ihtgw

SAMIA MALIK ihtgw interview by Sade Aknife

2011-10-20T04:37:00.000-07:00

Huge thanks to Sade Aknife, for going through this interview and filming this 3 times!

After being partially anonymous for years, in past year a few friends grilling me to break away from anonymous front. And battle of being an anonymous creative female, which in this time and age; unfortunately only has certain amount of life span!

Coming into 10 years since ihtgw started, I thought it would be right bench mark to introduce myself. That started with blog shoot with: The Style Scout, and then you tube interview below with my assistant Sade.

Why we had to film this 3 times:

Day 1: I was on a wrong mode. Day 2: interview was fine (part 1), but 10 minutes was accidently deleted by me. Day 3: success (part 2/3), but I forgot to mention a few important points, so I recorded them on own computer (part 4).

FREE BABAR AHMAD, PLEASE SIGN! TAHNKS!

2011-10-11T03:51:00.000-07:00

Free Babar Ahmad: The Official Campaign Site to Put Babar Ahmad on Trial in the UK

Babar Ahmad is a 37 year old British Muslim and the longest detained-without-charge British detainee held as part of the global ‘war on terror’. In December 2003 Babar was arrested at his London home under anti-terror legislation. By the time he reached the police station Babar had sustained at least 73 forensically recorded injuries, including bleeding in his ears and urine. Six days later he was released without charge.

In August 2004 Babar was re-arrested in London and taken to prison pursuant to an extradition request from the US under the controversial, no-evidence-required, Extradition Act 2003. The US has alleged that in the 1990s Babar was a supporter of “terrorism”. Babar denies any involvement in terrorism. He has now been in prison for six years even though he has not been charged in the UK.

SIGN HERE:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/885

DON'T WASTE COTTON September 2011

2011-09-30T07:18:00.000-07:00

Cotton is a fabric that we wear and see around us. Many of us will rarely ever closely look at fabric on our body and try to workout how it was made or where it came from. Let alone know this fact: 'The proud Uzbek cotton harvest is picked courtesy of the forced labour of the country's and young adults.' Lucy Siegle. These days cotton is more disposable than ever before. We can go to shops buy as many cotton garments we want, without facing hardship unlike people who make it.

Collection: All sweat tops are printed through a D.I.Y studio method. All trousers are made in London studio from cotton, focusing on a sustainable, classic and practical cut.

Photographer: Andrej Vasilenko, www.andrejvasilenko.com

Models: Ola Dada, Katie, Susie, Luke Putres

Stockists:

Trousers:

Mensah

291 Portobello Road,

London

W10 5TD

T Shirts and Sweat tops:

London:
LIK + NEON, 106 Sclater Street, (just off Brick Lane),

London

E1 6HR

ihtgw website: www.wellmadeclothes.com

In my early 20s I use to go to those LFW events I swear I felt such a prick!

2011-09-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

To get into graduate fashion week, in June 1999, me and a friend walked into a wasteland on the corner of Shoreditch High Street (just where Shoreditch Tube Station is now). I remember seeing people such as: Hilary Alexander, Isabella Blow there first time in my life, and stream of over the top dressed people. Admittedly it was exciting going there as an 18/19 year kid. Archetypically in the early days an effort-full special outfit was selected for these events. It was a rituals you did as a fashion student. But after the first few shows, a stale dryness started to emerge, with a flux of anxieties.

I circulated in these events between the age 18 - 24. Some of the last catwalk shows I went to see at London Fashion week, amongst awkwardly dressed mishaps, I started wearing a hood on my head. It really was no fashion statement, now thinking about it, it's hilarious. But nails: either I was hoping that no one would see me there, or the hood was a shield that I was using to protect myself from fashion germs. By this time I had withdrawn into a state to depression, to the point there was no effort made in choosing outfits, neither sensation of excitement existed anymore. These 5/6 years was beginning of an allergy, perhaps I should diagnose it as fashiontiteass. Since this time I've dodged any sort of fashion show invite. Now I can only picture myself throwing up, cause of what I would I have to witness if I was waiting in a queue to see a catwalk show at London Fashion Week.

Huge thanks to Sophie Emmett and her team

2011-06-01T04:21:00.000-07:00

Huge thanks to Sophie Emmett and her team, London College of Fashion students.

Photographer: Kristine Joramo, http://www.kristinejoramo.com
Stylist: Sophie Emmett
MUA: Natasha Woodward, http://www.by-natasha.com
Model: Christopher - Oxygen Models

The designers that have pieces with yours are Sarah Shuttleworth & Ed Lee

Photoshoot above was at Richmond Park.

