Our Shoes Brought Us to Portugal!

Ahluwalia is all about ethos. From sustainability to social responsibility, you’ve built a brand really grounded in its moral identity. How has this evolved over time?

Through my experience before I started my brand, reading about the state of the world, traveling, and seeing all these different experiences, I started to realize quite early on that if we're going to make clothes and create things, there are just better ways to do it. And so from the beginning, I've just tried to do things that are better for people on the planet, and create less waste, and make decisions through different parts of the process. It's not just about fabric and sourcing, but it's about who we work with and how we work with them, representation, and inclusion. [We do this] across the industry, in all different areas, with every business decision. For a lot of our set designs, we rent things rather than build things. If we've ever built things, we've then repurposed them. It’s about making decisions that keep people and the planet in mind.

This collection is described as a “love letter to African football culture.” What would the first sentence of that letter be?

I think I would say: “Africa is multifaceted.”

Africa is 54 countries, 56 if you count two that the UN doesn't, and it's a vibrant, vast, beautiful continent. I think that in so many different areas, Africa is not put on the pedestal that it deserves to be put on. With my work in general, this collection, and all my collections, I always want to grow my knowledge about the places that I'm from and the countries around where I'm from. It's vibrant. It's powerful. There's an abundance of joy, skill, and talent that I think that the world should pay more attention to. 

The PUMA T7 tracksuit from 1979 has been worn by everyone from Pelé, Brazilian football legend, to Madonna, international popstar. It's one of those silhouettes that carries so much cultural memory. When you go into an archive like PUMA’s, how do you decide what should be reinterpreted versus left untouched?

There are parameters to these types of projects. If it was possible, I would love to have gone a lot wider, and pulled more pieces, because the archive was just honestly a treasure trove. I think it was one of my favorite experiences across my time of working with PUMA. I think it's been two years now I've been working with them, and that was definitely one of my favorite experiences. I think that the reason that I wanted to do a T7 is that it's so recognizable. And being able to work into an iconic tracksuit like that, an iconic shape that does have so much cultural capital and heritage is an opportunity. We’ll recognize that shape as a PUMA shape, but they'll recognize the fabrication as something that maybe feels a bit more Ahluwalia than the PUMA main line. So it’s an honor to be able to work into those heritage pieces.

Green appears on the flags of African nations more than any other color. What role did the color green play in this collection? 

For me, the beginning of the design process was quite rooted in West Africa, particularly Nigeria. But I'm also Indian. Green is also on the Indian flag. So I kind of knew straight away I wanted green to be in it, just to represent really. Also, because I was researching different elements and looking at fans from different countries, green was so prevalent. But also, green, red, black, yellow, are quite Pan-African colors. And so I knew that I wanted to work with those colors quite a lot. And I thought, I'm really happy with the trainer. We have two colorways, and I knew I wanted one of them to be green. And I thought, people who are from the global south will feel the colors in it, everyone's gonna love the colors! People can wear it no matter where they're from, but I do feel like there is a shared understanding of that color scheme, and it was kind of an homage to that. It works as a detail, but yeah, it was definitely a key.

I’m really intrigued by the fact that the jacquard in this collection is meant to mimic the look of a stadium filled with cheering fans. How did you approach the process of translating an experience so kinetic and loud into a static textile?

The fabric has been woven into that pattern [rather than] printed with ink. It’s a slightly different texture, and it has depth to it, right? The surface is not entirely flat. Basically, what we did was, we took photos of fans in the stands of different games at different scales, and then sort of pixelated them and made them three color. We played with the scales of them and made a kind of tapestry. And then we turned it into the shades of red and black. When you look at the fabric, because it's a Jacquard and not print, it's got this almost static. The sound was static. You can kind of see that. And that's how we sort of translated it. I wanted it to be a fabric that's beautiful to wear. It definitely feels like there's movement within it, because the different knitted stitches are so small and varied in color that it feels like when you look at the fabric, it moves. 

What kickstarted your love for fashion, and what keeps you there?

I've always loved fashion since I was really young. My mom was always very into what she wore and was always really well dressed. And I always found that I loved trying on her clothes, and I loved going with her shopping and things like that. I liked watching her get ready to go out. She always wore three red lipsticks every day. She doesn't wear that anymore, but she used to wear red lips every day and have a big blowout. And I found that quite exciting. And I used to live above my granddad's news agent, and he would order me whatever magazines I ever asked for. So he would order me all the fashion magazines. And then on the weekends I'd get to read them. He’d order me i-D and Vogue and Dazed and all these different magazines. And I was, I've always been quite a bookworm. I read them from quite a young age. So I think I was just instantly attracted to that when I was thinking of picking up magazines within the stores. Both of those things really kick-started it. I kind of always knew this was what I wanted to do. Actually, I don't really remember wanting to do much else. I went through a phase of wanting to be a vet, but it made me really sad. So I went back to fashion.