In this episode Hashim finally offers some valuable advice on his Mastermind Specialist Subject - fashion. And it's clear that the boys have a better (!) idea on style than the ladies... or is it. The usual shenanigans are afoot with Arjun arriving fashionably late and random discussions on horoscopes. Sit back and enjoy our longest episode yet...
Hosted by Imnah Varghese: @potted_ivy
With:
In this episode Hashim finally offers some valuable advice on his Mastermind Specialist Subject - fashion. And it's clear that the boys have a better (!) idea on style than the ladies... or is it. The usual shenanigans are afoot with Arjun arriving fashionably late and random discussions on horoscopes. Sit back and enjoy our longest episode yet...
Hosted by Imnah Varghese: @potted_ivy
With:
What does it mean to be a Leo? It means to constantly love attention, but also, you don't care about others' opinions. And also you have if you have a huge ego and you love to look nice,
Lydia:Say one.
Hashim:You're an I'll tell you, you're Aries.
Lydia:I'm not an Aries.
Stephen King:Anyway, I think you are a reindeer. And the reason is because I've done a song for reindeer [plays Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on saxophone].
Imnah:Yay. Welcome folks to our very next episode of Incongruent Today we will be discussing fashion. And Hashem is very excited. He's done in his suit. And tie, I'm seeing the colours of Thanksgiving, we have a little orange. So I'm just very excited for today. And we also have Mr. Stephen King, and we have Lydia. So I'm really glad to be hosting this episode with you guys. And never he's, um, so let's get right into it. Since we started off with Mr. Pumpkin pie over here passionate. What do you have for us today?
Hashim:Yeah, well, fashion. I mean, when people talk to me about fashion, I try to always get their opinion on it. Because I'm very opinionated on myself. But what I'm seeing is that fashion is something that's been thrown around as a word a lot, because people associate style that's kind of pushing me over the edge. Passion changes with the season. It's something that seasonal, it is the taste of quirky designers, and stuff. So when they talk about fat, when they talk about fashion, they're not really referring to style, which is what I try to preach and pursue. Currently, I'm trying to always push my style and my fashion sense over, over the limit. I'm trying to reach another level of consciousness, if you may, or another, or another degree of intricacy to it. Always try to make it a little bit more developed. But I also love simple stuff. So I can talk about fashion for days on end. Because it just I mean, this is this is how I think of it. How many times do you look at yourself in a day compared to how many? How many times people look at you. I'm sure that people look at you more. So when people tell me that I'm like selfish or self centred, they're not wrong. But I'm also I also care about them because they're looking at something beautiful, too. And I know it's beautiful. And it's nice to look at. Yeah, so that's it's kind of a philosophy.
Stephen King:What's your favourite friends? Hashim? What's your favourite, I tell you, I tell you, I tell you, Hashim, you talk as much about fashion as Arjun does about India. And he talks around in colleges. And you talk about in conus, give me some give us some real stuff.
Hashim:fashion tips, I'll give you three to four fashion themes that are very easy. Anybody can do, it immediately cleans up your, your silhouette, and it makes you look even better without trying so hard. So for the guys, and also for the girls, if you have a little bit of a belly, or if you want to look more streamline, which is a lot of people in the Middle East, try to achieve or if you're really skinny, I would suggest tucking in your shirt. all times, even if it's just a T shirt, tuck it in, and then take it out a little bit just to give you some some volume. So the shirts that go beyond your seat, and they almost hit the bottom of your thigh. Not not clean. So tuck your shirt in. Even if you look like Urkel tuck your shirt in and that makes you look slimmer and that makes you look cleaner. So that's Wow.
Imnah:Now we know why Hashem always wears tucked in shirts. Now we know the secret.
Stephen King:But I thought that was just like being like civilised.
