A year ago i modeled for the Monki SS14 lookbook with a great Swedish girl called Fatima. We became friends and after having followed her on instagram for a while, I couldn’t help but invite her to take part in this series of interviews. So in the end of August this year, i met her in Malmö for a talk about her awesome style. Take a look!
Marie: Ok, give me some basic info about yourself:
Fatima: My name is Fatima Osman, I’m 21 years old and I’m a student at Lund University. I study Development Studies, which I just finished. So now I’m taking one year sabbatical before continuing my studies.
When I’m not studying, what I like to do is I’m very music interested, I host a radio show about hip hop, me and two others. we’re called Once Upon a Rhyme. We used to be a part of a radio station, but now we do podcasts. We’re also a DJ-collective, so we play all around Sweden, mostly in Stockholm but we’re also getting some gigs in Malmö as well. Besides that I like to read and I like fashion – but not in a way that I’m into the world of fashion, I just like putting a lot of time into my clothing.
Marie: In general, what do your clothes mean to you?
Fatima: It’s kind of double for me, because at the same time as I know it’s very shallow, it’s just pure physical impressions of people. But you can’t escape the fact that it’s the first impression you get of someone, it’s the way they look. It’s your first possibility to impact which athmosphere you want to project. So, for example for me, I like to express myself in colors, different patterns, because I think it ways something about my personality.
Marie: Sure, I understand
Fatima: This is like the cliché that it’s self expression, but I think there’s a lot of truth in clothes being self expression.
Marie: Yeah, I think so too, it really is.
Marie: Ok, what is our earliest memory that you have about clothes. Do you have any?
Fatima: Yeah, haha, it’s so clear for me. It’s not one memory, it’s more like, I remember whe I started going to school in first grade, me and my mom would always spend half an hour each night deciding what I was going to wear to school the next day. Because otherwise, if I didn’t know what I was going to wear, and I didn’t like it, I would panic in the morning. So it was important for me that it was already planned. I remember trying to experiment and trying on different things. Thinking what mood am I going to be in tomorrow and what mood am I in now?
So that was my first encounter with how I could be creative about how I wear things.
Marie: That’s really cool! All right, what do you think is your best memory about clothes, then?
Fatima: I can’t really say that there’s is one particular one again, but I know like.. You know the feeling when you’re wearing something that you don’t like or you’re not happy about it. And you almost feel this sense of shame.
Marie: Yeah, I do!
Fatima: This goes the other way too, so my my most positive feeling about clothes, is when I’m wearing something that is expressive of my mood and how I feel today. And when somebody comes and asks me about where I bought something. They feel a connection to what you’re wearing. Those moments make me really happy and I usually take time to talk to that person.
Marie: I know, because usually it’s not just about the clothes. It’s be the whole vibe that you have.
Fatima: Exactly. These moments really make me feel a sence of accomplishment in managing to express something that I wanted to express.
Marie: So do you have any clothes that you’re dreaming of getting right now? Anything that you really want or something you’ve made up in your mind and you’d love to have it?
Fatima: Ok, so I have this one crazy dream about – do you know “101 dalmatians”?
Marie: Yeah, I do.
Fatima: I really want a fall coat with a dalmatian look, that’s kind of a cape that’s a bit of a soft material. And then I want to wear red lipstick with it.
Marie: that would be so cool!
Fatima: I don’t know where to find one, I’d have to sew it myself. But I’m now a sewer, so..
Marie: Aw, too bad! When you’re making up the idea of this coat, or when getting dressed in the morning, do you have any people or anything that inspired you stylewise, or do you just make it up yourself?
Fatima: Usually when I try to decide what to wear, I always think “What feeling do I have today?”. Then I decide on one thing. It can be an earring, a necklace, a bag or even a pair of glittery socks, and from there I continue to build the outfit. It’s very rarely that I feel like “Today I wanna wear something with a lot of pink.” I’ts usually that I decide on one thing that has a bit of my mood for the day and I continue to build on it.
Marie: I know, I do that a lot as well.
Fatima: Even just a lipcolor or something like that.
Marie: Do you have any particular person, a style icon or an era of a tv-show that inspires you?
Fatima: Yeah, I’m quite inspired by 70’s and 90’s. The 70’s with the wide pants, the kimonos, the patterns and also this chunky stuff from the 90’s, the crop tops, the metallics. So I was telling you about, I’ve been looking at TLC and those kinds of girl bands, because they had a really interesting new thoughts for their time.
Marie: Yeah, that’s how I descibed your style to my friends – I tell them you’re a bit, 70’s-90’s-future.
Fatima: It’s so funny that you said that!
Marie: To me it’s a fusion between that Spice Girls-TLC-kind of vibe and then the 70’s flowy items and then I just think you do it in a futuristic way.
Marie: Ok, do you think that you look is important to you as a DJ? You have this crazy style for your every day life, so is it also important for you to get a bit more freaky when DJ’ing or do you just dress as you usually would.
Fatima: Yeah, I dress as I usually would. But sometimes I straighten my hair, just because it makes it easier to deal with, but when I go DJ’ing I can’t have my hair straight, because then people won’t recognize me. It’s just such a big part of when people look behing the DJ booth, they expect this whole image. So I don’t want to distrupt it, because my clothes vary a lot, but my hair is kind of signature for me.
Marie: That’s what I was looking for when I was waiting for you when we met up just now: “Where is the big hair?”
Fatima: Yeah, I think people do that, it’s not just you.
Marie: OK, last question. What’s your favorite item in your wardrobe?
Fatima: It changes all the time, but I have one favorite item right now is from a second hand store run by a lady called Lisa Larsson in Stockholm. It’s been there since way back, like the 70’s or something. She’s known because she has really special second hand and vintage clothes. Stylists go there to pick out clothes.
Marie: Oh that sounds like a nice place.
Fatima: From there I got this kimono. Or it’s more like a jacket. I’m going to show you, wait.
Marie: That’s so cool! And the pockets!
Fatima: I know, but no, it’s just one pocket.
Marie: And the buttons – a kimono with buttons! That’s so nice!
Fatima: Yeah, it’s like a jacket and it has a belt in the same material for the waist.
Marie: Wow, that’s so cool!
Fatima: Yeah, and it’s actually from the 30’s!
Marie: I think it’s so nice having clothes with history.
Fatima: Yeah, Lisa said that she had it in her store for a long time. It was quite expensive, but nobody bought it, so when I got around to buying it, it was almost half price. It’s hard for me not to wear it every day. I want to sleep in it and wear it all the time.
Marie: And it’s cool that it’s so long, so you can wear it over anything and look awesome all the time.
Fatima: And you can also button it up and wear it like a dress with the belt.
Marie: That’s genius! All right, that’s all for this interview, but I have to take a photo of this, because I have to show it along with the interview.
follow Fatima’s fantastic style on instagram @fatimaossman