Chuka Umunna Quotes

We never wore burkas because Somalis had our own culture.

When I'm back home, all I wear is African fabric. All I really rock is the traditional stuff.

I really hold on to my culture because it is what made me.

I'm not becoming western; I am still following my Pashtun culture, and I'm wearing a shalvar kamiz, a dupatta on my head.

What I would not do is flaunt my Indianess by wearing a saree to work everyday, because it distracts from the job. So, I would not do that. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Social events are different. If I feel comfortable in a saree for a social event, I wear it.

I am so excited to have created a line that has been inspired by my culture - showing its color, its passion and its greatness - and one that captures much of my personal style.

I don't think culture is something you can describe.

Ask anybody from Africa which country is the best in terms of dressing, and they'll tell you Congo.

Culture is more important than politics and government.

BJP should direct our Ministers to wear traditional and modernised Indian clothes while abroad. In coat and tie, they look like waiters.

That's the culture I come from - we like to dress nice. It is my thing.

A lot of groups spend their whole cultural and aesthetic identity trying to move away from Africa, which I think is a mistake. One of the reasons I love Cuba and cultures like that is because they're not trying to move away from their African roots, they're trying to embrace them. That's part of the culture.

When I first came out, I was wearing full-on traditional Nigerian wear. I got told by a lot of people that I should just tone it down. I only stopped when I realized there's only so many prints you can wear.

Some of us are lucky enough to choose what we wear, and some of us don't have that luxury, but we all are communicating something to the world around us by what we wear, no matter if it's sweatpants or a tuxedo.

In Benin, there's a thing that family members wear the same pattern of traditional African clothing.

I think a lot of people see fashion as a feminine art form and use that as an excuse to dismiss it. Highlighting it can be a way of affirming that women's interests are of value.

My mother was not happy with the Afros that my friends and I emerged with - there's that crack in the book of 'Why, if a fly landed in there, he'd break his little wings trying to get out.' I was not pure dashiki, though - I was a combination of African dresses, miniskirts, tank tops, shawls, ethnic-looking earrings, sandals.

What you wear can largely govern your feelings and your emotions, and how you look influences the way people regard you. So fashion plays an important role on both the practical level and the aesthetic level.

I think, in a lot of ways, we underestimate how much clothing plays a part in achieving our identities and in how we want the world to deal with us.

Clothes are not a frivolous subject, and the conversation around them should not be belittled. How we dress affects what we feel, what we do, and who we are.

The men who really get repelled by what you're wearing are a little shallow, and you probably don't want to date them anyway.

The 'garra charrua' is something we're proud of, even if other people sometimes misunderstand it.

My dad always made a big thing about having well-cut suits. It's partly a cultural thing, but for him, looking sharp and presenting yourself well was very, very important.

If it were up to me, I would wear a peshwas and a gharara everywhere.

I think it's about the feeling more than a language. And I think that we and every culture in the world has to keep their own language just to bring something else, something different, and show a different vision of the world, actually. And that's why I'm trying to keep my language.