Hashim:Yeah, but I'm African. So
Imnah:well, maybe let me ask you a question there. Do you think it's the suit that makes the man or the man that makes the suit? Oh,
Hashim:I think is the man that makes the suit because I don't always wear suits. But when I do I wear them. Not in the same way that others wear suits. When people wear suits. They think it's like stuffy, you look like you're a corporate person. Like you own your own startup. You want to look presentable, but suits can also look very approachable. They can make it look very clean, very dashing, very dapper as I am. So I think it's it's not exactly what you wear. Even if you're wearing if you're wearing like a white thing. T shirt, like Lydia is, or if you're wearing like a crazy blazer. Like, Steve. It's not what you're wearing that really matters. It's how you wear it. It's how you put along. So if maybe Arjun wears Steve's blazer, it wouldn't look the same because he feels weird in it. But Steve effortlessly pulls that off. Looks, it looks. Looks like he's always been wearing it. Like he lives in it. It looks good, great on him. Because it's that out of you. Yeah. So it's not really what you're wearing. It's how you're wearing it.
Arjun Radeesh:Mm hmm.
Imnah:So what would be your go to outfit? If you had to run at the hospital quick? And you? You know, you're super late. You need something to put together really quick. What would you pull out of your closet? First?
Hashim:That's a good question. Well, I would, I would ask myself two questions. What's the weather like? And most of the time those answers the same thing as hell. Then the second thing, who am I going to meet if it's like with my friends, I'll try to be you know, more relaxed, just so I don't look like I'm about to fire them from being my friends. If it's like, you know, more professional context, I throw on a bow tie but as an outfit, I'd go with a navy blazer. As an outfit, I go with a navy blazer striped or solid. I go with white trousers or cream off white. Because I'm Tom and I look better than white trousers. And pink or light blue shirts, and an orange bow tie that really picks up picks up the the heat to my face. So yeah, that's, that's a simple outfit. Yeah.
Imnah:Interesting. I have a really interesting colour palette. Moving on, Steve, who Hashim has given a shout out to but the crazy suit. Steve, tell us a bit about your fashion sense. What was the inspiration for these really funky suits?
Stephen King:It was no inspiration. I got I got I got let out the house after COVID. And I went to Virgin and I spotted the suits in virgin. And I wanted one and I was told I couldn't have one. And then I went home and I cried. And then eventually I got taken out. I know what to buy this one.
Imnah:So is it? Is it the fact that you couldn't have it that made you want it more?
Stephen King:No, I wanted it. I wanted it. I saw it I went out for what did I go for? I went up for something else. Completely. I think I went to Oh yes, I went to register my Virgin Mobile account. And it was fun. It was just I had to go to the actual store to renew my my my ID. And then I saw them and I was like I've got to have one. And I've got one I persisted. So yeah, that that's that's basically why the story of the of the jacket, and the jacket is phenomenal. It works really well with my digital media courses. Being a personality. Didn't say having a personality but being a personality. It helps to present yourself especially when you're on this digital digital environment, people can't really get a get a record strong relationship through a screen. The the lights might not be great people might be presenting themselves, you might not be on the best Wi Fi. So you need to make some kind of an impression. And so I saw the jacket and I thought hang on this is perfect for my certain of my classes and also for the speaking engagements that were going on. And it's actually a really good quality suit. I was surprised, very reasonable price. And only it was only like $360 for the suit. And I thought wow, that's it that's well tailored. It's it's got a nice fabric on the inside. And it's completely unique. And I've had a lot of really positive comments on the back of it. We tried to buy others from the US. But unfortunately, they don't ship here. So I have to wait until virgin please virgin get more of these suits. I get one of these suits in because I think I would literally fill my entire house below. Brilliant. Otherwise, what else I like simple stuff. I'm not as fresh as Hashim said, you know, there's fashion and then there's style and I think I have style but no fashion
Imnah:style. What makes you say that?