LEARN TO SHARE NO HATE 2011 part 2

2011-05-24T05:40:00.001-07:00

LAERN TO SHARE 2011

We still live in a state of colonisation. Taking over people's land in other countries, and slave trade. All this originates from the problem of greed, and selfishness. When man is use to taking whatever they want, when ever they want. It doesn't matter who they have to walk all over, as long as they get what they want. That leaves us in state we are today: mass level of unfairness, and inequality. Only because we have forgotten simple human values, such as sharing and being good to people.

Presentation below location: Oxford Street London, one of the most busiest High Streets in the world, and with consumers from all over the world. Investing in material that was most likely made by a person who is financially less privileged than them. Masks resonate the Islamic veil ban earlier this year in France, all face masks were made from recycled scrap fabrics.

LEARN TO SHARE NO HATE 2011

If we all shared and money was divided equally there maybe be no hate

Photography by Andrej Vasilenko

Model: Yazz

Quote below from Lucy Siegle's book: TO DIE, IS FASHION WEARING WEARING OUT THE WORLD, iterates just one example of consequence of our inability to share:

'But ultimately, because you can only traumatise Westerm celebrities, teenagers and first-year fashion students so far, such programmes don't come close to the true horrors of sweated labour. As far as I can see these guinea pigs aren't exposed to conditions that can include being punched in the face for attending meetings, having their documents and permits taken from them, being denied access to a foetid toilet until their bladders are about to burst, being sexually assaulted or forced to have abortions. And they aren't locked into factories at night that are swept by fires from an electronic fault, and burned alive.

In the end, we, with our comfortable Western lives, simply cant experience the pain of sweated labour. We can be tired, yes from from a day spent hunched over a sewing machine, but we can fall back on basic enshrined principles of human rights, the laws of the land and health and safety. These are all luxuries that the average garment worker on the real global assembly line can only dream of.'

I recommend this book to everyone, especially anyone who: enjoys consumption or thinks searching for the latest high street tends is a fun leisure activity, and find out exactly what they are paying for.

Visit the original: LEARN TO SHARE Blog on link below:

http://ihtgw1.blogspot.com/2010/02/learn-to-share-ihtgw-presentation-for.html

2011 way we live: 1 woman Aafia Siddiqui sentenced for 86 years in prison, after being: raped, tortured and has 3 of her children taken away from her

2011-04-26T05:59:00.000-07:00

I've copy and pasted full story below from website: www.justiceforaafia.org.

Please do read it and show support just for the sake of humanity.

It's easy lean back and think: 'this is another tragic story', but this situation shows that this can happen to anyone, even you!

Show support, spread the word!

BACKGROUND

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was born on 2 March 1972 in Karachi, Pakistan. She is one of three siblings. Aafia’s father Mohammad Siddiqui was a UK-trained doctor and her mother, Ismet, is a homemaker. Aafia has three children: Ahmed (b. 1996), Maryam (b. 1998), and Suleman (b. 2002), the latter of whom remains missing to this day.

Aafia moved to Texas in 1990 to be near her brother, and after spending a year at the University of Houston, transferred to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Siddiqui's fellow students say she was a quiet, studious woman who was devout in her religious beliefs but far from the media characterisation of 'Lady Qaeda'. A fellow student, Hamza, recalled in an interview with the BBC, "I remember Aafia as being sweet, mildly irritating but harmless".

During her time at MIT, Aafia joined the campus Muslim Student Association (MSA) and was actively involved in efforts to portray the teachings of Islam to non-Muslims in order to better their understanding of her faith and invite them to Islam. Her emphasis in her life on bettering the conditions of Muslims even pervaded her academic achievements. During her sophomore year at MIT, she won a grant of $5,000 to study the effects of Islam on women living in Pakistan. In addition to her many academic achievements, Aafia earned the honourable status of committing the entire Qur’an to memory.

Following her graduation, Aafia married a medical student Mohammed Amjad Khan. She subsequently entered Brandeis University as a graduate student in cognitive neuroscience. Citing the difficulty of living as Muslims in the United States after 9/11 and following FBI harassment of her husband, Aafia and her husband returned to Pakistan. They stayed in Pakistan for a short time, and then returned to the United States. They remained there until 2002, and then moved back to Pakistan. Some problems developed in their marriage, and Aafia was eight months pregnant with their third child when she and Khan were separated. She and the children stayed at her mother’s house, while Khan lived elsewhere in Karachi. After giving birth to her son, Aafia stayed at her mother’s house for the rest of the year, returning to the US without her children around December 2002 to look for a job in the Baltimore area, where her sister had begun working at Sinai Hospital. On 1 March 2003, Pakistani authorities arrested Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Aafia and her children disappeared just 27 days later.

