Aya Wear making African identity fashion statement

Paul H. Williams, Gleaner Writer

Zion Hill, Portland:

Aya Wear, located in Zion Hill, Portland, is a clothing line that makes and sells African clothes. It's a business all right, but one that is making a strong statement about the African identity of its owner, fashion designer Arlene Passley, and her clients.

"Aya Wear is a fashion house dedicated to producing authentic Afro-Jamaican clothing. Our mission is to express and embrace African culture through fashion," explained the statuesque Titchfield High School graduate who stuns people everywhere she goes with her regal bearing and stylish African clothes.

"Fashion," she said, "has been a major part of my life since age 16 when I was introduced to the world of modelling." But her strong connection to her African roots was not yet anchored in her mind and body, even though she wore an ankh while she was still in high school. "Before I fully understood what the ankh represents," she tells Rural Express recently. The ankh is a cross with a loop handle representing eternal life.

It was in her late 20s, Passley said that, "I really started embracing Africa, when I needed to find myself, and I was searching". And the feeling that she got from what she found, she said, "was beyond words. It was empowering, it was liberating, it was the feeling of the sense of the greatest freedom."

The gift of a collection of Maya Angelou's poems from a sister was paramount in finding herself, Passley said. The poems, especially, Phenomenal Woman, empowered her as Angelou speaks from the earth, womb, and soul. She wanted to be the embodiment of Angelou's words. The queenly appearance of Winnie Mandela and her struggles against apartheid also affected her.

Yet it was upon returning to Jamaica in 2006 after travelling to and fro for years that the significant change in what she wore took place. She was not impressed with the cheap, inferior imported clothes in the stores. She wanted fine cotton, which is conducive to our climate, something, she said, that represented her.

So Passley started to source African fabric for herself in the region. "When I step out in my full African attire, I feel like a whole person, just representing black women, my negritude, embracing it," Passley said. But the embrace also came from some people who were awed by her stately appearance, "bowing and opening doors".

It was a good feeling that she derived from all that adoration, and she thought, "I would like for all my sisters to feel how this feels." It was a compelling need to share this feeling, she said, thus the birth of Aya Wear, 'modern fashion with an African resurgence', located at Zion Hill crossroads.

Aya is an Adinkra symbol depicting a fern frond, a plant that represents endurance and resourcefulness. The selection came after a "deep search" when the business name that was first selected was already registered.

It is three and a half years since Aya Wear was established, and Passley said she has received tremendous support from the Rastafarian community, and she has had patronage from overseas visitors.

'HARD SELL'

However, Passley admitted that it is a "hard sell" among her fellow black Jamaicans, the very people whom she had in mind when she created the line, which is perhaps too African, "too loud and proud" for them. It is about the lack of acceptance of their Africanness. "You have to feel it to wear it," Passley argued. "It is not a style, it is a consciousness."

Yet, Passley said there is no turning back; she is going to go further and do more. Part of the plan then is targeting children and young people, to encourage them, hoping that they would be the ones to spread the word since the older folks are not going to change their attitude.

Photos by Paul Williams