Clothing, Respectability and the West by Dee Hassan

Getting my laundry done this week got me thinking about the meaning I place on different pieces of clothing. Looking at the load, I realised that I’d been taught to categorise clothes as "home clothes" and "out clothes". The home clothes consist entirely of our traditional Somali clothes while the out clothes are supposedly more respectable Western clothing.

The most common piece of clothing I have at home is the Somali baati, a one-size fits all type of cotton dress with a wide-sleeved silhouette. For Somali men the equivalent "home clothing" is the "macawis" or the sarong, a large length of fabric wrapped around the waist, worn in South Asia, East Africa, the Middle East and Pacific Islands. The baati is the most comfortable thing in the world. Between me and my sisters we own about 50 of them, in different styles, patterns and colours, and yet none of us have ever worn them outside our front door. Our traditional dress was at some point deemed inappropriate to wear in the West and confined to the private sphere where 2nd generation immigrant children like me considered them ethnic pyjamas rather than legitimate clothing to wear in public. It wasn’t until I travelled to Somalia, at 18, and saw people in banks, buses and beaches wearing "home clothes" that I realised the fault in my thinking.

I wear baatis at home every single day. During lockdown, when I didn’t leave my house for weeks, I didn’t wear western clothing at all - no one in my family did - and our laundry load looked completely different. It was almost difficult to wear trousers and shirts again. In comparison they suddenly felt incredibly constrictive and uncomfortable. 

I’m now waiting for East African clothing to become an appropriated fashion trend in the West so that it’ll become acceptable for me to wear my "home clothes" in public. I’m guessing the wait won’t be for much longer. A couple of years ago I spotted a Vogue article musing over the "liberating baati dress" worn by models on the catwalk. This year, I saw a group of English women advertising their business selling baatis by a different name, except instead of the average price of £15 or less, these women were selling them for closer to £100. So perhaps someday soon they’ll become appropriate to wear in the West - because it seems that people of colour don’t get to decide what’s considered respectable clothing - if anything, it seems like that term is defined in opposition to non-western clothing.

The theme of "respectability" through clothing/fabrics is something that's becoming central to our inquiries during this project. Myself through a non-western lens, and Holly from a working-class perspective. Both of us have experienced shame, the pressure to assimilate and appropriation when it comes to clothing that is associated with our respective classes and cultures. What would happen if we used this project as an opportunity to examine, reclaim and celebrate some of this?

This week we've been connected with At The Well's friends from Lansdowne Court in Easton. We're hoping to meet with them next week and are looking forward to hearing their thoughts on the project. Holly's off to a projection masterclass with Limbic Cinema this afternoon. We're excited to get some new ideas for how we might exhibit our final work in September and to learn some new tech skills... watch this space...!