Asian Media Awards 2015 - My 'Finalist' Outfit!

It's not like I need an excuse to dress up. But when there's a specific event, there's nothing I love more than curating a special outfit, just for that day. As a Finalist in the 'TV Presenter Of The Year' category at The Asian Media Awards 2015, I was extra excited and enthused about the possibilities. In this interview I did above when I arrived I was asked 'do you dress like that just to stand out?' The answer? NO! This is me. I have expressed myself through fashion ever since I was at primary school - styling skills like this don't just come overnight you know! While my look is clearly not to everyone's tastes, I have only ever dressed for ME. So here's what I created for the Asian Media Awards 2015: 

'Desi Spacegirl' a sci-fi inspired hybrid of cyber punk chic and Bollywood Glamour...

The Outfit in full, shot at Hotel Gotham, in Manchester, where I stayed

THE DRESS

Finding the right dress was the starting point. I knew early on I wanted something 'fusion' flavoured. I had no intention of buying an Indian outfit or borrowing one, I wanted to get something handmade. I had a look on Etsy which is filled with indie designers (I prefer to support them over big brands) and came across the shimmering styles by Coquetry Clothing. It was one of those instant YES's - the bit that did it for me was the sleeves and I love a flared skirt.

THE ACCESSORIES

Trims bought in Green Street, London

The dress needed heels to make it work so I bought a plain pair from Ebay and customised them. As the dress clearly had a Western feel I wanted my accessories to add the Asian vibe so I decided to create my own. I didn't need to buy a bag, a few months ago my friend Zoe was chucking out an old Indian clutch and it was the perfect size for carrying what I needed for the event - lipgloss and lots of business cards! It was a good excuse to top up my trim supplies so I had a spree in a gorgeous new haberdashery in East London.

Materials I used to customise Bollywood themed shoes and handbag

And here are The Shoes...(thanks Suman for the photo!)

And...The Clutch

For finishing touches I had some mendhi done on one of my hands from the Pavan Henna Bar in Selfridges

...and to add a cosmic edge I had some galaxy themed nails done (these are my real nail, not not fake ones!) Thanks Susanna for the artistry.

I used a folky themed trim to make a belt (I added ties and beads at the end). It fit around my waist with just enough left to make a matching cuff.)

THE MAKE-UP

I have long been an admirer of Make-Up Artist Armand Beasley, he's not your typical MUA, he's much more creative and understands what femininity and individuality mean. He's also based in Manchester (though if Goldy Hawn is in the UK, he's her personal MUA - thankfully she didn't need him the night of the awards - so I nabbed him for me!)

Armand created this incredible 'Starship Troopers meets Blade Runner meets Glamazon look'...perfect for my Desi Spacegirl theme - and you saw it here first. Gold eyebrows are going to be a thing.

The event itself was fun, positive and filled with smiles. I caught up with friends and influential people. I'm a massive supporter of the Asian Media industry, I've been involved in it since I was 17 and I hope I'll always have a chance to make my mark in it, and the wider media world.

Here's some more snaps from the glittering evening...

With Asad Shan, who won TV Presenter Of The Year (no hard feelings...clearly we should Co-Present something!)

Fabulous actresses Clara Indrani and Goldy Notay whose play Happy Birthday Sunita was nominated for Best Stage Show

TV & Radio Presenter extraordinaire Shay Grewal

BBC Asian Network's Haroon Rashid with Video Channel Of The Year winner Planet Parle

With Nat Bollywood & Matt Doodling Around

The Asian Media Awards 2015 took place at The Hilton Deansgate in Manchester. See the full list of winners here.

British Asian Fashion: Has it finally got its own identity?

Asiana Couture Catwalk (L-R Mani Kohli Khubsoorat, Ashan's and Aada by Gudu G) Image: Rafyl

I've recently entered my 5th year of working on a British Asian fashion magazine. I've lost count of how many fashion catwalk shows I've been to, the number of trend reports I've written and the thousands of images I've sifted through. 

