Lea Long Dress in Floral Serramento
$991
Stories
The Malik Sisters
Photographed by Vivek Vadoliya, Creative Directed and Styled by Nikhil Mansata
London, May 2021
Home, music and colourful textiles have always been
central to the Malik family. Their home in North London embodies the many
threads of their dual Pakistani and Irish heritage.
Their father, Azhar Malik a young medical student arrived in England as a refugee. It was love-at-first-sight when Azhar met Brigid at the London hospital where they both studied medicine in 1991. Brigid had grown up by the wild open space of the sea near Dublin. They found each other and a home in London. Here Azhar and Brigid have dedicated a combined sixty years of service to the NHS where they work as doctors and educators. It’s also where they have raised their three daughters Rohi, Zohra and Sive.
The Mallik sisters Rohi, Zohra and Sive photographed by Vivek Vadoliya.
Brigid and Azhar bought their North London home whilst expecting their first-born Rohi. As Brigid says, "It was an old run-down house, as a young couple we did everything ourselves.” Over time they coaxed the dilapidated structure into a cosy and vibrant home for their growing family. The rooms filled with colourful rugs, embroidered quilts and furniture from Pakistan.
The family loves music. An array of cellos, violins, sitar and tablas can be spotted around the house. Zohra says, “We grew up watching and dancing to Bollywood nonstop, that’s still most of what I and my sisters do together when we’re at home!” Brigid adds that she, Azhar and the girls share many of the same interests including music and other hobbies. Zohra confirms “I love cooking Pakistani food, I’ve learnt a lot from watching and helping my dad over the years. He’s a really good cook so we’re lucky to have him to learn from.”
Sive has inherited her parent's ethos of creating beauty from saving and recycling and her room is full of found treasures. Ever the "nature-child" of the family, Zohra says, “Probably the most notable thing about my room in London is that it’s filled with plants because my mum has taken it over as a little greenhouse for all her seedlings for the allotment while I’m at Uni, but I love it because it feels like a little jungle now.”
Indeed nature is also an important part of their lives, all the sisters have potent memories of their family travels in Ireland and Pakistan, and the uniquely wild and beautiful landscapes of each country.
Rohi adds during their most recent trip to Pakistan they visited the stunning Thaar desert and its villages. Sive recalls “My favourite memory from travels in Pakistan is probably a trip we did from Islamabad to my Dad’s village and then to Multan in a sort of mini-bus with quite a few of our cousins our age, it was a long journey but we all became close whilst also getting to see more of the remote areas of Pakistan and I think I was old enough for the first time to appreciate the beauty.”
Brigid reflects how important it is to them to respect and learn from people from different cultures and countries, “I’m a great believer in humanity, and the more open minded exposure we have to different peoples, the more we can see we are like each other. Our concerns, challenges, joys and sadness are similar.”
Zohra Malik in Lea Long Dress.
Zohra confirms “I love cooking Pakistani food, I’ve learnt a lot from watching and helping my dad over the years. He’s a really good cook so we’re lucky to have him to learn from.”
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