Stephen King:We're gonna have one of the two I can't just be walking around looking like a complete you know, messy person, scruffy person, I'm sure I think I think I dress the property for my age. which is which is a challenge because I like Pac Man and superheroes and all of that kind of stuff. So I probably have if I you know if things go by I probably have a printed shirt with a Batman on it. Which I do actually, but I just don't wear it out loud. And so not Yeah, so so I've got a whole wardrobe full of shirts, short sleeve, long sleeve. They got like patterns. And that's it. I don't necessarily like oh my tip for fashion. Y'all made it for fashion. That's thrift stores, churches doors, if you ever get a chance to go outside, yes. So whenever I go to London, I go with an empty suitcase. And then I go around Notting Hill, and around Chelsea area, which is the posh part and you go around all the charity shops and you find all these really, really cool branded clothing. Absolutely no price at all. And it's just because in those areas, people just throwing out really high branded clothing. And you get a really good deals. And I love it. And I love wandering around those. I don't like the high street. I don't necessarily like the malls. I don't like mall shopping for shop for clothes. I like unique stuff. So I've got some vegan shoes, and I've got some recite air, I have a very nice, repurposed or what you call it, a rescued jacket made out of Nike jacket, jogging pants. So ladies, so someone decided to take a whole lot of jogging pants for the fabric for the jogging pants, and they turned it into a beautiful jacket. which I love. I've got I've got these vegan shoes, which I which I found very comfortable. As Yeah, so I'm always looking for unusual materials on usual small businesses to support rather than the stuff which everybody's buying, which is advertised everywhere, which I think is just, I don't like that story. I don't I don't want to starve the big brands I prefer to support the small was going to be very hand up.
Hashim:Yeah. And to add to that, I actually think that the the high street brands that have huge ads on like airlines and magazines, they don't really you would never get value from from their quality, there's very little value. Most of my favourite like makers, or, or Clothiers are mid to low cost, like, like $200 maximum. Once you go above that for an outfit, it's not really you're not getting that value is I don't really like Hugo Boss or these big fashion brands. Right? Um, let
Imnah:me ask you a bit of a philosophy question because drawing from what both of you guys are saying? How would you reconcile maybe looking presentable and dressing for the occasion with, you know, being unique with your own style?
Stephen King:I'm always my own style. Don't care. I don't care what the occasion is, like?
Imnah:Well, I mean, you wouldn't want to walk around like looking like a scruffy you know, like, whatever person?
Hashim:Well, that goes back to like QA, I think personality, honestly. Because even if you were the hot, the most expensive suit, or the most expensive outfit, and you wear it, you can look terrible, you look like a garbage bag, if you don't know how to wear it. So I think that having real style takes time. First of all to develop your style, you won't have it off the bat. But I think I'll quote one of my favourite authors, Charles Bukowski style is the answer to everything. And he said that then the quote goes on. So if you're going to wear something, it doesn't really matter. Where is it from, as long as you are being yourself on purpose. That's what style really is. So I wear what I wear, not because I watch these shows, I'm inspired by these arrows, which I am. But it's because it makes me feel good. I feel like I'm myself. I'm a better version of myself on purpose. So I think that's where style comes from.
Imnah:Awesome. That's great stuff. From my point, I
Stephen King:think I think I want to stand out I want to be seen. So if I go to an event I want to be seen. So it's not about dressing to conform, it's about being seen. So I've had this jacket, which is a very smart jacket, but it's bright, it's loud. And if you go to a Christmas party, which is what I wore this for the first time, it's perfectly acceptable for that occasion, but it stands out. People could see you in mind. Amongst me also, if I was I was speaking at a conference, I was moderating on the stage and I have the the what you call it the waist coat the waist jacket. So I have that if I want to be so I tried you when I'm out and I'm I tried to be the smartest person in the room. And I think that's my style. I want to be as I want to be as smart as possible. And again, just like Hashim we could we could you could just intervals and you two girls could just just have the day off. But isn't that isn't that I'm actually surprised at how much I'm actually into fashion. And I do connect very closely with the fashion department in the university very regularly.
Imnah:Awesome. All right. Well, my next question is going to be for Lydia, because the guys have just been going on and on and on about their styles. Lydia, what is your kind of style? What is your go to outfit
Lydia:so Do you agree with both guys with what they said? It's more about, like what makes you feel comfortable, it doesn't matter what it is as long as you can support it. So I agree, I agree with that. Oh, usually I like dressing like comfortably like a way like, I don't know, like pants or you know, work workout style of outfit, but in general, like especially right now that is winter, my favourite kind of like outfit would be like something with leather like leather jacket or coat, which is like very stylish and all that, which I really like. I like wearing bright colours because I think depending also on your colour, complexion and all that it just brightens up your whole face and all that. So my favourite kind of colours to wear are red, and also like white and blue because I think kind of like brighten up brightens up my face. Um, so yeah, um, what else? To be honest, I don't really like wearing jeans. I don't know why.
