Women's common threads

By the time Ria Kulenovic fled Bosnia, creeping through a tunnel and across a mountain, her Bosnia had been reduced to misery, without water, without jobs, without basic human necessities. But, the Bosnia evoked by the folk outfits she has carefully collected is a happier place. The embroidered vests and starched burlap pants recall the days of her childhood and countryside celebrations.

It is the same for Gerda Audry-Wright, a Haitian immigrant who came to this country as a young girl. For her, the brightly colored clothing and African-accented accessories typical of her homeland tell the story of women going to the marketplace, against a backdrop of candy-colored houses.

For these women, clothes are more than fashion statements. They are bridges to the homelands they left behind, reminders of the heritage they seek to keep alive, and barometers of the new cultures taking root in the Boston area.

"The minute you see it, you know it's from home," said Audry-Wright, a kindergarten teacher who lives in Dorchester. "We have to cling to old things in order to understand what's going to be in the future. Especially now with all the turmoil and all the chaos happening, we need to reach out and teach children what Haiti was and to keep that beauty alive."

The outfits are also part of TransModa, a multicultural fashion show in which the models, fashions, and organizers represent 33 countries and cultures from around the world. The show, taking place Monday at Sabur Restaurant in Somerville, is a fund-raiser for the Refugee Women's Network and features outfits donated or lent by refugee and immigrant women.

The fashions will include a pea-green Vietnamese wedding dress; a red-and-black Ghanaian dress worn by African royalty; a vibrantly patterned Oaxacan shift; and a Moroccan djellaba, a long, hooded garment, in maroon velvet. The clothing prices range from $40 to $100.

"Every outfit has a story behind it," Kulenovic said. She added that she hopes the show will serve to break down walls between cultures and show common threads.

To that end, each of the outfits will be modeled by a woman from a different cultural or ethnic background.

Masha Banar, a 24-year-old Russian immigrant, will strut the runway in a flame-red Garara pantsuit from Northern India. Kinuko Masaki, 30, a graduate student at Harvard and MIT who is of Japanese descent, will wear a fuchsia-colored Mexican dance skirt.

Molly O'Neill, 19, a Tufts University freshman with red curls and a spray of freckles befitting her Irish heritage, will be clad in a turquoise silk sari.

The sari, formal attire usually worn to weddings, belongs to Nidhi Gupta, 28, a senior business analyst who is from New Delhi and now lives in Somerville. Gupta received the traditional Indian dress from the Assam region as a wedding gift.

The shock of color, the richness of the fabric, and the lush trimmings are all emblematic of her heritage, Gupta said. "It's bright, beautiful, very eye-catching. It's part of our culture." Banar, who works as a surgical assistant in Quincy, said that participating in the show has opened a door to the traditions other immigrants are bringing to her adopted country.During rehearsals, the models were often quizzed about the traditions and cultures of their respective homelands, said Anju Raghavendra, 28, an immigrant from Madras, India. "It made me very proud to talk about my culture and my country and to have that awareness of other cultures." For Kulenovic, who saw her own country bitterly divided along ethnic lines, that is exactly the kind of dialogue the fashion show is meant to inspire.

"We are many, but we have the same struggles, wants, and needs," Audry-Wright said. "Women in general have the same mindset, the same goals. Women have been known to hold families together for eons. Anything to celebrate us is a plus."