Fashion is inextricably woven together with identity. What we wear, how we reconstruct our identities, what we represent, and our communities and heritage all come together in the way we express ourselves through fashion and clothing. For the larger part, fashion quite easily extends beyond the realm of individual expression to that of the community and of the identity of a people. Exploring the identity of South Asian and specifically South Indian Diaspora through clothing is Koaka. Translated from old Telugu it simply means either ‘a piece of cloth’ or a ‘saree’. Born in September 2021 in a small town in the south of Andhra Pradesh, Koaka in essence is a fashion collective.
Using their garments as vehicles of meaning and metaphors, theirs is a community that works at the cusp of community, culture and compassion through clothing. At their core, they want to explore the “...meaning and memory of a South Asian and a South Indian diaspora,” moving it beyond appropriation and exploitation where it is often viewed as too colourful. They want to challenge “...what is perceived as cool and what is not.”
In their own words, “We intend on telling the real stories of our community without diluting or making it palatable to a global standard. Everything we do is a sensory and visual representation/recording of our every day, as we believe every piece of design is political.”
A community-driven endeavour, each garment is thoroughly researched, designed and produced in the small town of Andhra Pradesh with the local indigenous communities with pre-existing skills (which are passed down through generations) at the centre of it.
Check them out here.
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