DISAPPEARANCE

According to Aafia’s mother, Aafia left their home in Gulshan-e-Iqbal in a Metro-cab on 28 March, 2003 to catch a flight to Rawalpindi, but never reached the airport. In February 2010 Aafia’s eldest son returned to the scene and described how, when he, his mother and siblings came out of their home, fifteen to twenty people, including a ‘white lady’ and members of the ISI, were waiting in three to four vehicles on the next street and subsequently kidnapped them. Aafia was placed into one black car and the crying children into another. She described to her lawyer that she was immediately hooded and drugged. When she awoke she was tied to a gurney in a place that could not have been Karachi because the air was very dry.

Following her trial, Aafia’s lawyer Elaine Sharpe, described how Aafia’s baby, Suleman, was believed to have been killed during the arrest. Dr Siddiqui was later shown a picture of her baby, lying in a pool of blood. It is not known if Suleman, who would now be 7 years old, is alive.

Pakistani papers mentioned reports the following day that a woman had been taken into custody of terrorism charges and confirmation came from a Pakistan Interior Ministry spokesman. The media reported that Aafia Siddiqui had been 'picked up in Karachi by an intelligence agency' and 'shifted to an unknown place for questioning'. A year later, the press quoted a Pakistani government spokesman who said that she had been handed over to US authorities in 2003.

Aafia Siddiqui had been missing for more than a year when the FBI put her photographs on its website.

Aafia’s mother described in a BBC interview in 2003, how a 'man wearing a motor-bike helmet' which he did not remove, arrived at the family residence and warned her that if she ever wanted to see her daughter and grandchildren again, she should keep quiet. Both the Pakistan government as well as US officials in Washington denied any knowledge of Aafia’s custody. Aafia's sister, Fowzia also says that she was told by the then Interior Minister Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat in 2004 that Aafia had been released and would return home soon

At almost precisely the same time that Aafia went missing, two other alleged Al Qaeda suspects disappeared from Karachi - Majid Khan and 'Ali 'Abd al-'Aziz 'Ali. They would be amongst hundreds arrested by the Pakistani intelligence services and handed over to the FBI and CIA as part of the War on Terror. Like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Khan and Ali would not reappear again until September 2006, following their transfer from CIA custody, where they were reportedly tortured including the use of waterboarding, to Guantanamo.

SECRET DETENTION

Aafia claims that she was kidnapped by the Pakistani intelligence services with her children and transferred into US custody. She further alleges that she was detained in a series of secret prisons for five years during which time she was repeatedly abused, tortured and raped. Aafia’s claim is substantiated by former Bagram detainees who affirmed the presence of a female detainee of Pakistani origin at Bagram, with the prisoner ID “650”. The International Committee for the Red Cross also confirmed that a woman had been detained at Bagram. Immediately after his release from Guantanamo in 2009, ex-Bagram detainee, Binyam Mohamed declared that the woman he saw in Bagram, with the prison no. 650, was indeed Aafia Siddiqui.

The US has previously denied the presence of female detainees in Bagram and that Aafia was ever held there, bar for medical treatment (after they shot her) in July 2008.

Little is known about what happened to Aafia and her children in the five years in which they were missing. However, in October 2009, when Aafia was visited by a Pakistani parliamentary delegation she spoke a little about the five years in which she had been disappeared, saying “I have been through living hell”. She described being given an injection and when she came to, she was in a cell. She said she was being brainwashed by men who spoke perfect English, who may have been Afghans. She did not think they were Pakistanis. She described being forced to make false confessions and sign statements. She alleged that she had been tortured although she provided no details. She was also told by her captors that if she did not co-operate, her children would suffer. During her trial, Aafia alluded to being tortured in secret prisons, to being raped, her children being tortured, and being threatened to be “sent back to the bad guys” – men she described as sounding like Americans but could not be “real Americans” but “pretend Americans” due to the treatment they had subjected her to. After her trial it emerged that the government of Pakistan had put a gag order on Aafia’s family in exchange for releasing her eldest son Ahmed.

Aafia's lawyers, Elaine Sharpe and Elizabeth Fink, would later corroborate this by stating publicly that she had "been through years of detention, whose interrogators were American, who endured treatment fairly characterised as horrendous" and that she had been "tortured".

