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Fashion Throwback Thursdays: Halimah’s dad’s groovy garms

08 Oct 2015

Following the theme of last week’s throwback, I reached out to my fellow gal-dem to provide more fuel for my new-found family photo obsession. Halimah kindly submitted these wonderful snaps of her father from the 70s. Enjoy flicking through these instagram-worthy shots accompanied by Halimah’s fascinating captions that will transport you back to the time when the Valencia filter was non-optional.

– Editor’s note

1Circa 1972. My dad, aged approximately 19, at Brighton Beach. He took a trip there over the weekend with family and, as you can see, he’s rocking the flares! The blazer he’s holding was one of his favourites and is featured in other pictures, too. After all, why change something you like?

2Circa 1972 (again). Here, my dad is on the ferry from Denmark to Sweden. We had family in Denmark at the time and I believe they were visiting – which is the only reason he remembers where he was. He’s wearing the blazer again!

3Although he’s not sure of the year, I’d assume this was taken in the early 70s, possibly even ’72 again. Here, he’s in Forbury Gardens, in Reading, with a friend – who I haven’t included – posing with the same blazer and rocking the flares once more.

In Forbury Gardens again.

6I’d assume this was taken in the mid-late-70s outside a jewellery shop. Unfortunately, my dad doesn’t remember what he was doing, or who he was with. I think this was in Reading, but again, I’m not sure.

These are from the mid-70s; my dad took the train to Southall with his two Sikh friends (whose names he doesn’t remember) to see the ‘pictures’. He has no idea what was playing. The first was taken on the railway bridge and the second might also have been. Presumably, he was in his early twenties.

9Here he is, outside his first home in the UK, with his two younger brothers. At this point, he must have been in his early twenties, though he could have been younger.

I asked my dad about how it felt to come to the country and wear the clothes. He told me that, in order to come to Britain he had to wear a suit. At the time, he didn’t like wearing trousers much because, in Pakistan, he always wore a sheet (chadar) wrapped around his waist. However, he said it was just something he had to get used to and joked that now he only likes wearing trousers!

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