malika chaudhary

i'm malika, a london-based knitwear designer and current central saint martins student. my work explores the absurdities of fetish and the lifestyles of individuals who choose to exist within it. i research social sentiment towards and implications of pornography and other pornographic media and subcultures, including both the explicit and the innocuous. i find myself fascinated by fetish, particularly those that are submissive and self-inflicted, simultaneously with disgust, amusement, and misunderstanding, and with the knowledge that i, or anyone for that matter, am not as far removed from it as i may believe. my practice exists in attempt to reconcile my conflicting attitudes about fetish and portrayals of sexuality and to understand the origin and subsequent indulgence of desire. the garments i create take on characters that exist in a sexual reality alternate, yet parallel to my own. these characters become an indulgence of myself, fulfilling desires that feel absurd for me to have but which, in reality, aren't too far out of reach— my fantasy-self in a fantasy-world with fantasy-desires coexisting with my real-self in a real-world with real-desires.