e B st LOOK
YOUR
Wherever You Go
M
BY
SUZ A NNE
y first foray into fashion happened when I was six years old, perched on the highest wall in Mogadishu, Somalia. We lived in a pink villa on top of the city, the house and garden enclosed by walls engulfed with thorny, pink bougainvillea. When my brother and I had nothing to do, we climbed through the thorns to sit on the wall, making all kinds of discoveries—fashion was one of them.
One side of the wall overlooked street life: lorries, camels, and people moving down the street, with the Indian Ocean sparkling in the distance. The opposite 116 | M A R CH 2020
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wall faced a no-man’s-land of bush and wildlife. While sitting on the street side, we peered down and conversed with passersby. Even at our young age, we were struck by the beauty of the Somalis, a tall, thin, elegant, and aristocratic people. The women draped printed cotton around their bodies and wrapped yards of cloth around their heads, making their long necks look even more swan-like and their high cheekbones more prominent. Gold jewelry adorned their ears— not just one little gold droplet but a row up the outer edge of each earlobe. Sometimes a golden bracelet flashed on an arm, the gold gleaming off the color of the skin. Black kohl rimmed almond-shaped eyes.