Imnah:I'm I'm with you. I am not a jeans person you know, it's
Lydia:not that it's more comfortable. It's just like it's kind of weak to where I prefer like without worrying other stuff. And when it comes to something more professional I like my professional pants my suit and for the guys can you just make a comment sorry Hashim but I don't like bow ties. I'm sorry just like a tie and as soon as much more receded
Imnah:Oh no, she said it both sides are Hashim's like blood man. You just came at him.
Lydia:I said, I'm sorry.
Stephen King:I think on behalf of Hashim he apologises that you don't have style.
Imnah:Oh, sav! Damn.
Hashim:Hey, Lydia close your mike man.
Arjun Radeesh:Yes, Lydia, what's
Imnah:what's one thing you wouldn't be caught dead wearing? So we've had jeans and we've had
Hashim:I think we know the answer. It's both times.
Lydia:That's a difficult question. I don't do you know the cocktail dresses? I think that's one thing that it wouldn't work. I think I'm not sure. Um, but something that I don't like is just like weighing only like an outfit with one colour. I like. I like wearing different colours and doing like a colour blending. If you know what colour blending is like using different colours in your outfit. That match for example, wearing like a orange skirt and then a shirt like a yellow shirt. That's what I like. So yeah, yeah, Hashim the tan looks nice. Yeah, that's what I mean. You know? That's better. asking us an example. So basically, right now is colour blocking. Right? He's wearing like, okay, yeah, no, put it okay. Yeah. Yeah, he's wearing like brown like, dark blue. And is your tie orange? A bit of orange? Yeah, okay. He looks like he's a man from the 1900s or somewhere. Like the Lord thing.
Imnah:That's what he's gone for.
Arjun Radeesh:Hi.
Imnah:Hello, Arjun. I see you're very fashionably late. So the fashion episode was that completely on purpose? Are you taking off? No. Well, now that the spotlight is on you. Why don't you tell us about what you wear that makes people notice you.
Arjun Radeesh:Welcome I normally how one t shirt with something today. Like if I wear this particular t shirt breaking, which has the big word bigger rewards named as breaking news. That's something people normally. Yeah, it sounds like people normally recognise me and they're like, okay, what's the breaking news there? Or my or black turtleneck, which I normally wear for events. Okay, so if it's sort of like when I'm on my 30 minutes, people recognise me saying that, okay, you're having an event you're having a presentation. I'm like, Yeah, because I do prefer turtlenecks, because I don't want to wear a tie. First thing, like I don't want to go into a struggle with my colour button and all those which are there are there were situations where it choked me. So it's not like normally it's with turtlenecks and a blazer on top. This just shows that okay, I'm prepared for something formal. What's with the fashionable man? With the fashionable mask, okay, so I as of now, okay, I normally just wear one mask, the Adidas branded black Colour mask, it's just that it's pretty much comfortable and can adjust to the shape of my face. Okay, because my shit my face is a bit fat.
Stephen King:Anyway, thank you Arjun Imnah, you are actually the most fashionable member of our group.
Imnah:Oh, man, that's an honour.
Stephen King:It shoud be because obviously, Hashim is sitting in front of me. But apart from Hashim, you are the most fashionable member of the group.
