“As a child, even though I loved my culture, I pushed myself away from it because I didn’t feel much of a connection to it, but seeing other desi people embrace it really inspired me. Once I accepted that part of myself, it continued to show—and now incorporating my culture into my outfits is a big part of my style,” says New York-based stylist Hamza Syed. He regularly wears his hoodies and blazers with polka dots and sapphire necklaces paired with large kundan rings on his fingers. “Most of all, I love to wear nat. It has become my main part.”
For Portugal-based Zahra Amarji, founder of slow fashion brand Designation, Indian maximalist jewelry has become the way to play. “I started experimenting after the wedding, I had all these values
that I thought I would never wear again.’ Her pared-down wardrobe, deliberately curated to avoid overconsumption, serves as the perfect canvas for her heritage, with accents like oxide
silver choker with dangling beads and layered silver chains at the waist, worn over an asymmetric white tank top with a ruffled midi skirt.
Mixing South Asian and European fashion is not a new idea at all. The aunties next door have worn salwar kameez with Reebok sneakers since time immemorial. But the Indo-Western fusion, the one that was on the runways, worked out the similarities in the two cultures. You take the flowing drape of a saree, the lightness of an evening dress and you get something new but still familiar. The aesthetic of desi villains is based on contrast, a conscious subversion of expectations based on cultural pride. Husli’s minakari over a fitted tank top paired with baggy blue jeans and an embroidered jissy should look out of place, but that element of surprise, the push and pull between cultures, is what helps. It’s brilliant, it’s loud, it’s perfect.
