My personal style was shaped by borrowing clothes from my sister

Though we now live on different continents, we persist with our annual ritual whenever we are back home. Each time, I undertake the task of claiming ownership and growing into her clothes. Unknowingly, this has revealed itself to be a practice of slow, sustainable fashion. And the fundamental consequence of this act of borrowing has been the development of my sense of personal style.

Along with the clothes, I have received an appreciation for what I now consider to be the art of putting an outfit together. It has helped me understand how to combine colours, textures, fabrics, and shapes and make them interact with each other. I am no expert at this endeavour, but I do try. It is upon this foundation that I have been continuously learning and experimenting. And it has also enabled me to unlearn certain notions of gender roles and normative binaries that we are boxed into: Yes, I am in fact wearing women’s trousers, and what about it?

The author wears a bag, wide-legged trousers and a navy cardigan. All of them once belonged to his sister.

On this journey of self-fashioning, I have been intentional about being sustainable in whatever ways I can. This newfound interest leads me back to my sister’s wardrobe, thrift stores, and labels that offer more than just a product. Clothes no longer represent something I can hastily put on and head out, but an ensemble of people and experiences that have created them, and lived in them. While they give me a way to express and assert myself, they also root me in a larger community.