Since 2002, Samia has been using her talent for all things cloth related to say something more. After a year of battling to get her political fashion statements across, during her MA in Womenswear Fashion at Central St Martins, she’s spent the last couple of years working on her unisex clothing label SAMIA MALIK ihtgw (yes you did read that right).

Ctrl.Alt.Shift caught up with Samia at her ihtgw exhibition ‘Blow Off Schedule London Fashion Week September 2009’.

Ctrl.Alt.Shift: How did you become interested or aware of unethical fashion practices?

Samia Malik: There wasn’t one moment; it’s been a journey since I was 18 years old. When I started studying I started seeing more depth to culture, reading books like Naomi Klein’s No Logo. Working in fashion stores, I saw first hand how wasteful the whole fashion cycle was, so many items of clothes wouldn’t be sold. I started thinking about where these clothes came from, how much was wasted, and that’s how my one project SAY NO TO FASHION developed.

Ctrl.Alt.Shift: What was the first event you organised to raise awareness around the unethical commercial fashion system?

Samia Malik: In September 2007 I organised a presentation in Leicester Square, I got people to wear my T-shirt designs and hold up signs that said things like: No cheap fashion please! Would you be a slave? The whole point was to make people aware, people that were in a commercial environment, probably buying things that used unethical practices.



Ctrl.Alt.Shift: What’s your thinking behind this anti fashion and consumerism exhibition Blow Off Schedule London Fashion Week?

Samia Malik: I organised it during this time when all the catwalks and designer hide the fact that many of their clothes were probably made in factories that exploit their workers. The two designs, a jacket based on the baseball jacket design and twist pants, were hand-dyed and printed on reels of cotton.I upload videos of how I come up with the patterns on my youtube channel. The clothes I design are a statement against cheaply producing your clothing in India, the patterns I create are inspired by the everyday details of life, deconstructing them into shapes and patterns that people can find their own meaning in. 
 

Photos by: James Prosho