{"id":2322,"date":"2017-07-02T08:49:18","date_gmt":"2017-07-02T08:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/?p=2322"},"modified":"2017-07-02T08:50:03","modified_gmt":"2017-07-02T08:50:03","slug":"the-baati-dress-proves-that-modest-fashion-can-be-liberating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/the-baati-dress-proves-that-modest-fashion-can-be-liberating\/","title":{"rendered":"The Baati Dress Proves That Modest Fashion Can Be Liberating"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yeezy catwalker\u00a0Halima Aden<\/a>\u00a0caught the world\u2019s attention earlier this year as one of the first models on a major fashion runway in New York to wear a hijab. But this summer, as she moves from magazine shoots to judging Miss USA alongside Ashley Graham who is a host, fashion watchers are likely to notice another staple of her everyday style: the\u00a0baati<\/em>, a classic cotton dress from her ancestral home of Somalia that often costs less than $20.<\/p>\n

Though it\u2019s a sort of housedress, designed in the spirit of one-size-fits-all utilitarianism, the baati conjures elegance and refinement rather than the scraggly bohemianism of the muumuu and caftan. That\u2019s because of the self-possession of the women\u2014usually Somali\u2014who wear it, and because of the baati\u2019s inherent versatility, the way its fluid, wide-sleeved silhouette flips from loungewear-like to dressed up depending on how it\u2019s styled.<\/p>\n

Aden, 19, started wearing baatis when she was 8 years old and has been photographed trekking the globe in them since February, when she signed to IMG Models. \u201cI have found I am wearing them more than ever,\u201d she says. \u201cThey are great for wearing on an airplane, when traveling, and perfect for wearing to photo shoots, where I am going to be making clothing changes on-site and need to be able to do that quickly,\u201d she says. \u201cMy favorite thing about baatis is that they are so comfortable and easy to wear, like wearing cozy pajamas.\u201d<\/p>\n

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DJ and fashion designer Deka Abdullahi. Photograph: Courtesy of @Fatumas_eye<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Another aspect of the style\u2019s appeal is the way it functions as an instant statement piece. \u201cThe prints are so bold it doesn\u2019t need anything else,\u201d says Canadian singer-songwriter Cold Specks. \u201cSometimes I\u2019ll wear it with a shiny traditional scarf to cover my head. Sometimes I cut the bottom off.\u201d Specks\u2019s music-world peer and Love Army for Somalia activist Amaal Nuux favors the look for reasons of cultural pride: \u201cI always have my baati loose, sometimes tucked into my\u00a0goongaarad<\/em>\u00a0[a Somali slip worn underneath dresses],\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ll accessorize with a gold long necklace and some bracelets. All of this together makes me feel like a Somali queen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The summer before sixth grade was the first time I wore a baati, and the first time I experienced that queenly feeling for myself. My paternal grandmother handed me a baati that smelled like her (an old Somali lady smells like frankincense and Bengay, if you\u2019re wondering) in her Columbus, Ohio, townhouse, and from then on I was hooked. Wearing it meant I was indeed a woman, not a girl, because baatis had been too long for me the previous year, when I was 4 feet 11. At 5 feet 2, however, they fit perfectly, and I could wear them every day. I could dress them up or down, shorten or lengthen them, wear them loose or tie them up to make them formfitting\u2014whatever. Wearing a baati felt free, like being naked. Sometimes I kind of was naked; I wasn\u2019t aware I was supposed to wear a slip underneath, so the silhouette of my legs reflected against the sunlight would leave me exposed. Not that I cared or noticed; this was before the words\u00a0modesty<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0shame<\/em>\u00a0had entered my lexicon.<\/p>\n

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Model Miski Muse. Photograph: Courtesy of Miski \/ @musegold<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

During my teens, the baati became my personal version of\u00a0The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants<\/em>: a one-size-fits-all dress that symbolizes friendship. Every time I\u2019d go to my best friend\u2019s apartment, she would give me a baati to wear, and I\u2019d quickly stuff the middle of it into my slip, creating a kangaroo-style pouch for my pink suede wallet in case we\u2019d make halal store runs for Vimto and sambusas and so I could feel at home. When my mom was 16 and had just left Somalia, her mother gave her a baati to use as a washable menstrual pad because she couldn\u2019t afford the store-bought version. She would wash the ripped-up baati by hand and reuse it.<\/p>\n

Modifying the baati based on a specific need signifies agency. Wearing it as a sling to carry a baby is one potential use. Cropping and cinching it into a two-piece ensemble\u2014something I\u2019ve seen on social media a few times\u2014is another possibility. And even if you don\u2019t swim in one for modesty, as people I grew up with did, they\u2019re ideal as beach cover-ups. \u201cAnyone can wear a baati, so in that sense, it can\u2019t be appropriated,\u201d says Somali storyteller Hawa Y. Mire. \u201cSure, you can wear the baati to the beach, but it carries memories and stories for Somali women, like the time you didn\u2019t have clothes to wear while visiting your cousins, or the time your parents brought you back a baati from a trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent years, I\u2019ve found myself more interested in the garment\u2019s diasporic malleability, the way it becomes whatever we want it to be depending on the context. The fact that there are no rules makes baatis quintessentially modern and unencumbered by cultural restrictions, and I\u2019ve started to interpret them as a symbol of Somali women\u2019s continued resistance post\u2013civil war. Not politicized or imbued with religiosity the way other modesty staples like the hijab, burkini, and abaya are, the baati is all about freedom\u2014proving that Muslim women have it in spades.<\/p>\n

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Student Diana Salah (left). Photograph: Courtesy of @flowernuke<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Model Halima Aden in the Baati<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fashion","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2322"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2328,"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2322\/revisions\/2328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somalicentral.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}