasp - acceptable! But how true is that for Pakistan? The Express Tribune conducted a survey with a random sample group in Karachi to ask if pink was an appropriate colour for men to wear. The answers were varied with 60 per cent of respondents saying that pink is not a fitting colour for men.

The reasons varied from ‘pink is not allowed by religion’, pink being a ‘girl colour’ and with suggestions such as ‘men should wear simple colours like white’. On the other hand, respondents who said that pink can be worn by men claimed that there should be no restrictions on what one wears, as long as a colour suits an individual then it is fine and light pink looks good but dark pink does not so only light pink should we worn. While pink tailored shirts were rather en vogue amongst the bankers crowd a couple of years ago, it has also made its way to other areas of menswear. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik is often spotted wearing a pink tie with a silk kerchief to match and designers such as Nomi Ansari have designed menswear in pink, and worn it off the ramp as well.

Pakistan is definitely diversifying with a significant percentage of the population thinking that it is appropriate for men to be more in touch with fashion and make an effort to look good. Make up for men is a trend that is spreading at a rapid pace. In Pakistan, a number of salons uch as Oxygen Spa and Clippers for Men offer skin services and body treatment for men which include massages, facials, cleansing, manicures and pedicures. Other specialists including Tariq Amin and Nabila’s offer make-up services for grooms and men who just want to look good on their night out. Asad Baig offers ‘grooming’ for men where first a man is given a facial, skin polishing or whitening depending on what he needs, then if required a skin tint is done.

Baig told The Express Tribune, “Grooming means to enhance the features without using any pink shades, and I work with only two colours; brown and another, depending on the customer’s skin tone. For the lips a moisturizer lip balm is used and if need be a natural lip colour.” All the above mentioned salons’ say that business is booming and numerous men come for treatment and grooming - men are certainly taking fashion and personal style very seriously.