Krishma sabbarwal
About the designer
Krishma Sabbarwal, a multifaceted designer, maker, and creative professional, brings diverse experience. With a keen passion for innovation, upcycling, and attention to detail, Krishma has cultivated her academic and practical expertise through various roles and projects.
Krishma's design experience extends into specific niches such as fashion design, buying, luxury fashion, and writing. Each experience has honed their craft and enriched their skill set, offering a unique perspective and personal development.
During her Master's studies, Krishma explored the scalability of her slow fashion brand using found textiles, scrap fabric, and waste yarns. Throughout her career, she observed the amount of waste generated across different industries. She wanted to utilise existing textiles to showcase the potential of these materials and honour the resources and time invested in making them. Krishma hosted creative workshops to demonstrate her sampling process and share her skills within the community.
"I love crafting and being creative, but equally important to me is drawing inspiration from personal experiences and bringing attention to important topics. Storytelling is crucial to my design process and slow fashion brand. I don't want to be just another label producing just for the sake of it."- Krishma Sabbarwal.
Krishma Sabbarwal's slow fashion brand incorporates satirical and political design elements while paying homage to nostalgia. She fuses internet memes and reinvented slogans with graphic design, incorporating her sense of humour and love for puns and wordplay. Despite tackling challenging subjects such as racism and colonialism, Krishma believes infusing a satirical touch makes these discussions more approachable. Through this unique approach, she aims to create a platform where important issues can be explored in a playful yet thought-provoking manner, fostering awareness and encouraging engagement with the rich tradition of storytelling inherent in South Asian cultures, merged with British influences, to bring attention to social and political issues.
Krishma Sabbarwal is an emerging slow fashion designer of British-Indian Punjabi descent, incorporating influences from her identity with the ingenuity of upcycling, reusing, and innovative practices from Indian cultures. Her designs draw inspiration from the vibrant colours of South Asia, featuring iconic silhouettes such as lenghas and sari tops, as well as traditional adornments like bangles reimagined in knit.
"I want to put the desi back into my design process, reconnect with my south asian cultural roots and incorporate them into the design process to represent personal heritage and identity." - Krishma Sabbarwal
During her master's studies, Krishma Sabbarwal explored the concept of Jugaad deeply ingrained in Indian culture. Jugaad epitomises a societal approach to problem-solving with limited resources, advocating for efficiency and innovation. Inspired by this ethos, Krishma integrates the Jugaad principle into her design process. By repurposing existing materials and fabric, she pioneers a sustainable approach, crafting new textiles and materials with resourcefulness and creativity. Jugaad shares fundamental design principles with fashion upcycling and this resourcefulness has become ingrained in Indian cultures. It is common practice to reuse and remake in India, and there is respect and a desire to use all aspects of an item or object.
heritage & Culture
"I say, "Support your local Spice Girl," because there's been this trend where people get behind their local businesses, alongside the big names and celebrities. I'm just playfully suggesting that folks should also support their local artists and fashion designers. In my case, I'm your local Spice Girl, so support your friends and emerging fashion designers in the same way you support big-name brands and celebrities."
- Krishma Sabbarwal (aka your local Spice Girl)
