Rough draft
Working title: Creating my own borders: Identity & Clothing
Being a first generation born Indian-Kiwi woman I have always felt like I didn’t completely fit in to my surroundings. Even when I would try to ‘fit in’ it would always seem as if I was losing a part of my true self. There has always been a gap between what makes me truly a New Zealander and an Indian but why can’t I just be both in one? Being a ‘product’ of diaspora and acculturation, it has been tough creating an identity for myself that correlates both cultures equally. Ultimately my true roots will always be based in India, specifically Punjab but these roots interweave with New Zealand because it’s where I’ve been born and raised my whole life. Having a sense of belonging or even an essence of knowing who you are gives empowerment and security to an individual. The issue here is that being born and brought up in New Zealand, I will still always be ‘classified’ as an Indian and have the same typical stereotypes attached to me like any other Indian. I want to show that there is much more to being Indian than butter chicken and Bollywood and be able to celebrate it through clothing silhouettes.
I have always wanted to explore and challenge my personal identity through fashion and styles of clothing alongside this collective cultural identity I am associated with of being a Punjabi and a New Zealander. Indians are stereotyped as an overall ethnicity but not many people are aware of the diverse sub-cultures embedded in it. “Clothing and fashion provide the perfect material medium through which cultural and conceptual shifts, and evolving identities can be negotiated, fine-tuned and re-shaped to suit individual and collective needs” (Sandhu, 2015, p. 49). Clothing has always been its own visual language. It is an ever-changing trend of expression and style that is sustained through inspiration, culture, and history, underlined by identities. It is a tool you could say that defines class within a social and an economical context. These physical choices we make on a daily basis of what to wear and how to wear it define how we choose to represent ourselves to the wider community and society. It is the most common way to portray gender, age, personality and ethnicity. What we wear gives us a sense of someone’s identity. “The body is both the carrier of culture and identity, as well as the primary focus of consumption, with adornment its primary focus” (Sandhu, 2015, p. 63).
It is worth challenging and pushing the boundaries of how fashion can truly express identities by dressing the body in a particular way or having a specific style. Even though Indians are categorised as one, could there be a way to break through and bring out the sub-cultures into New Zealand? If being dressed in a particular way can change the perception or give a sense of someone’s identity, then it can also challenge and re-create a new identity as well as celebrate it. Through my work, I want to push the boundary of what is the ‘norm’ while looking back into this idea of hybridity. Being moulded into two cultures constantly creates an atmosphere of being lost in between.
Will I have images of my own clothing and review it also? - not sure at this stage.
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