Letters

February 2005
February 8

Hybrid fasion

In response to Pari's "It's not Iranian fashion":

Dear Pari:

I too am a Iranian-American (now residing in London, UK) who was born and raised in the West. I couldn't help but feel sadden over your racist, shallow and narrow-minded approach regarding the Iranian Fashion Show in Europe. Actually, I found many of the outfits were unique and interesting to wear.

On the contrary, these designers are not reflecting only Arab or Pakistani designs, but instead they are using a hybrid mix of the vast and beautiful cultures within the borders of Iran (Pari, that includes Arabs who live in the south of our homeland, and ethnic Pakistanis who live in the border between Iran and Pakistan).

Although I could be wrong, I suppose you are one of those Iranians who is a designer label whore and who would wear the most obscene crap only because it is a Channel, Versace, Prada, etc. Usually, these types of Iranians, especially the ladies, dye their hair platinum blonde, a la Christina Aguilera, and wear tight clothes, even though they have the body of farm pig. They think they are the shit, but actually, most people would hurl shit at them for dressing up so disgusting and selling-out!

I still cannot fathom why Persian ladies dye their hair horrible shades, neglecting the beauty of dark brown hair. Everytime I go to my stylist, he says that I have an amazing hair and that he much perfers mine than to the ladies who dye their hair riduculous colors.

Another thing, you are probably one of those Iranians that takes pride in the fact that we are Aryans... when in fact, Iran is a hybrid mix of different cultures and linguistic traditions. For example, dear Pari, we have Azeri Turks, Kurds, Lors, people living Shomal, Armenians, Jews, Sunni Muslims, Turkomens, Afghans, etc. who speak different dialects of Farsi and also their native languages. People like you fail to understand that Iran is a unique nation of unique cultural traditions that are not always represented because of this notion that we Iranians are Aryans.

You may be surprised to know that many of those designers you mentioned (Bijan, Katayoun Adeli, and Behnaz Sarafpour) utilize Iranian themes within their own designs. The only thing is you have to shell out £1,000 and up to be able to wear their labels. Not only do these Iranian designers in the West utilize our unique culture, but so do designers such as Versace, Channel, YSL, Valentino, etc. By the way, none of these designers that you mentioned celebrate women's individuality, they are supporting a very narrow construct for what is acceptable for a woman to wear. Unless you are a size 0 to 4, Kate Moss slim, none of these designers care about the "regular woman".

If you want to buy designers who charge you 40 times the amount for westernize versions of stuff you can get in Iran, by all means, do it. Unlike you, I'll support these Iranian designers because unlike Western designers who recycle stuff year in and year out, these individuals are giving something unique and stylish that only adds to our cultural heritage.

Sincerely,

Sanaz

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