As a precursor to Cultural Style Week, the 'My Cultural Style' video series features a diverse group of inspirational people from all walks of life talking about the beauty of their cultural heritage and why it's important to them.
Full interviews will be released weekly from Monday 14 March via Youtube. Get ready to be educated through a visual display and celebration of cultural beauty, as we share their remarkable stories in the lead up to Cultural Style Week!
Meet the participants below.
Shabbir Mellick who is of Pakistani heritage is a qualified pharmacist and holistic health advocate. Shabbir shares that his faith is an integral part of his cultural style and enjoys that he can showcase his cultural Identity and what his heritage means to him through fashion. Being able to wear clothes that represent his eastern and western upbringing affirms his identity and he is looking forward to learning more about others during Cultural Style Week.
Model and actress Nargis of Afghan, Russian and Ukrainian heritage, celebrates her Afghan roots as she showcases some of the beautiful, traditional Kuchi clothing of the Afghan Pashtun ethnic group. She gives us some insight into the history of her people and details her cultural ideals of beauty and its origin, and what she will be wearing during Cultural Style Week.
Robert was born in the Scottish highlands and now lives and works in London. He is immensely proud of his cultural heritage and relishes any opportunity to wear his beloved national dress, the Scottish kilt.
His love for the kilt inspired him to set up the London Kilt run, an annual run through London with participants wearing kilts.
Robert is looking forward to seeing others in their national dress during Cultural Style Week and plans to wear his beloved kilts across the week.
Jennifer is a British born ‘Caribbean Madras’ fashion designer of Dominican heritage. She grew up with an awareness of the important role cultural traditions play in enabling people to experience a sense of belonging.
She has a passion for helping people from the Caribbean diaspora connect with their shared culture and heritage. She is excited about Cultural Style Week because she believes different people from diverse places can showcase the various things important to their heritage.
Pritt is a BBC Asian Network radio host, singer and a self-professed South Londoner at heart. Pritt comes from a Tamil background which has influenced her style immensely, allowing herself to be as expressive as possible to take a pivotal stance in her art and be proud of her culture.
Pritt also runs the event platform ‘A collective: SOUL’ to showcase the underrepresented talent within the music and art world, opening arms to those who feel unseen and unheard.
She constantly strives to create the little changes that she can after seeing a lack of representation of her people.
Pritt is excited to wear different variations of her sarees and learn about other people’s differences and cultural heritage during Cultural Style Week.
British born Tony who is of Nigerian heritage, was lovingly raised by his adoptive English family. He is a talented actor, comedy performer/writer who loves the creative life and all things cinema and photography. He enjoys telling his story of overcoming identity crisis, racial confusion, and disconnected roots through his books, entertainment and other mediums.
He believes that Cultural Style week will give everyone the opportunity to come together and showcase where they are from.
Rika is a Japanese circus gymnast and dancer. Her amazing performance skills have been featured on Romania's Got talent where she lived for some time before moving to London. A self-professed Kimono enthusiast, Rika relishes any opportunity to wear her kimonos during general social activities in London.
She loves how she feels when she wears one and is looking forward to wearing different kimono styles across Cultural Style Week and learning about other diverse cultural styles.