The fabrics, designs, colours and embellishments are always extraordinary but unless you pay attention to detail, it's hard to sometimes tell them apart. There are some key designers who set the trends each season but over and over again you see the same things happening. It's like fashion in general: trends go around in circles so to someone who doesn't know much about Asian fashion their immediate reaction may be...'it all looks the same'...and truth be told I wouldn't blame them. 

If you were to look back at the last decade of British Asian fashion you'll spot similar things occurring: red Latin inspired ball gowns, red and gold churidar suits, heavy Mughal embroidery...is it because British designers are too lazy to start setting new trends, they keep going back to the old ones?

This doesn't happen in India; their designers seem to be far more progressive. Take Manish Arora...

These snaps were taken at Paris Fashion Week earlier this month and customary with his signature style they are are bright, quirky and have personality.

Similarly the calibre of designers who exhibited at Lakme Fashion Week in India also in March this year were at the top of their game for being influential. In fact if the mainstream fashion press ever do want to look at the what's happening in South Asian fashion they'll go straight to these established designers in India and won't even thinking about looking at UK talent.

Well it's time they did. 

A couple of weeks ago a new kind of fashion show took place in Birmingham bringing with it evidence that British based Asian designers are finally realising the importance of developing their own style. The Asiana Couture Catwalk held at Edgbaston Cricket Stadium was a showcase of contemporary fashion for men and woman and for the first time showed signs of originality and 'trends' emerging which could so easily impact on the wider, mainstream fashion industry.

I felt the standards were good enough to compete on an international scale. I don't mean that to sound patronising...I just honestly think the clothes have got better to the point they don't look like 'British Asian clothes for British Asian people', but have wider appeal. 

Here are some of the outfits to explain what I mean:

Mani Kohli - Khusboorat (London)

Bombay Stores (Bradford)

Gul's Style (Ilford)

Adaa by Gudu G (Birmingham)

Arinder Bhullar

Kiran's Creations

Ahsan's (Birmingham)

Kyles Collection (London - jewellery)

There is absolutely no reason a Western A'list celebrity shouldn't wear one of the bold, red evening dresses by Kiran's Creations, that a slender popstar star can't wear the gold lace catsuit by Gudu G or a British woman of any ethnicity wear one of the floaty, summer festival themed kaftans available from Bombay Stores. 

Similarly I've met white English men fascinated by Asian men's sherwanis - they aren't all cream and gold and made for weddings; this darker pair have a smart theme to them which could easily crossover as an 'acceptable' form of menswear in public by again, a man of any ethnicity, without him looking like he's just come back from travelling, or leads an alternative/New Age lifestyle.

So what does this actually mean and does it matter?

Well sadly I think we are still many years away from a mainstream Western fashion magazine featuring clothes by Asian designers...but if these designers continue to keep their standards high, try and push boundaries and 'design' rather than copy each other or rely on past collections then I hope one day they'll gain wider recognition and become a more valued part of the British Asian industry as a whole. 

And that's just for starters...

As for what I wore to the fashion show, I'm currently going though what I'm calling my orange 'Oompa Loompa' phase and this ensemble kind of just came together from things already in my wardrobe. I'm pictured with the best-dressed man at the show, jewellery designer Anees Malik. Whenever I see him he always looks unique, also I so rarely meet (or see) Asian men that have perfected their own original image so he deserve a special mention!

If you're interested in finding out more about what's happening in the world of British Asian fashion then you should check out Asian Fashion Blog, Author Nazma does a sterling job of keeping abreast of the industry and her blog is packed with great pictures and keep an eye on Asiana.TV. Enjoy! 

All catwalk images taken by Rafyl 

The Power of Clothes

Much to the surprise of friends, family and colleagues I decided to embark on an experiment where I was dressed in the opposite to what I normally wear, for an article that appears in the September issue of Psychologies magazine (out now!). I hold strong beliefs that one should never be told how to dress. We are all individuals perfectly capable of deciding what we like wearing. Some people market themselves as 'experts' in knowing how to dress, something I find very odd. There's no right or wrong answers to fashion. I do understand that not everyone has the time to think about what to wear but I would never agree that a person doesn't possess the 'creativity' to dress themselves. Knowing I would have to wear black clothes for a day filled me with fear, it's something I've never done. It signifies formality, rules and regulations (just stand upstairs at a train station during rush hour and look down on the hundreds of ant like people going about their business in the same shade), it's so suffocating. Then there are girls who wear black because they think it makes them slimmer. I find this really sad, there are so many ways to make your body look good without the need to resort to wearing black.

