Everything that I create is like a constant projection of whatever I'm thinking at the
time or whatever I'm going through. So every piece I look at reminds me of
where I was or who I was when I drew it, when I made it, and everything for me is
quite an emotional process. This piece is a tailored jacket with a tailored denim trouser,
the textile is naturally dyed using a wax and resist block print. It's from my collection
'Children of the Rag Trade' which I dedicated to people like my parents who have dedicated
most of their lives working in the rag trade in east London. And I'm very grateful for all
of their hard work and it was almost like a homage to them. I think the inspiration
for this piece came about from looking at all of my old family photographs, it was through
looking at all of the interiors and the textiles that my mum made us wear that this pattern came
about. And I quite like this idea of using the block print to kind of have this swirling effect
which is actually so attention-grabbing because that's what I really loved about
all my old family photographs – it felt like every photograph was fighting for attention,
the carpet was fighting against the wallpaper to what the person in the picture was wearing.
For me it's really special that this piece is going in to the V&A, I go there often. I reference
a lot of the textiles there and I remember when I first came across the South Asian bit
in the archive and I just love it, there's so many different textile techniques and there's
amazing examples of wax and resist block print, there's amazing examples of embroidery,
khadi, jamdani weaves and then what I loved was going back to Bangladesh and seeing
examples of these such high quality textiles in Bangladesh as well.
I have an amazing collaboration with a brand called Aranya in Bangladesh
and we've been working together for three years now, and over those years we've built a great
relationship where we constantly push each other. Every year it's just growing with how
far we can push craftsmanship, be it through the patterns or the cutting of the textile itself.
So the technique for the textile is a wax and resist block print, so initially first somebody
has to hand carve a block print, and it starts off with a white denim which is ethically made and
organic. They'll apply a layer of wax using the block print and then it dips into a dye
then another layer of wax goes on top, dips into a dye and that process just keeps continuing,
and then it gets completely washed out in hot water to become soft again and then there's two
other colours that go on top using natural dye paste just to help lmake it bounce a lot more.
A piece like this takes a lot of people and for me I see every single person who's in that chain
as a collaborator with me, this hierarchy of having a star designer at the top doesn't fit
with what i'm trying to do and I quite like the idea that everyone sees who I collaborate with,
that transparency of everyone I'm working with has to be there.
I think the main thing that everyone needs to consider is how is your clothing going
to give back to the planet? For me that is just at the core, so what I've done in each
product be it the bag, the hats, the jacket or the trousers, is that inside the facing is a small
little seed of a poplar tree. My hope is that one day when someone's completely bored with the
outfit or an apocalypse has happened it's gonna hit the soil and over about 10 –15
years all the natural organic cotton will decompose, all the natural dyes in the garment
will just go back into nature and this one little seed will plant a tree. It's this idea of how
fashion can be regenerative and I'm constantly thinking of other ways that I can be better.
I've always seen my designs as gender fluid, I loved how the tailoring fit on me, I loved how
the tailoring fit on a lot of my female friends, how it fit on my gender fluid friends. I think
what we're waiting for is for stores and for the fashion industry to catch up and to stop using
labels like 'womenswear' and 'menswear' and if somebody wants to go pick up a dress they will,
if someone wants to pick up a tailored jacket they will – it's just clothing! I love the idea
of being quite a small brand, it's sustainable for me, it's sustainable for the planet everything is
made to order and I have no dream of becoming the next Prada, I just want to make things for people
who really appreciate this type of design and keep pushing craftsmanship through it.
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