RE-ARREST IN AFGHANISTAN

On 7 July 2008, a press conference led by British journalist Yvonne Ridley, in Pakistan resulted in mass international coverage of Aafia’s case as her disappearance was questioned by the media and political figures in Pakistan. Within weeks, the US administration reported that she was arrested by Afghani forces along with her 13 year old son, outside the governor of Ghazni’s compound, allegedly with manuals on explosives and ‘dangerous substances in sealed jars’ on her person. Her lawyers claim that the evidence was planted on her. Aafia would later testify during her trial that the bag in which the evidence was found was not her own and was given to her, being unaware of its contents. She also claimed that the handwritten notes were forcibly copied from a magazine under threat of torture of her children. She recalledthe presence of a boy at the Ghazni police station whom she believed could have been her son, but could not know with certainty since they had been separate for several years.

On 3 August 2008 an agent from the FBI visited the home of her brother in Houston, Texas and confirmed that she was being detained in Afghanistan. On Monday 4 August 2008, federal prosecutors in the US confirmed that Aafia Siddiqui had been extradited to the US from Afghanistan where they alleged she had been detained since mid-July 2008. They further allege that whilst in custody she fired at US officers (none being injured) and was herself shot twice in the process. Aafia confirmed during her trial that she was hiding behind a curtain in the prison, as the US claim, with the intent of escaping as she feared being returned to a secret prison, but categorically denied picking up the gun or attempting to shoot anyone. Aafia was charged in the US with assaulting and attempted murder of US personnel in Afghanistan.

RELEASE OF AHMED SIDDIQUI

In late August 2008, Michael G Garcia, the US attorney general of the southern region confirmed in a letter to Dr Fowzia Siddiqui that Aafia’s son, Ahmed had been in the custody of the FBI since 2003 and was he was currently in the custody of the Karzai government. Earlier the US ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W Patterson had earlier claimed that Washington has no information regarding the children.

According to an Afghan Interior Ministry official quoted in the Washington Post, Ahmed Siddiqui was briefly held by the Interior Ministry after his arrest in July 2008 and was thereafter transferred to an Afghan intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), notorious for its brutal treatment of detainees, despite the fact he was too young to be treated as a criminal suspect under both Afghan and international law. Under Afghanistan's Juvenile Code, the minimum age of criminal responsibility is 13 and according to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child a minimum age of criminal responsibility below the age of 12 is "not internationally acceptable."

Ahmed was finally released to the custody of Aafia’s family in Pakistan in September 2009.

He later gave a statement to police in Lahore, Pakistan, that he had been held in a juvenile prison in Afghanistan for years. On being reunited with his father for the first time, he ran away screaming in horror, claiming that his father was amongst those who used to beat him in Afghanistan.

THE TRIAL

The trial of Aafia Siddiqui began Tuesday 19 January 2010, in a Manhattan federal courtroom. Prior to the jury entering the courtroom, Aafia turned to onlookers saying; "This isn't a fair court, (...) Why do I have to be here? (...) There are many different versions of how this happened," referring to the alleged shooting.

Three government witnesses testified on the opening day of the trial; Army Capt. Robert Snyder, John Threadcraft, a former army officer and John Jefferson, an FBI agent. Both were stationed in Afghanistan at the time of the alleged assault and murder attempt.

During the trial, while Snyder testified that Aafia had been arrested with a handwritten note outlining plans to attack the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge and Wall Street, Aafia disrupted the proceedings with a loud outburst aimed at Snyder, after, which she proclaimed her innocence stating; "Since I'll never get a chance to speak, if you were in a secret prison.. where children were tortured... This is no list of targets against New York. I was never planning to bomb it. You're lying."

In the morning before the closing remarks, the last government witness, FBI Special Agent, Angela Sercer testified. Sercer monitored Aafia for 12 hours a day over a two week period while she was at a hospital in Bagram. She tried to rebut Aafia Siddiqui’s testimony, by saying that Aafia told her she was in “hiding” for the last five years and further that she “married” someone to change her name.

However under cross examination, Sercer admitted that while at the hospital Aafia expressed fear of “being tortured”. Sercer also admitted that Aafia expressed concern about the “welfare of the boy” and asked about him “every day”. Moreover, that Aafia only agreed to talk to her upon promises that the boy would be safe. According to the testimony Aafia said that the Afghans had “beaten her”; that her “husband had beaten her and her children”; and that she was “afraid of coming into physical harm”.

