There is no doubt Bjork is a creative individual and loves to express herself through the forms of music, art and fashion. Bjork has such a strong personality and artistic spirit and is really not afraid to show it off to the world. Her album covers are really what caught my attention, it’s almost like she can adapt to different looks in the blink of an eye and isn’t afraid to be noticed for her individuality.

Bjork is a very strong believer of feminism. She is always willing to stand up for women and for their rights and urges everyone to do so. In an interview with Pitchfork.com, she says “I thought, ‘you’re a coward if you don’t stand up. Not for you, but for women. Say something.’” Here, she expresses her strong belief of women being recognised and protected. The subject of feminism is becoming more recognised as something to be worried about. Women want equal pay, equal rights and equal opportunities, but the biggest thing they want is to feel normal. Women are constantly sexualised and objectified to the point where they cannot even feel safe. It should be a normal thing for a woman to do whatever she wishes and not always feel attacked. In another interview with Pitchfork, Bjork explains her views on feminism. She says “After being the only girl in bands for 10 years, I learned – the hard way – that if I was going to get my ideas through, I was going to have to pretend that they – men – had the ideas.” This highlights the fact that some women feel that they need to ‘become a man’ behind a screen in order to be taken seriously. Bjork’s fashion choices have also been far from normal. Her infamous swan dress at the 2001 Academy Awards will always be the highlight of her fashion choices, but she wore it like it was the most normal thing to do.

What does it even mean to be normal? The very diverse subject of normality can mean any different things, factors that contribute to this include culture, society, race and even gender. The dictionary definition of ‘normal’ is ‘to conform to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.’ These different factors all have very particular definitions of what it means to be different. Culture, to me, is the biggest contributor to the varied definitions of normality, every culture has its’ own unique way of dressing, language and foods. Sadly, cultures are often Westernised and quite often become something that’s very opposite of said culture’s ‘normal.’ Let’s see for example, the ‘Desi’ culture. For someone to be ‘Desi,’ they must be from the countries of India and Pakistan, but include countries like Bangladesh, Punjab, Sri Lanka and Gujrat. Being ‘Desi’ is more like a lifestyle, our clothing, food, habits and way of living is what makes us different from other cultures, just like Greeks are different from the Chinese and Brazilians are different from Egyptians. The ‘normal’ style of clothing would include outfits like ‘salwar kameez,’ ‘kurta,’ ‘saree’ and ‘lengha’ which have actually started to appear in high street stores this Spring. 

A ‘kurta’ or a ‘kameez’ is a long top with slits in the sides, creating a free flowing silhouette and comes in a variety of colours, prints and lengths. These have recently made a debut in mainstream stores like New Look, River Island and TopShop. 

As a ‘Desi’ person myself, I do find it quite strange seeing this style of kameez in Western stores. I’m so used to going to specialist Desi stores to find a kameez like this but I can literally visit my local high street and find different variations of it. But it isn’t what I’m used to; it’s an altered, Westernised version of what I usually wear. It’s not my normal.