Cultural Attire... Is West really best?

Sophia embraces cultural fashion, and explains how she came to accept her heritage.

Sophia Ayub
21st February 2022
Image: Instagram: @holm_oak_tradingco

My individual journey regarding my own expression of cultural attire is somewhat a rocky road.

Growing up a brown girl in a Western world was an adjustment in my own self-discovery of how I grew to embrace my culture. I grew up British born in a Pakistani household, both my parents coming from a Pakistani heritage. However, I’ve always maintained this lingering insecurity that I was never culturally influenced enough, never ‘Pakistani’ enough. Yet this battled with my self-identity as I was also never British enough.

I sat in this conflictive limbo when navigating my identity.

In my earlier years of childhood, I would deem these beautiful heavily embodied pieces of South Asian attire as itchy, heavy, uncomfortable – I was never comfortable wearing them. This is despite the countless admiration these pieces would attract from those surrounding me.

I don’t think it was until I hit the age of 17 that I began taking an active interest in how I would navigate my own style and appreciation for South Asian attire, but when I did, everything changed. It was only then I began to embrace the true intricate magnificence which existed in my South Asian wardrobe.

Image of my attire on Eid 2021

I actively grew interested in discovering pieces that encapsulated all the beautifully foreign, unexplored parts of me. The dazzle of the embroidery to the vibrant fabric palette. That’s me.

It represents the parts of myself I used to hide away, be ashamed of.

All’s I can say now is that I am just grateful that I was able to find the parts of me again, and I will never settle with hiding who I am.

I was made to be authentically me, we all are.

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