Beyond Red Light

My name is Rashmi Mhaprolkar, I'm a Womenswear designer specialising in deconstructed fashion and image-making, exploring elements of space and body. My projects, influenced by my Indian-British heritage, become a visual and tactile medium of defying and representing socio-cultural and political issues with South-Asian culture and feminism becoming core values. It allows me to reinterpret cultural motifs, textiles techniques and silhouettes within a contemporary context that may be stereotyped or lost. Having the experience working in Menswear and Womenswear, it has highlighted the importance in design details, silhouettes and fabrication, allowing the experimentation of deconstruction, drapes and fastenings aiding in creating garments to challenge, present and empower women. My graduate collection explores the depth of the South-Asian prostitution in reference to Mary Ellen Mark’s famous photographic documentary of the Red-Light district of Falkland Road, Mumbai and idea of identity and uniform from the blue-collar workwear. It investigates and challenges notion of morality, body and space within the hierarchies of South-Asian communities.