Fashion

i guess a good place to start is that of where this beautiful relationship with fashion began... 

'but mum, everyone's wearing them'

when i was growing up, throughout school whenever we would have a 'non-uniform day' i would dread trying to work out what to wear because it would result in the long awkward walk through your peers getting 'the look' and the ghostly whispers of 'what is she wearing?'

i put all my effort into fitting in, i was most definitely a sheep, following the rest thinking what we was wearing looked totally on trend, but with this i struggled, being 5'7 at the age of 13 was an extremely hard thing to accustom too. oh children can be so cruel.

the worst was finding trousers to fit my long gangly pins and fitting my waist..HELL. but i was insistent on having those khaki cargo pants.."but mum, everyones wearing them"

'yeah alright dad'

from a very young age my father would always suggest items of clothing for me to wear, the conversations ran a little like this....

"sara, why don't you try these shoes?"

"dad, they are horrible, no one wears shoes like that, i mean theres no heel?"

"you just wait sara, everyone will be wearing these on day"

"yeah, alright dad"

some years later, i was eating my words asking my dad for a pair of ballet pumps because, shock, they was in fashion at that time. 

my dad is egyptian so he had a completely different upbringing to my siblings and i, but one thing that was undeniable, was his taste in fashion. i remember laughing at my dad when he showed me his pair of ray-ban aviators and tortoise shell wayfarer... i now own 3 pairs..

he always would say to me 'sara, be the trendsetter' 

but i just was never confident enough to break out of what was comfortable. 

'those green jeans'

i will never forget my dad coming home from barcelona with a gift for me. i was so excited. only to be thoroughly disappointed when he produced a pair of bright, almost grass green coloured jeans. i was mortified, i thought how an earth can i wear these? everyone is going to laugh at me?..i know only wear them when dads around, and in the house.

and thats exactly what i did. 

i then went through the stage of where i experimented with different music and changed my look completely because it fitted with what everyone else was doing. and at the same time, my brother, sami, was becoming more and more conscious of what he looked like, and he would come to me for advice, and i found myself telling him to wear all the clothes i had seen on every older male in my school. 

he then started something with his year, they all began wearing similar styles of his clothing and it shocked me. i had done this. sami was a trendsetter for the 13 year old. 

i knew then that if sami was able to do this, i definitely could. 

i needed something to inspire my 'new look' and what better that cutting your hair off. and thats exactly what i did, i cried for like 2 whole days after it became the best thing I've ever done. 

once the initial shock of the loss of my hair had gone, i began rocking it like it was the newest it item. 

i was casually looking through my wardrobe when something green caught my eye...the jeans. 

i took one deep breathe and knew i that after this decision there was no going back. 

'where did you get that from?'

ever since then, every item of clothing i have chosen is because i liked them. not because it was fashionable. i make the decisions because they explain who i am, not who i want to be. 

i also like making creations and seeing how colours work together and seeing whether i can get away with wearing my vans to the club rather than heels. 

my views on fashion have changed so rapidly in the last 7 years its amazing to think i ever was the way i was with clothing. 

fashion is the most con traversal form of art there is out there, and we are the canvas' for the art to take place.

my family inspires me more than is imaginable.

it still to this day when i hear the words 'where did you get that from sara?' fills me with utter delight, that it is now me answering the question, not asking. 
now, at the age of 21, i have finally found my love, my soul mate, and I'm not about to let it go anywhere.