When Sercer was further questioned about what Aafia said about her children during that two week period, she admitted that Aafia expressed concern about the “safety and welfare of her children”, but felt that the “kids had been killed or tortured in a secret prison”. “She said that they were dead, didn’t she” asked Defence attorney, Elaine Sharpe; reluctantly Sercer answered, “Yes.”

The trial took an unusual turn with an FBI official asserting that the finger prints taken from the rifle, which was purportedly used by Aafia to shoot at the U.S. interrogators, did not match hers. Another event complicated the case further, when the testimony of witness Masood Haider Gul appeared different from the one given by U.S. Captain Schnieder earlier. The defence denied all charges, stating that "the soldiers had given different versions of where she was when the M-4 was allegedly fired and how many shots were fired."

The trial lasted for 2 weeks and the jury deliberated for 2 days before reaching a verdict. On February 3, 2010, she was convicted and found guilty on all counts. , despite the following discrepancies:

· The court proceedings were flawed, and limited to the incident in Ghazni, which itself lacked concrete evidence.

· It is still unexplained how a frail, 110 pound woman, confronted with three US army officers, two interpreters and two FBI agents managed to assault three of them, snatch a rifle from one of them, open fire at close range, hit no one, but she herself was wounded.

· There were no fingerprints on the gun.

· There was no gunshot residue from the gun.

· There were no bullet holes in the walls from that particular gun.

· There were no bullets cases or shells in the area from the specified gun.

· The testimony of the government’s six eyewitnesses contradicted each other.

· The statements Aafia made to FBI agent Angela Sercer were made whilst she was under 24 hour surveillance by FBI agents in the hospital at Bagram, with her arms and legs tied to a bed for weeks, several types of meidcation, sleep-deprived and at the mercy of the agent for food, water and in order to relieve herself. Sercer did not identify herself to Aafia as a FBI agent. The use of these statements in court were objected to by the defence on the basis of ‘Miranda laws’ which mandate that a detainee must be informed of their rights, have access to an attorney, or in the case of international law, consular staff and law enforcement officials must identify themselves. Despite this the judge denied the motion and allowed this to form part of the questioning.

· Aafia’s disappearance, torture and missing children were not at all addressed during the court case.

POST CONVICTION

Following her conviction, Aafia remained at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in New York where she has spent the best part of her detention in the US. Throughout that time, she has been subject to humilitating and degrading strip and cavity searches, prompting her to refuse legal visits on many occasions. Since the beginning of March Aafia has been refused all contact with her family and has not been permitted any letters, phonecalls, visits or reading material under the pretext of “the security of the nation.”

In April 2010, a 12 year old girl was left outside the resident of Fowzia Siddiqui in Karachi by unidentified men claiming she was the missing daughter of Aafia Siddiqui. Although initially it was thought that she was not Aafia's daughter, following DNA tests conducted by the Pakistani government, the Interior Minister Rehman Malik confirmed that the tests proved that the child was indeed Aafia's daughter, Maryam, and that her DNA matched that of Ahmed Siddiqui (Aafia's eldest son) and their father, Amjad Khan. Dr Fowzia intended to carry out their own independent investigation to confirm the girl's identity. In a press conference Senate Committee for Interior Chairman, Senator Talha Mehmood reported that Maryam Siddiqui was recovered from Bagram airbase in the custody of an American - in the Urdu-language press, an American soldier - called "John". He also said that she had been kept for seven years in a 'cold, dark room' in Bagram airbase.

After several postponements, Aafia was finally sentenced to 86 years in prison, on 5 counts, on September 23rd 2010, making her eligible for release in 2094. She would be 122 years old at the time of her release, if she remains alive at that time.

The whereabouts and welfare of Aafia’s youngest son, Suleman remains a mystery.

DEXTERITY MAGAZINE, ihtgw

2011-04-06T04:33:00.000-07:00

Some of you might remember OVERLOAD Zine that i made up a few years ago, it was successful but instead i started writing a blog, im not scrapping the blog but i'm returning back to zine mode, more developed this time: DEXTERITY MAGAZINE.

DEXTERITY MAGAZINE-- is fashion based, but naturally anti fashion. I'm doing a fashion editorial with Diana. we need models female/ male and we also good fashion designers, writers if anyones interested contact me!? email: ihtgw@hotmail.com.