Before

This is me in the 'before the makeover' photo, looking normal; mixing and matching colours, patterns and textures. It's the kind of outfit that makes me feel full of positive energy. And just to prove it wasn't something I put together for the magazine article I wanted to show you my wardrobe and some photos of me taken over the last decade.

My wardrobe

To tell you the truth, I actually have two wardrobes, this is just one of them. I find it useful to display all my garments, footwear and accessories in one place as it helps visualise outfit combinations. There's no point having stuff tucked away in drawers, they get forgotten about. You can read more about where I source my clothes in a previous blog post of mine and see more about my wardrobe in a V&A Museum book called British Asian Fashion, which was published last year. It is a gorgeous book, especially the cover!

Crafting at home 2002

Looking back at photos of my student days is always really exciting though like most folk I experience pangs of jealously about wishing I could return to such a carefree life. When I wasn't studying for my geography degree I was generally busying myself crafting and looking for fabulous clothes. I made the skirt (and canvas) from fabric bought in Ikea, though sadly as it was made to measure the 21 year old me, it no longer fits : (

University of Sussex graduation 2003

On graduation day I was the only student not wearing black and white and I remember my tutors being extremely excited about it and telling me afterwards now happy Richard Attenborough (his eyes popped out apparently) was when he saw me on stage (I was lucky enough to be handed my certificate by the man himself!) My only regret was when I received my main photograph. The arm clutching my scroll also has a plastic lovehearts watch on, which looked really tacky, but in time I've grown to appreciate this as even though it was a prestigious and traditional occasion, it still captured my style, and who I was aged 22.

Out in the country

When some people go into the country they like to wear colours that blend in to the background like khaki barbour coats or dark trousers - not me! This was taken some years ago on a random visit to the sussex coast where even though it was a long outdoor walk I'm still clutching an Anna Sui handbag.

Glamour puss look 2006

My first book launch in 2006 gave me an excuse to treat myself to a proper Asian outfit. I have always loved them but they are very pricey and out of my budget. I found this gorgeous shalwar kameez in Southall. It shimmers and shines in every direction and is detailed with tiny rainbow coloured sequins.

Weekend attire 2005

At weekends I like to dress comfortably whilst exploring the streets, events and activities of Londinium; this is me in my casual attire. It's the most dressed down I normally get...

At home/just woken up look! 2007

Apart from at home where I tend to live in my dressing gown! This is also a lesser spotted photo of me with no make up on (well I had just woken up!) but that's potentially a subject for a future blog post!

At work 2008

When I'm teaching crafts (one of my jobs!) I like to represent what I'm teaching. This was a fashion course so I dressed accordingly - I'm a strong believer in dressing for the occasion.

The article

So that was just a snapshot of my clothes, (it's always fun looking back at old photos). And now back to the article which is called 'Can what you wear change your identity?'. I am in 100% agreement that the answer is yes. I won't go into repeating what the article says (you'll have to pick up a copy to read that), but wearing something you don't normally wear is proof of that. Being in black made me feel so ordinary and invisible which in turn made me loose my confidence and my smile (though clearly I am smiling below but that was more to do with the 'moment' of being the subject of a photoshoot!)

My 'Make Under'

Afterwards we were given the clothes that we had been styled in to keep but I couldn't face wearing any of them ever again. They symbolised complete oppression, as though they were a 'uniform' so I gave them all away. Maybe I have too much emotional attachment with clothes and maybe other people don't feel this way, they can wear anything and feel completely normal? I actually think most people stay safe by choosing a particular theme to their clothing whether that's smart, casual or vintage; they find their look and stick to it. I've never considered myself to have a theme, but maybe I do, my theme is basically to feel happy and for me that comes through wearing colour. There's is no doubt that clothes are a powerful medium in which to express yourself, but you won't truly feel that until you start experimenting.