(Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff)
25 Most Stylish Bostonians of 2009 -- Zili Misik
(Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff)
Names: Kera Washington, Rajdulari, Joy Roster, Lexi Havlin, Joanna Maria, JoBeth Umali, Kana Dehara, Stephanie Baird, Koko Sato
Occupation: Members of Zili Misik, all-female world music group
Ages: Range from 23 to 37
Tell me how the all-white clothing concept began. Umali: We used to wear all black when I started, and then we started wearing different colors. We would experiment with orange, green, purple, with white pants.
Havlin: We didn’t look so uniform. People would make comments that we didn’t look put together. We would get into long arguments or discussions about what to wear.
Umali: When we’d wear orange and white, people would say, “Oh you look like a cruise ship band.’’
Washington: I think we decided from the beginning that we should have a look. All-white worked very well, and it’s also a very spiritual color. In Haiti - a lot of the songs that we play have root in Haitian music - white is a beginning color. It’s unifying. In other cultures, when you go through an initiation, like a rebirth, white is the color you wear. It helps your insides be expressed.
Right now, all of you are dressed completely differently. Washington: That shows you the depth of our compromise.
Onstage, how does each of you express your individual style? Rajdulari: I think accessories really bring it out. Shoes and the way we wear our hair, and what we choose to wear. Sometimes I rebel and put a big red flower in my hair.
Washington: It’s just like in our music, where everybody has to be able to express themselves, everybody’s got to be able to rock, everybody’s got to play their instrument like they’re not scared.
An all-white ensemble is just a recipe for disaster. Have you had any mishaps?
Umali: It happens.
Havlin: One time when JoBeth was dancing, she got grass stains on herself.
Rajdulari: I remember being on tour and walking precariously over the snow with our white stuff on hangers (mimes carrying hangers high above her shoulders) trying to keep everything from getting messed up.
Washington: I genuinely have gotten more familiar with Oxiclean. That stuff works. We’d be happy to do a commercial for them.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
