COVER STORY MODERN WEEKLY STYLE

Ayush @ayushh.sharrmaa for Cover Story of @modernweeklystyle by @hailunma

Does dressing up make a man less “manly”?

Not where I’m from.

In Central Asia, style is pride. It’s the suited uncle smoking outside your building on a plastic stool. It’s gold rings, slick hair, and clean shoes. It’s masculinity with poetry.

We grew up around elegance — not the Western kind, but something tougher, sharper, and rooted in history. From Islamic rituals to Soviet visual order, from Turkic pride to Persian love of detail ,and under the influence of Han Chinese formality,our aesthetic is layered and loud in its own way.

Here, being well-dressed isn’t about softening masculinity — it’s about owning it.

Inspired by uncles in Xinjiang