‘Historically, fashion has always been a male-dominated space,’ says the British Nigerian-Indian designer Priya Ahluwalia. ‘There are plenty of male designers who have created beautiful womenswear, but I like to push the boundaries and experiment when it comes to creating clothing for men. And it’s worked well so far.’
A woman designer tackling menswear isn’t only a rarity in fashion right now, it’s a responsibility that Ahluwalia embraces. ‘Men have traditionally been much safer dressers, and maybe because I don’t have the need to feel safe in my own wardrobe, it allows me to kind of think outside the box in terms of what men can have the option of wearing.’
Since the launch of her label Ahluwalia in 2018, she has become an established figure in the landscape of British fashion, joining the ranks of Bianca Saunders and Grace Wales Bonner in creating men’s clothing steeped in history and culture. In 2021, she took home the Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design (previously won by Richard Quinn, Bethany Williams and Rosh Mahtani) and received the BFC/GQ Designer Menswear Fund the same year.
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As a child in south-west London, Ahluwalia always knew she wanted to become a designer and, by the age of 11, was studying the work of Miuccia Prada, Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo, and spending hours poring over glossy editorials. But there was always a slight disconnect, she says. ‘I appreciated the beauty of the clothing, but I didn’t really see anything that I connected with on a personal or cultural level.’ After completing a Menswear MA at University of Westminster, Ahluwalia discovered the inspiration for her future brand in 2017 while on a trip to West Africa. ‘I travelled to Lagos, Nigeria, to see my dad, followed by a visit to Panipat, India. During the trip, I was made aware of the effects of the second-hand clothing industry, and how it affects the global south.’
She made a decision to amalgamate her sustainability efforts with a homage to her roots. ‘It made me realise I want to explore the intersection between being inspired by my heritage and my culture, while also thinking about how to make things in a better way.’ The result of this insight was her MA graduation collection and her debut book, Sweet Lassi, with documentary photographs from that trip.
The focus on sustainable practices has continued to this day. ‘It’s a big topic, and sustainability is a word I don’t really like to use because it almost doesn’t mean anything anymore. My job, and my team’s job, is to try to create things in the best way possible.’ Initiatives such as ‘Circulate’ – where customers are encouraged to donate clothing in return for points towards future purchases on the Ahluwalia website, or QR codes that allow customers to discover the backstory to each garment they buy – are part of her planet-friendly objectives.
Even as her menswear line took off, womenswear was always destined to become part of the Ahluwalia brand. ‘I never felt like I couldn’t do it,’ she says. A project with Ganni and a Black-liberation- focused collaboration with Mulberry, both in 2021, marked her first forays into womenswear, followed by an AW22 collection in which showgoers were treated to her colourful, print-filled Bollywood-to-Nollywood vision: tie-dye, wave detailing, cocktail dresses and movie characters emblazoned across shirts. ‘I found there was an appetite for womenswear, and customers wanted to know what an Ahluwalia dress or top or skirt would look like. Now, it feels like second nature to include clothing for men and women,’ she says.
Ahluwalia’s collections combine raw emotion and powerful storytelling. Her ever-growing list of famous fans – Regé-Jean Page, Jorja Smith, Arlo Parks, Seth Rogen and Davido – is testament to the fact that her creative approach is working. The sense of values and storytelling she threads throughout her clothing is distinctly of the moment, while its retro look is timeless enough to defy any short-lived trend cycles. Whether it’s giving deadstock clothing a new lease of life through her trademark patchwork techniques, documenting the beauty of modern-day multiculturalism in Britain in her second book Jalebi or taking home the British Fashion Council’s Leader of Change award for the third time in 2022, the industry is being shaped by this young creative’s determination to do things her own way – and that won’t be changing anytime soon.
