Threads of identity: ASU students use style to showcase culture

According to Miuccia Prada, fashion is an instant language. It can serve as a form of silent expression for many, incorporating their personalities, lifestyles and even their cultures. 

Djenab Kante, a junior majoring in biomedical sciences, said the ability to display her background through clothing is an important part of her daily life. 

Both Kante’s mother and grandmother have spent time working in the textile industry. Her mother sells authentic Guinean fabrics traditionally made and sourced from people in local villages, she said, while her grandmother ran an inherited family business specializing in handmade fabric dyeing. 

Growing up in Guinea and visiting her grandmother’s home greatly influenced Kante’s style today. She tends to gravitate toward vibrant colors and patterns that reflect West African fashion traditions. 

“Not having that connection to my background in my fashion … it wouldn’t feel like me anymore,” she said. “I feel like it’s such an integral part of me.”

Kante said that while she does not wear traditional clothing on a daily basis, she picks and chooses elements of her culture to turn into her style. One of the items she wears every day are stone bead bracelets that are popular in Guinea. 

Maryam Hussain, a sophomore studying criminology and criminal justice, said one of the key moments that changed her attitude toward traditional fashion was a moment from a Bollywood movie starring Deepika Padukone. 

“This (movie) is really beautiful, this is my culture, and I feel like I don’t take advantage of it,” Hussain said. 

When Hussain was younger, her mother would dress her up in traditional clothing which she hadn’t learned to appreciate yet. She wanted to fit in and would often try to appear more ‘American’ instead.  

As Hussain has gotten older, she has embraced her heritage through her style, giving her confidence and self identity. She said many of her friends and siblings have shared the same experience.  

Without incorporating elements of traditional Indian fashion, Hussain’s style would not represent her authentically. It would “feel like there’d be no spark to me,” she said.

A traditional item that Hussain wears the most are jhumkas, earrings with a signature bell-shape and dangling elements that create jingling sounds.

Illia Mordyk, a freshman studying applied biological sciences, said that wearing a vyshyvanka, an embroidered Ukrainian national shirt, makes him feel more connected to his ethnic heritage since he is away from his home country. 

Starting his first semester at ASU, the vyshyvanka and a small flag were the only national items Mordyk brought from home. 

Mordyk said he and many other people do not wear traditional clothing every day, but try to wear it for special occasions such as cultural celebrations. For example, he said he will be wearing his vyshyvanka on Christmas. 

“That’s the only Ukrainian thing I can do when I am not in Ukraine,” he said.

Mordyk said the vyshyvanka is not just something to wear, but instead is one of Ukraine’s main national symbols, putting it alongside the national anthem and the flag. 

Mordyk said that since the war in Ukraine started, people have been wearing their traditional clothes more. There is also a tendency to modernize traditional clothing, which he approves of, as it brings variety and a timely touch. 

“It’s important to show other people and other cultures that we are Ukrainians,” Mordyk said. “We have our culture, we have our national clothes, we have our fashion.” 

Naomi Ellis, an instructor at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, said that fashion cannot exist without culture. 

“(Fashion has) always been inspired by culture, inspired by the mixing of cultures, inspired by people taking from their unique path and history and upbringing, and then translating that into artwork,” Ellis said. 

Ellis said she sees many of her students incorporate their heritages into their styles and into the projects they create in class. 

“It gives them that context of who they are and what makes their perspective unique,” Ellis said.  

There has been a change of perception when it comes to culture in fashion, Ellis said. She believes that in the past people might have appropriated other cultures, but in today’s age more people are confident in embracing their own. 

Kante said seeing others be unapologetically themselves makes her more comfortable to do the same.  

“I don’t think you should put such a big chunk of yourself just up on a shelf, just to collect dust,” Kante said. 

Edited by Natalia Rodriguez, Henry Smardo, Tiya Talwar and Pippa Fung.

Reach the reporter at dkovalen@asu.edu. 

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