<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fa Rukh is a rare type of man. Pakistan born and bred,\nforensic dentistry major, and abandoned by his family when he came out as gay.\nIf you took those three facts and tried to imagine a person, you would probably\nconjure up the image of a man that\u2019s pessimistic and maybe just a tad stern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fa is nothing like that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I met him for coffee I was struck by how friendly and\nopen he was. A man full of hope for the future and ready to greet anything that\ncomes his way with the smile. He was dress to match his passion for fashion\ndesigning, ripped jeans, black tank top and hand made jacket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Dundee Pride, Fa designed a line of clothes for his\nbrand House of Aristocrats corresponding with each colour of the LGBTQ+ flag\nwith models of various ethnicities, sexualities and genders. The beautiful blue\ndress he showed me, worn by a drag queen, featured homophobic slurs written on\nthe models back, slurs thrown at Fa throughout his life in Pakistan and the UK.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was during his forensic dentistry masters at the\nUniversity of Dundee that he was abandoned by his parents. He tells me that,\n\u201cthe fashion thing came in between the process when I was so upset and\ndepressed, thinking I don\u2019t have value, I need to maybe show people that I am\nmore than what you guys think of me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, while fashion designing was his window to get him\nthrough that hard time in his life, the passion to make clothes was always\nthere. \u201cThis was a thing I was doing since my childhood. I started maybe from\ndolls, then my sister, then everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The name House of Aristocrats comes from his belief that \u201cIt\ndoesn\u2019t matter which class you belong to, which kind of social background,\neveryone is an aristocrat.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pride collection\nwas inspired by his own journey and what he went through, creating a collection\nthat is more than just about looking good, with each colour representing a\nstory and a meaning. \u201cEvery colour has a meaning, and I was like which person\nthis flag represents, and I felt this flag represents all of the people, just\ntheir lives, not the rich person, not the black, not the white, everybody who\nhas hope in there, who has been through a healing phase. The LGBT flag is for\nthem.\u201d He says, sounding so firm in his belief of inclusivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The impact of his clothing line is a little bit different,\nmore for people who went through, or are going through a similar situation to\nhim. He wants to tell people coming from Pakistan to have heart. To stay strong\nwhen bad things happen because they can be more than what society expects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n