Sikh Sleek

Progress

Seven years ago, sporting a Sikh turban could get you killed, as was Balbir Singh Sodhi, a gas station owner who was shot September 15, 2001 in Mesa, Arizona, U.S.A., after his murderer mistook him for a Muslim.

Today, the trademark head-covering sported by male members of the Sikh religion can get you into the heights of mens’ fashion. Sandeep Singh, grew up in rural North Carolina. as the son of a doctor and the wearer of a turban, ever since he was a small child. His family is from Punjab, India.

He has never cut his hair, as all Sikhs have been required to keep their hair unshorn since 1699. For males, it is always covered by a turban or a similar headdress.

Some time ago - he does not know when - Kenneth Cole, founder of a clothing line by the same name, got an idea for an advertising campaign on breaking stereotypes, while plugging clothing.

Mr. Cole hired a casting agency to find a male Sikh willing to be a model. The man had to be American-born, highly educated and articulate. There being no candidates on the usual lists, the agency began calling up national Sikh-rights organizations and Sandeep heard Cole was looking. One thing led to another and last October, he found himself in New York posing in some pretty spiffy clothes along with that turban.

“People think Sikhs are fundamentalist, outside the mainstream of society, or immigrants or something is wrong with them”, Sandeep said in a visit to my office recently. “Kenneth Cole wanted to represent the fabric of American culture. There’s a lot of struggle in the United States as to how we perceive people post-9/11. I am as much American as anyone else”.

His choice of a Sikh to represent an American Everyman has made headlines in newspapers in India, where Sikhs number some 25 million adherents, a drop in the ocean compared with the country’s huge Hindu majority. There are about 500,000 Sikhs in the United States.

“Having a unique identity can be a very lonely road to walk down”, the model said. “Fighting against a negative stereotype is consistently tough”

“I’ve heard from thousands of people around the world on how they appreciated this”, Sandeep said. He hopes his day in the sun will encourage Sikh youth, whose unusual headcovering makes them stand out in a crowd.

All Sikhs know what it’s like to be harassed, he said, and his brother-in-law has endured worse: physical threats, job discrimination and taunts, just for being confused with Muslims. Kenneth Cole had heard of what Sikhs endure, he said, and wanted to include a Sikh in an ad campaign to introduce the concept that Sikhs are normal folk who wear cool clothes and think like us.

Is there a point at which such clothing, worn for modesty or to express devotion to God, should not be used as a fashion statement, no matter how noble its objectives?

In the case of the Sikhs, Sandeep is the first such American model and a groundbreaker in illustrating how Sikhs and other Indians have arrived as part of the American scene.

by Julia Duin