EXODUS FROM KAMPALA
Bareia’s collection is rooted in the concept of migration and the resulting culture shift. The collection explores the journey of the women of Pakistani and Indian background who lived in Uganda under British colonialism and then were expelled in the 1970s by the dictator Idi Amin. It is natural when living in colonialism that cultural identity becomes diluted, and fashion demonstrates this effect: the draped sari replaced by more appealing functional ‘modern’ Western clothes; the traditional silk replaced by ‘modern’ polyester; intricate embellishment replaced by simple designs. Amin was obsessed by Scottish culture (as portrayed in the film The Last King of Scotland). Scottish clothes have a stronger identity than the normalising standard British clothes, and Amin adopted them for this character and connotations of power. So Bareia’s collection plays with textiles and silhouettes of the colliding cultural aesthetics. Vintage Indian floral silk fabrics are graphically cut with striking vinyl print inspired tartan. The vinyl technique is influenced by the artist Nusra Latif Qureshi who examines the effect of colonialism on cultural heritage by playing with block printing iconic objects. She takes an object such as the seat of the Indian king, but screen prints it with just the outline so that it loses all of its cultural meaning and becomes an empty shell, not belonging to one specific place at all. In stripping meaning from the artefact, she demonstrates the bland character of a globalised popular culture which denies heritage, character and essence. However, while for Qureshi the vinyl acts a warning note of the nihilistic effect of pop globalisation, Bareia is more interested in celebrating the merging of the cultures. She uses vinyl to block out some iconic aspects of the garments but this is definitely not a total removal of character. The sari is the most iconic garment for Pakistani and Indian women, so every piece in the collection has elements of the draped sari merging with the iconic Scottish tartan, thus illustrating the story of women of Pakistani and Indian heritage gradually becoming subsumed by the British influence: it is a glorious riot.