The color red was just another accessory for Dolma: it was not her jacket or Checkered Vans that flaunted the color the best, but it was her fiery passion for fashion that made red the perfect accessory to tote around with. From the many piercings that lavish both her ears to how grunge inspired her outfit was (a white graphic tee with high rise black washed jeans), Dolma is rocker chic.
As she described her deepest passions, her voice only seemed to get more bubblier the more she talked about how much she loves fashion. So much so that she was befuddled when asked about her favorite to most hated trend. “I don’t have a favorite trend since I like to wear different styles. As long as I feel good about it, it doesn’t matter,” she giggled. As for her hated one, she avoids pieces that are too girly as she prefers wearing jeans over skirts.
Dolma’s interest in fashion is what motivated her to pursue a business degree that would help her understand how to create and manage a fashion line. She believes that she can accomplish that at the City College of New York, which was her first choice for college. While she could have studied at more fashion-centric schools such as FIT or Parsons, Dolma thinks that immersing herself in an expansive, yet broad scope of business can help her prospects even more rather than just focusing on a single field that is fashion. Now a sophomore, the classes she has taken so far have proved just that; despite having some doubts about her choice in schools during her freshman year, Dolma realized that her studies are contingent on how much she wants to succeed on her fashion venture. After all, she wants to graduate, be confident in her craft, and have her business be reflective of her style, one that took years of nurturing into something she can call her own.
After emigrating to the United States from Nepal at 12 years old, Dolma found herself at a cultural cusp. Between gratifying her parents’ views on tradition and the American culture she was just beginning to immerse herself in, Dolma found it hard to balance both worlds. Throughout high school, she followed through with what her parents expected of her all while forming her own identity along with the rest of her peers. “My parents weren’t strict with me, but they had their own idea of what they wanted me to be,” she recalled. “I couldn’t explain to them that there were certain things I liked because they wouldn’t get it.”
It wasn’t until she started college that she rebelled, sort of.
Dolma dyed her hair for the first time last year. Once she saw her silver locks, she knew that there was no going back to her natural color; since then, her hair has been pink and blue. “Now that the blue has faded and has become more ombre than I’d like, I’m going back to silver,” she said. While most people care about their parents’ opinions, Dolma prefers to take charge of her own appearance despite her parents’ protests. By dying her hair, which can be vividly seen from afar, being subtle was out of the question. These striking changes to her hair have definitely caught her parents’ attention, but Dolma says that she is unfazed by their comments because she loves how she looks.
However, there were other modifications that Dolma had done without her parents knowing, such as getting other piercings besides the one she had on her earlobes. During her senior year of high school, Dolma decided to get a septum piercing since it was easier to hide. “I loved how I could wear it out in the open when I wasn’t home. All I had to do was flip it inside my nostrils when I got home,” she chuckled. Much to her dismay, she was only able to keep up her charade for a few months until her mother found out. “Something that I always anxious about was being in the middle of a conversation with one of my parents and then all of sudden, they look into my nose for some reason,” Dolma said. “That didn’t happen. My mom was cleaning one day, and she glanced over to me and saw what she thought was a booger.” Once she had leaned in to inspect her nose, the jig was up. In a strange turn of events, it wasn’t her parents’ disapproval that led Dolma to remove her piercing, but the tedious maintenance of it. Yet, this predicament didn’t sway Dolma from getting a helix, industrial and second lobe piercings on both her ears. At 19 years old, Dolma is gradually gaining her independence. Even though she still lives at home, her parents are becoming more lenient—as such, one of these unprecedented “rules” is no longer needing their permission to do stuff. For Dolma, it isn’t enough. Although she respects her parents, she thinks that they still need time to trust her completely. “I get where they’re coming from, but at the same time they have to let me do my own thing. We all know my character, meaning that I wouldn’t endanger myself or do something stupid. Sometimes I want to be able to go out and hang out with my friends without having them worry.” Dolma hopes that her parents can see that she is capable of taking care of herself as she wants to travel overseas to places such as Bali and Latin America in order to gather inspiration for her fashion line. Her desire to see a different world other than her own makes Dolma a optimist towards her future endeavors in a world that honors unique creativity.
