Two or three years ago it would be considered a cardinal sin for any man worth his salt to possess any pink garment, handkerchief included. I guess this was to avoid any association with any form of femininity or homosexuality. Besides, pink just ain’t cool for the male species, it doesn’t matter if you’re rolling in a fleet of pink Maybach 62s, IT JUST AIN’T COOL!!!

Enter 2005/2006 where everything pink, from shirts, ties, suits etc are suddenly the hype, considered cool, trendy and fashionable…for men! The first time I saw a dude in a pink shirt I thought to myself “omera what the f*** are you thinking? Hebu go check yourself!” But more and more guys keep sporting pink polo shirts, caps…the works. Nowadays pink shirts and matching ties have become acceptable formal/official wear! How now?

Even my boys who considered themselves “hard-core defenders of everything male” joined the bandwagon, and the last straw was when my better half (who just happens to looooove pink!) tried to get me with the programme! Hell naw! There’s absolutely no way in hell you’re getting me into any pink article of clothing! I HATE THE COLOUR PINK! The only things spared from this hatred of pink are of course: the sweet center of inner physical feminine beauty, strawberry milkshake and ham. OK maybe Pink Panther as well. But that’s it!

I have a theory for how this pink revolution started. All major fashion trends emerge from the major fashion houses of Paris, Milan and new York, right? Me thinks the big shot designers, celebrities and fashionistas (or whatever they call themselves) were going through a creativity drought and decided to have a bet amongst each other to see who could come up with a brand new trend that involve something that has never been considered in fashion ever! So one guy decided to take the pink route, and got some celebs to wear his stuff, and knowing how anything, however outrageous and ugly but endorsed by celebs will sell! (Air Force One sneakers, those shady ass retro G Unit sneakers etc) Shortly the whole world followed suit!

Doesn’t anyone realize that maybe we’re pawns in a much bigger game being played between much bigger powers? Coz do we really have an option of whether or not to clothe ourselves in their stuff? Must every brand or trend that’s been endorsed by celebs suddenly become cool in the sense that should I have to buy them even if they didn’t suit my taste coz I’ll be considered “uncool” if I don’t? Don’t you think that perhaps these designers and celebs may be sipping $20,000 champagne in the back seats of their custom made limousines staring out onto the ordinary folk walking on the pavements thinking ‘these idiots will buy ANYTHING that has my name on it. It doesn’t have to be attractive, just get my label on it! I might as well design a jacket from dog fur and they will still buy it!!” They’ve got the whole world wrapped around their little fingers in the name of fashion and we blindly ape every trend that emerges from the west.

In the end, who loses out? We foolish Africans and Kenyans who have lost our identity until we have to get a commission to design a national dress for us (and they still bring us the maasai kikois which have long been considered the national dress in the first place), or the major international fashion houses which couldn’t give two shits about us but still mint hundreds of millions of dollars from us annually?