How ‘We Are Lady Parts’ Costumes Were an Avenue for Faith

“We Are Girl Parts” centers on an all-woman Muslim punk band who are making music their way, developing an audience, and balancing their private lifetime on and off stage.

Costume designer Pc Williams intended each woman’s wardrobe to honor her connection with her faith though also working with costume to act as an avenue for cultural and self-expression.

The series, streaming on Peacock, follows 5 women— Amina (Anjana Vasan), the newly recruited guide guitarist Saira (Sarah Kameela Impey), Lady Parts’ guide singer Ayesha, (Juliette Motamed) Girl Parts’ drummer Bisma (Faith Omole), the bass player, and Momtaz (Lucie Shorthouse), the band’s manager.

“All of these women are next-era migrants, like me I was born in the U.K., but my roots are from Nigeria and Ghana. When I was imagining about these 4 girls, for me, it was about genuinely seeking to comprehend who they were culturally and marrying that with a London vibe,” Williams suggests.

Four of the 5 band associates dress in some sort of common Muslim head coverings. Williams introduced on quite a few Muslim gals to her style staff and undertook several hours of exploration to precisely portray how type and faith operate facet by facet.

“A head masking is a head masking, now how you do that is completely up to you and I required to clearly show that there is no 1 way to do it. You can have range in a team of Muslim sisters,” Williams says.

Williams broke down each individual rocker’s signature style.

Amina

Amina has her sights set on getting a lifetime spouse and acquiring her Ph.D. in microbiology. But, when she joins the band, her programs change. Around time she finds a new convenience degree in her id. Amina is normally found in pastel-colored hijabs and small make-up.

“Amina was a person of all those figures exactly where when you start off the challenge you have this kind of a apparent plan of what it is that you want to do. And then, as you get into the challenge, that plan keeps twisting and turning. And I think marrying her demure sensibility with this want, and type of need, to break out of this mold and to lean into this new house that she was inhabiting, that felt good to her — that was like my greatest challenge, how do I make, how do I make interesting costumes for a girl who loves A-line skirts and button-up blouses. And is now in a punk band.

“There’s the scene wherever Woman Elements is carrying out a Dolly Parton song and Amina’s continue to received her A-line, high-waisted skirt on, but she’s acquired this shirt with a horse print on it. And it’s the initial time we truly see her in darkish colours, and it is her version of leaning into what it indicates to be punk, but it’s nevertheless definitely sweet. It’s what she could be exterior of what we ordinarily see her in, which is pastels and seriously-embroidered two-piece sets.”

Bisma

Bisma will take wonderful pride in her heritage and normally sporting activities shiny West African turbans and political t-shirts. She’s also the calmest member of the band. When she’s not in the band, Bisma spends time marketing her art on her street stall.

“Bisma is Nigerian-British, she’s my sisters and me, and my cousins, and mother’s friends’ young children — it’s a pleasure in African prints, but incorporating that in a way in which it feels modern and has a Western vibe, but you nevertheless keeping on to what is legitimate to your cultural identification.

“Her art plays a large element in who she is. The inside structure of her apartment is a ton of upcycled, reclaimed furnishings and items. I needed to deliver that by means of to her wardrobe — about 90% of it is thrift shop finds with autumnal colours, macramé, and everything that feels Afro-centric.

“We used a great deal of Omolola jewellery from a younger Nigerian jeweler, and a lot of her jewellery is from close to Africa or distinct tribes in Nigeria applying symbols that necessarily mean anything to Nigerian culture.

“Bisma’s vibe is super classic. Everything requires to feel like it is experienced 3 life just before coming to her, but when it hits her, it makes perception.”

Ayesha

Ayesha is the band’s drummer. She’s also an Uber driver with street rage. For her outfits, she’d activity sparkly Center Eastern abayas and drapey headscarves with extraordinary eyeliner.

“Ayesha’s vibe is who Juliette is in authentic lifetime. So somewhat than me developing the outfits, I took far more of a curatorial solution to her style. I curated her wardrobe, and collaborating with her. I’d say, ‘Here, what do you assume? What type of seems to be would you make?’  So, we experienced an afternoon of just striving anything on.

“That to me, felt correct to who she was simply because she would deliver in a ton of herself in the character. I imagine at times when you’re performing a character who is so stylized it can come to feel a bit forced. I did not want that to come about so she was a major portion of creating what she wore — dim hues, anime prints, large metallic detailing, and slogan t-shirts from Aborigine brand names.”

Momtaz

Momtaz is the core of the band. As the group’s manager, her intention is to convert them into a large results.

“I wished to make certain that a woman who wears a niqab could choose up a single of the niqabs we intended and dress in and really feel like it fit the intent. I didn’t want it to be like this strange style point. Every little thing has to just feel natural. It could not experience like the present was styled. I’m not heading to attempt and adjust the niqab from what a niqab is what I want to do is just give you versions of this though continue to maintaining it modest and fitting the goal of remaining coated though also letting our actress, Lucie, to feel that she was also bringing some thing neat to the demonstrate. She has to expend these 8 weeks covered and I can envision that that is fairly a significant matter to take on, specifically when the ladies are coming out in glimpse just after look. I imagine Ayesha experienced 37 appears to be like in the complete exhibit when we made four niqabs for Momtaz.

“But it was truly significant to me that Lucie felt that some style, care, and thought had been taken into her costumes, but that they nonetheless fit the function.”