Like DEXTERITY MAGAZINE facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dexterity-Magazine/173661329352827

Collection 1 = Female Islamic dress code and Integration

2011-03-21T07:25:00.000-07:00

SAMIA MALIK ihtgw

Press Release: March 2011

Collection 1 = Female Islamic dress code and Integration

Collection 1 was put together with a few thoughts in mind. First of all in reference to Islamic female dress codes; I've been personally researching this topic for a few years, and focused on looking at the origins of this dress. After designing a few different collections, and thinking about Islamic female dress code, I finally designed and made Collection 1. Naturally there's a lot of references to the Hijab, and also propaganda and controversy that surrounds the Hijab, Since 9/11 there's been a rapid increase of the amount of woman who've adopted the Hijab as their way of dress. Approximately about 15 years ago, main propaganda that was attached to Hijab was; are some woman wearing the Hijab because they've been forced to wear it by the pressure of society and 'culture'.

By 2011, it appears that Muslim woman choose to wear the Hijab for: first and foremost to show their respect for God, others may wear it because it's 'trendy' without adhering the initial purpose of the Hijab, i.e some woman make the Hijab look glamorous. Others may wear Hijab for cultural reasons, rather than religious reasons. However I am not making any judgments about why people choose to wear Hijab, I am only stating a few obvious observations.

Returning back to the inspiration behind Collection 1: one of the aims of the Islamic dress code is to respect woman. In contrast to misogyny in fashion, how unnecessary, and irrelevant it is in 2011 and for the future. And finally integration; different types of people surviving next to each other.

To see full look book, visit link below:

http://s146.photobucket.com/albums/r251/ihtgw/ihtgw%20catalogue/Collection%201/?albumview=slideshow

Photographer: Andrej Vasilenko

Make Up Artist: Amy Conley

Models: Lauren Munisamy, Savita Shukla, Nerea Carrion Sanchis

SHE SAID

2011-03-08T13:20:00.001-08:00

i'll be showing some art at this exhibition.

WEAK MINDS FEEDS DUMMIES!

2011-01-27T12:05:00.000-08:00

Honest to yourself, you'll be honest to the world. Honest to the world, you'll be honest to yourself.

These days I'm Looking forward to my iphone contract ending, cannot not wait to go back to a normal handset!

By saying to them I'm against cheap labour in fashion, it's just the same as saying I'm against their holy force.

2011-01-24T09:29:00.000-08:00

Before I started working on Say No To Fashion, some people who were involved with helping with my design work, thought I was going to be another 'pop fashion designer'. Who was soon going to be rich, and famous just like: Henry Holland, or other fashions designers who were gaining recognition at that time. Once I established that, I was also going to concentrate a lot of my time, to create awareness about cheap labour within the fashion industry, a lot of these people ran a mile away from me. I didn't intend to put anyone off, I just wanted to be honest to myself and everyone else.

That was back in 2007. Till this day I will get asked; 'so how come your works not in the magazines, and no ones talking about you in newspapers'. My main answer is; people in general do not want to openly uncover issues about cheap labour in fashion industry. And neither is my focus to be another pop, fame craving fashion designer, when there's so many other important life points to concentrate on. There was a patch in 2007, before I started high lighting cheap labour issues in my work, in that small period I received a different type of interest for my work, than I do now.

Before I take on an assistant to help me, I clarify with them how prominent discussions of cheap labour in fashion industry are with in my work. Some of these people never come back. I have to check out, if a person will be ok with helping me. If I do not explain to them my work is against cheap labour within fashion. It's almost as if I'm deceiving them in to believing, that I was an airy fairy was fashion label. Not only that, I feel that some people, especially the ones who have an heavy interest in superficial fashion, they almost give fashion a religious status. By saying to them I'm against cheap labour in fashion, it's just the same as saying I'm against their holy force.

Image at the top is an email I received today, after sending out press release for video 'cheap labour in fashion industry interviews'. Email reply from glam.com said 'Please take me off the list. This is the 3^rd time i have asked I will report you to g mail next time,'

ihtgw cheap labour in fashion industry interviews with general public

2011-01-24T06:21:00.000-08:00

ihtgw cheap labour in fashion industry interviews with general public, we did these interviews last year in Central London in August 2010. One of the questions we asked: would you work for slave wages? All of the them said they wouldn't work for slave wages than why do we expect other people to work for slave wages --- just to satisfy our greed!

Art/ Painting/ Pastels A PERSONAL CONQUEST!

2011-01-03T14:33:00.000-08:00

2011 TRITE

2011-01-02T15:02:00.000-08:00

Before I start writing I have to work out exact reason why I've not updated this blog for ages, why my last proper post was in June. Answers: death in family, fasting, then I started working on website, and life just takes it course.

TRITE

Past few weeks I did some art work, it was part of the WIHGHT project, but now it's branched into sub title: TRITE Official definition: lacking in freshness or effectiveness because of constant use or excessive repetition;hackneyed; stale.