Imnah:But honestly, guys, I was never, I was never quite big on fashion. Especially because growing up in an Indian household, my mom always picked my outfits. And I found that the most frustrating ever. So I always had this notion that Oh, when I grew up, I'll suddenly be able to pick my own outfit. So I kind of just had that in the back of my mind. And I think that's why when I started picking up my own office, and my mom was kind of relenting. I kind of got really curious and I started exploring more. So when I was pretty young, I had the fashion tastes of grandma. So that would be florals, tweed sweaters. Things that were a little too big for me. And a lot of people used to say, hey, that makes you look much older than you actually are. So 13 people were asking me if I was working or in university, and the answer was always I'm 13 and got pretty, pretty shocked looks because of that. So I think the way you present yourself in the way you dress, it really matters because it kind of like sets the tone for the kind of personality you have. And so right now, I think like the way I dress comes across very differently to different people. So people that would know me from university would think I dress in a certain way. And people that don't know me from work think I dress in a certain way. And that's because I really love to experiment with styles. I absolutely love experimenting. So it's just fun for me to like have like to buy one piece that I think would go with different things. For example, if it's like a shirt with a lot of frills on the sleeve, does this go with the pantsuit says go with? I don't know a floral skirt, what is it go with I try experimenting, see what fits best. So it's it's really like a hobby for me. And I also love, love picking up these really cute, unique things. So I'm big on accessories. So I have a small growing collection of odd hats, a white one that says pizza, a really bright yellow coloured one, and newspaper boy hats, and then this little black cloth hats that kind of just falls over my ears. And yeah, so it's just fun for me to pick these things up. I feel like shopping is also a great bonding experience. When you're with other people, you just kind of laugh over weird things you see at the store, you find something you like try it on with your friends. It's really like, I felt like that was such a fun activity for me growing up. So I think yeah, it has like deep roots when I look back at my life, but I never consciously thought, Okay, today I'm going to start being fashionable and start doing these things. It just kind of it just kind of comes to you. It's not necessarily a conscious decision. And I think I still like I can really admire a lot of styles that people have but I don't necessarily want to replicate that myself. So I think when you think of fashion you might be able to associate it with like vanity. But I think you can still appreciate a great outfit and a great ensemble on someone else and think maybe that's not for me but they're really killing it right now. So I think yeah, there's there's a lot to talk about and fashion like Hashim said, a lot to explore
Stephen King:Favourite colours?
Imnah:Favourite colours. I think mine is definitely read. I don't wear it often. But it is definitely read. I think it's such a bright, dynamic, powerful colour. Especially like a deep red. It's so eye catching. Like if there's something bad in the room, your eyes are automatically drawn to it. But when I'm when I'm selling myself, I often end up going with black. Like I said, you can never go wrong with bicycles. Absolutely with everything. I've like four different black face masks. Oh yeah. And also like just darker colours. Generally I feel my skin tone last me about the rest of you.
Hashim:Yeah, I have to disagree with your statement about black I find black is one of the hardest colours to mix. I'm normally a very colourful person, if not in real life, at least in the way that I dress. So black is like the death of me. Unless it's like Night at the Opera maybe even though even at the opera where a lot of colours so my whole life is colour so if you take away colours, you lose me. I'm like a cartoon. So yeah,
Imnah:Are you trying t
Hashim:Yeah, cuz I wanted to get your opinion what
Stephen King:Hashim will always say "yeah". It is go to word. It's not like he's supposed to God. Whatever you say. He'd be like while he's thinking he goes, "Yeah". Hashim, would you like to load me 10 quid? "Yeah eh Steve"... Hashim, should we go rob a bank? "Yeah...." Get you into so much trouble like that, you know, but I agree with you i like colours too. I was just checking I like purples and Pink's purple is like the colour of creativity so by having it on you and around you It inspires you to be creative and that's that's what I like so I also like the the the pink sort of finance shirts bankers shirts, which look really smart. Yeah, like like you posted maybe not that pink but like painted pink. So I like I like the pink paper like the Financial Times that kind of pink and the seat leading stone you know, kind of the pink pages. That's that's the case of our purple is good. Although most of my stuff is blue. Because it's safe.
Imnah:Safe. You said safe what makes blue a safe colour?
Stephen King:Because like, I was just it's just everything is blue and you either put in blue, everything is blue. I open my wardrobe everything is blue. Apart from a couple of stuff. Blue just goes with blue is just like safe colours.
Hashim:You can't go wrong with navy. It's just very you could wear blue with almost anything even Lydia's baseball shirt you can wear blue a blue blazer with it looks great.
Stephen King:What's your favourite colour?
Arjun Radeesh:My favourite colour would be green. That means green the darker shades of green and any shade of blue and the black
Lydia:Black is boring. Black s boring. It's practical, and
Arjun Radeesh:Normally okay normally people wear black and black for funerals or something I normally wear black and black for my presentation
Stephen King:Okay you got proper teachers this year next year you next year you please Yeah, what's your favourite colour? Before we go let's get this this show done.
Lydia:My favourite colour is red. Everything is red even my phone case is red. I love it. It's just it's passion fire everything it's everything. You know you express in red.
Hashim:I told you Steve she's a fireside for sure man.
Imnah:All right. Well, there you have it folks. We've talked about all things fashion. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of in congrats and we hope to see you next time.