Head To Toe Of Fashion

Infertility is now serious business... and not just because infertility doctors and clinics are now de rigueur.

One of my closest friends, a Pakistani from Lahore, used to tell me about her 'role model' in stylish dressing. The said style icon wore the trendiest clothes around town - "she could be anywhere in the world, and she'd still be trendy" - and she also wore a hijab. All the time. For this woman, the hijab was a bespoke component because it reflected who she was: a Muslim; but, it didn't ever get in the way of her being fashionable - it complemented her ensemble. "I love how she is so unapologetic about cocking a snook to stereotypical Western notions of style: that you cannot be stylish if you are, you know, covered," my friend would say. Increasingly, "modest yet on-trend dressing" is being equated with sartorial finesse, as evidenced in the recent campaign high street major H&M ran with Mariah Idrissi; the campaign - showcasing Mariah hopelessly well-turned-out while being all-covered and her hijab in place - went viral, and became the talk of the virtual world. The case in point is only the tip of the iceberg: there is an army of women out there who believe in fashion and being fashionable without compromising on their value system. More power to them for reinventing the wheel, and, this week, we speak to a few of them about their closet secrets.
Infertility is now serious business... and not just because infertility doctors and clinics are now de rigueur. The issue in itself is very real, and the modern-day lifestyle - a litany that includes diet, work-life balance, late marriages, etc - is blamed for its prevalence. One interesting aspect of this medical syndrome is male infertility - something we often ignore because we seem to assume infertility is a peculiarly feminine problem. In this edition of wknd., we get the points of views of experts to dig deeper into the matter of male infertility and also try and figure how it can be combated.
'Fit for Life' is a nutritional programme aimed to improve eating habits of school kids (haven't we heard enough of how children are having 'imbalanced' meals whenever they break for tiffin-time?). A lot like how Jamie Oliver tried to revolutionise school canteen food in the UK, this one tackles eating patterns right here in Dubai. Another foodie take - on a different wavelength - is presented in Pursuits, where our columnist debates the arbitrariness of the Michelin star. Does a restaurant really have to be the best in the world to deserve to a 3 star rating? Or, if it has no stars, does it necessarily mean it's bad?
All this and much more.
Enjoy reading wknd. and have a great weekend!
 Sushmita Bose(Wknd. Editor)