Meet India Gill, Terry Mansfield Fashion Publication Award Winner

Meet India Gill, Terry Mansfield Fashion Publication Award Winner. India, who is a graduate from Heriot-Watt University, created a magazine called Powder Blue, which revolves around racial identity. As a mixed race woman, India explores the duality and juxtapositions of her heritage and how it fits into society. Read more about her work below.

How do you feel about winning an award at GFW21?

I am honestly still in disbelief. It was a crazy time to graduate and complete my final year in university but I felt so proud of the work I created as it was so personal to me. So to win an award for it was an incredible feeling. It has honestly given me so much more confidence in my own abilities, to know that others valued what I have to say as much as I do.

What is the most valuable thing you have learnt at university?

I think the most valuable thing I have learnt at university would have to be the ability to communicate fashion with such a powerful message. To be able to see fashion as an opportunity for socio-political change. To research issues that mean so much to me, and then to be able to relate that to my passion is such an amazing opportunity.

What was the starting point of inspiration for your final project?

Around the time of the black lives matter movement, there was a huge rise in the discussion of identity, leading me to reflect on my perception of my own and other’s identities. Especially as a mixed-race individual I began to feel ever lost in this modern battle of a racially polarised society. Making it evermore relevant to create a publication full of duality, juxtapositions and cliches. Embodying the multiracial experience. Through much research into multiraciality and racial identification, I was hugely inspired by the Harlem Renaissance; as the prime example of a cultural melting pot and racial identity thriving and mixing.

My work is inspired a lot by the past, with a dystopian twist in the narratives. Commenting on the notion of racial issues being a thing of the past, yet they are still so prevalent today. Whether it’s race, sexuality, gender, or anything else, society can no longer be categorised into binaries. Cultural binaries created by homogenous societies are threatened by the culture of those alien to them.

I wanted to create a publication aimed at promoting and creating a platform for this feeling of ‘being in between’ something. A multiracial identity places individuals at the intersection of complex racial, cultural or social divides. Especially as the multiracial demographic is the largest growing demographic in populations around the world, more and more societies are becoming mixed and complex.

What form does your FMP take?

My FMP takes the form of a publication/magazine called 'Powder blue'. A publication created entirely by myself full of duality, juxtaposing typography, graphics and aesthetics, embodying and educating on the modern-day multiracial experience. A publication created entirely by myself full of duality, juxtaposing typography, graphics and aesthetics, embodying and educating on the modern-day multiracial experience.

Filled with photography, styling, collage and graphic design inspired by both historical figures like Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance to the modern-day edginess brought to the concepts by my own street-style aesthetic. I combined elegance and powerful socio-political statements just like the ‘Dandyism’ movements I explore. Bringing the notion of duality to life through my aesthetic with the merging of traditional elements with contemporary cutting edge visuals created by myself. I bring the past to life with the Renaissance and 70s retroelements poetically combined with contemporary skater culture and edgy urban style.

My aesthetic choices are an ode to seemingly old-fashioned concepts like racial stereotyping and segregation that actually still exist in different forms, channelling this into a dystopian narrative of imagery that perfectly clashes with the vibrancy of the 70s inspired visuals.

What materials have you used and how did you source them?

I wanted my publication to reflect my message about identity through all the aspects of it's design. This is shown through my carefully selected model team, designers and historical inspiration, all of which embodying a duality in identity, whether it be diaspora or multiracial. All sharing a story or experience through their involvement in the publication.

How has it evolved from your initial ideas and what have you learnt along the way?

It has been an amazing journey to be able to explore a huge part of my own identity in depth. Learning not only from my own heritage and history but from those from similar backgrounds, sharing and learning from each other. I learnt the value in educating and promoting people's shared experiences, creating a sense of community for those othered from pre-existing groups.

What are the messages and themes behind your project that you want people to take away? Do explore any topics like diversity, sustainability or politics in your work?

I believe the message of my work speaks to many different people, as it revolves around the notion of duality in identity. We are all constrained to binaries within our society, even though most individuals cannot be defined by these categories as they are much more complex.

My work explores those boundaries under the topic of racial categorisation and multiraciality. I want my publication to be a place of shared experiences, connecting, education and societal benefit via contemporary eye-catching means. Exploring an unexplored area of the typical black-white diversity typically referred to in racial discussions.

What’s an aspect of the fashion industry that you’re passionate about fixing or having a positive impact on?

I am so intrigued about the cultural mashing of lifestyle with fashion. I strive to use history and heritage to find new and interesting connections with today’s society and the fashion industry. Merging music, art and fashion with social, economic and political issues. Creating a rounded form of fashion that does not segregate any individual.

Now that you have finished your degree, what's your plan?

I would love to gain more experience in the industry within creative direction and publication production, adding my unique take on socio-political issues within the fashion industry. I plan on continuing with further issues of my publication 'Powder blue' and hopefully creating my own agency for contemporary up-and-coming creatives in Scotland.