Ahluwalia

Priya Ahluwalia , the young London-born designer of Nigerian-Indian heritage, is helping push the fashion industry towards a more sustainable future with her eco-conscious designs. Conceived as a continuation of her MA project, the University of Westminster graduate launched Ahluwalia in 2018 with the intention of creating menswear garments out of vintage and second-hand clothing. Gaining industry-wide recognition and winning the 2019 H&M Design Award, Ahluwalia is representative of a new generation of forward-thinking designers seeking to challenge the status quo by engaging ever-more sustainable approaches to garment manufacturing. Influenced by her cultural heritage, Ahluwalia is heavily inspired by the silhouettes family members wore in the 1990s. Embodying a nostalgic tinge, Ahluwalia is an amalgamation of sportswear, knitwear, and fine tailoring. Each piece, by the very nature of its fabrication, is unique: jackets, hoodies, sweaters, lounge pants, and shorts feature paneled and asymmetric constructions, mismatched fabrics, and juxtaposing pattern combinations. By giving unwanted, discarded, and forgotten items a second life, Ahluwalia sheds light on the potential for an ever-more ethically motivated fashion industry—one that does not have to forgo innovation in order to exemplify responsibility.