There's perhaps no need for further explanation. To clarify reason why I subtitled project: TRITE; it's a reminder of climate we exist in, when mass population helplessly without thinking, copy each others habits, such as: obsession with: consumption, agreement with negative politics, and insecurities in general. Usually a lot of repetition creates negative side effects, within individuals and for all of us. As we are left to vitness, and often join in with these: stale boring repetitive negative habits.

Artwork jotted around on various roads in east london.

Money Don't Matter

2010-10-01T05:09:00.000-07:00

Start by Prince checking

Money Don't Matter 2 Night

One more card and it's 22
Unlucky 4 him again
He never had respect 4 money it's true
That's why he never wins
That's why he never ever has enough 2 treat his lady right
He just pushes her away in a huff
And says ?“Money don't matter 2night?

Money don't matter 2night
It sure didn't matter yesterday
Just when U think U've got more than enough
That's when it all up and flies away
That's when U find out that U're better off
Makin' sure your soul's alright
Cuz money didn't matter yesterday
And it sure don't matter 2night

Look, here's a cool investment
They're tellin' him he just can't lose
So he goes out and tries 2 find a partner
But all he finds are users (Users)
All he finds are snakes in every color
Every nationality and size
Seems like the only thing that he can do is just roll his eyes

And say that money don't matter 2night (Don't matter)
It sure didn't matter yesterday
Just when U think U've got more than enough
That's when it all up and flies away (No, no, no, no)
That's when U find out that U're better off
Makin' sure your soul's alright (Soul's alright)
Cuz money didn't matter yesterday (Don't matter)
And it sure don't matter 2night

Ooh-wee-ooh, don't matter
Well it don't matter 2night, no

Hey now, maybe we can find a good reason 2 send a child off 2 war
So what if we're controllin' all the oil
Is it worth a child dying 4? (Is it worth it?)
If long life is what we all live 4 then long life will come 2 pass
Anything is better than the picture of the child in a cloud of gas
And U think U got it bad

Money don't matter 2night (No, don't matter)
It sure didn't matter yesterday (Yesterday, ooh)
Just when U think U've got more than enough
That's when it all up and flies away (Flies away, flies away)
That's when U find out that U're better off
Makin' sure your soul's alright (Make certain that your soul's alright)
Cuz money didn't matter yesterday
It sure don't matter 2night

Money don't matter 2night
It sure didn't matter yesterday (Yesterday, yesterday)
Just when U think U've got more than enough
That's when it all up and flies away (Flies away, flies away)
That's when U find out that U're better off
Makin' sure your soul's alright
Money didn't matter yesterday
And it sure don't matter 2night

WIGHT

2010-09-02T07:30:00.001-07:00

Original meaning of WIGHT: a human being. If you move around letters ihtgw, one word that comes up WIGHT.

i am not anti fashion

2010-07-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

NOSYSTEMS ihtgw T Shirts June 2010

2010-06-16T05:54:00.000-07:00

I've been printing t shirts since 2003, it was not planned, I just fell in to doing this. And it turned out to almost take over most of my life for the past few years. I really do love print and designing t shirt, but I felt I needed to put a hold to it, work in other avenues and go back to developing my womenswear design work, which I did do. I told Janice at Lik + Neon I was going to print more new t shirts, but that day just didn't seem to happen for a while. In the past week, finally I made a new line of t shirts and I was glad I did, it was a good creative release. Especially after being on a break for almost three months! What I did in break, umm not much mainly reflected on what I did in past few years, burnt hours on facebook, twitter and even wrote blogs. New line of t shirts called NOSYSTEMS,

NOSYSTEMS; we're surrounded in environments, with many type of systems: culture, traditio

nal, political, consumer, jobs etc. All these systems take over soul purpose of our existence, and ultimate question is how important are these systems for our survival, or are these systems here to destroy us. T shirt line is based on breaking free from: rhetorical and mediocre systems. I continued story of geometric shapes and structures, putting together different angles, to represent unbalanced energies and collision of various energies. Continued colour story that always reflects physiological disruption.

Mountain of old cassettes and sounds of cassettes are good!

