Priya Alhuwalia mentioned she wished to seize the deeply private and cultural narratives related to Black and Brown hair, “as a means of protest, identity and expression,” for her newest spring 2022 lineup.
She went on to translate the rituals and artistry related to Afro-Caribbean and Indian hair into embroidered badges within the shapes of Afro combs, or curved traces and laser-cut patterns designed to reflect the traces of braids.
Weaving these narratives into her clothes got here naturally to the designer, who’s of Nigerian-Indian heritage and who has lengthy made a degree of “amplifying conversations that aren’t being had in a Eurocentric industry.”
The color-blocked patterns match proper in with the model’s mix-and-match, patchwork-heavy aesthetic and signature males’s silhouettes, like slim tailoring, retro tracksuits and polo shirts.
They labored equally effectively on the knit attire, miniskirts and draped silk separates that made up her very first ladies’s put on assortment.
For her ladies’s debut, Ahluwalia wished to supply extra than simply some unisex staples: She gave a female spin to some signatures, equivalent to printed joggers or tailoring, but in addition added loads of new concepts within the type of attractive, body-hugging separates, playful shirtdresses and denim.
”This was much more private. I used to be pondering what me and my associates would need to put on,” mentioned the designer, who’s concurrently releasing her first line of purses in partnership with Mulberry as a part of the gathering launch.
For the collaboration, which is see now, purchase now and happening sale at the moment, the designer added her aptitude for daring colours and patterns on the label’s Portobello tote luggage.
It all got here collectively to make for a assured, optimistic first foray into the ladies’s class — and the way might it not be?
Ahluwalia has each cause to be feeling assured about her label’s future: In the final 12 months alone, she has been acknowledged with a Fashion Award and the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design, she has been tapped by Ganni for a collaboration and has simply acquired a 150,000-pound money prize as a part of the British Fashion Council and GQ’s males’s put on fund.
