Pardesi is an independent fashion and culture magazine exploring the duality of identity for Indian women living between two worlds. Through personal essays, fashion editorials, and intimate visual storytelling, it documents what happens to a woman's wardrobe; and her sense of self; when she leaves home for New York City. Conceived, written, designed, independently by a LIM College fashion marketing and media student, Pardesi is for every girl who has ever stood in front of her wardrobe and not known who she was dressing for.
in between /In bi'twi:n/ adjective, phrase thing nor th
1. in an intermediate position; neither one thing nor the other
2. for the girl who has moved countries, the only honest place to stand
Rhea, on a comment that stayed with her
A girl in my class said I looked "so exotic" in my kurta and meant it as a compliment. I said thank you because I didn't know what else to say. I thought about it for weeks afterward. Exotic. Like I was a flower somebody photographed on vacation. I didn't wear the kurta again for a long time after that, not because I was ashamed of it, but because I didn't want to be a flower in someone's photograph. I'm trying to get back to wearing it for me again. Some days that's easier than others.
Anika, on going home and feeling like a stranger in her own wardrobe ber and di
I opened my closet in Delhi in December and didn't recognise half of it. Reached for a kurta and it felt borrowed, like I was wearing my sister's clothes. My mother noticed. She didn't say anything, but she noticed, the way she does, where her face says one sentence and her mouth says another. I wore three different outfits before I left for my cousin's wedding. None of them felt like mine. I ended up in the one I'd worn the least in the last two years. It felt the most like a stranger, which somehow made it feel the most
honest.