2010-05-09T13:24:00.001-07:00

I've been watching an old cassette player in my bedroom, and daily contemplating on giving or throwing it away, but today worked out what this unused cassette player was doing here. Recently I did a marathon clean out from last fifteen years of my old: art work, clothes and music. Need for clean out came about because other people are moving in my old storage space. I stored large quantities of clothes, music and art (all of these I barely looked at and used in past fifteen years). Such a hoarder, but I've got rid of most of it now, and seriously will keep tab on amount of material I own. Process of getting rid of clothes was easy, throwing away lots of old fashion sketchbooks was liberating. When it came to cassettes, I found it too hard to bin, or give to charity. So instead I decided to go trough all cassettes, listening, and recycling, as in make some new mixtapes . Thats what most of those cassettes are mixtapes; from 90's and early 2000. An old habit draw and make mixtapes at the same time, it seemed to improve creativity back in the day, before days of youtube, and podcasts. There so many cassettes I'll have to part with some of them, I'll see if Janice agrees to give them away for free in Lik and Neon or they'll be just be given away in random charity shops.

That country that has no precise location, but all rich elitist have a passport to it: RICHLAND

2010-05-07T03:16:00.000-07:00

In video below author Arundhati Roy goes through a few informative and constructive facts. We live in a time when people from various sects of society exist together, weather they're from: US, UK, India, Japan, etc. Labeling people from one country in a box doesn't make sense; poor people in a country have no connection with rich. Rich are connected together just through their elite status no matter where their from, they have their own country: the richland

Where Three Dreams Cross: 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, this exhibition ended last month...

2010-05-06T10:21:00.000-07:00

...but I've been meaning talk about this for a while

At some point in January when this exhibition opened, I went up to Whitechapel, still getting use to it's new, bigger look. I had a quick skim, there were lots of photos to see, great images, and photography. But one thing that strike me, I was in an exhibition full of pictures of South Asian people, and exhibition was packed on a Saturday afternoon with; mainly middle class Europeans. Whitechapel gallery located in middle of a high populated Bangladeshi area of London. There was hardly a Bangladeshi person in the audience, this could be due to reason that, they were not interested seeing photography about their own country of origin, or maybe because the tickets were £8.50, or some other reason. But the question at back of my head was, most of these middle class Europeans looking at photos with so much admiration and interest. Would they sincerely want to converse, see them as their own equal and be friends if they met these South Asian people in photos in real life.

ihtgw talking about M.I.A's incompetent business skills

2010-05-04T01:53:00.001-07:00

See blog link below:

http://ihtgw1.blogspot.com/2009/11/mia-looks-likes-shes-fighting-for.html

One of the 1st paragraphs of account I'm writing about growing up as a superficial consumer

2010-04-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

Depressing coming to terms with the fact that barbie was my 1st role model. Any display of disciplined behavior, or to complete a whole day at school without crying at the age of 4, my mum promised to reward me with another barbie doll to add to my collection of barbies. I was also member of the barbie club, that gave me access to more 'exclusive' barbie products, that my mum ordered for me. I had a barbie that went to work and she always wore a smart suit. Another came with different outfits, I could change her into, such as going to: work, shopping and disco. My favourite was the one dressed to go shopping, that seemed most exciting activity. At that time I imagined when I'd grow up, I'd look just like barbie. Thank god that never happened!

Years ago, in a talk I mentioned my earliest memories of consumption. Again I started to talking about the barbie, but account always sounded vague, because I never thought about it in detail. Possibly because I was too embarrassed to admit to myself: banal, fickle truth about my own materialistic, superficiality that started far too early in life.

'Your a women your nothing. your a cunt less than nothing'

2010-04-12T04:19:00.000-07:00

Provoked released in 2007. It's not 100% accurate account, of real story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, who was a battered Punjabi wife. There's a few reason why I like this film; one reason because it's a realistic portrayal of how life was in 80's, for a woman who was immigrated from India after agreeing to marry her English/ Punjabi husband. And they lived in Southall (a corner of West London, with high population of immigrants, mainly south asian).

Now you see I've been brought up watching bollywood films - all credit goes to my parents. Bollywood films either focus on stories set in India, or films made with bollywood gloss that tell stories about affluent Indian families, who visit America or UK. When I saw Provoked it was one of the 1st films made with realistic cross overs. Showing complexities of interlingual relationships, and showed grit instead of glam attached to be being an south asian immigrated women in London. Aishwarya Rai who played Kiranjit Ahluwalia, did a great job acting out lack of: English vocabulary, confidence, the point that she wanted to be educated but her husband did not allow her to gain further education. Or let her learn proper English, to develop her communications skills, to ease her life in UK.

I know a good number 1st hand examples, of women who are living the same life as Kiranjit Ahluwalia, but they haven't literally burnt their husbands yet. It' always disturbing to see these situations: lack of respect physical violence, expecting women to suffer in silence just for the sake of honor. If there's anyone out there who's a victim they should walk away or get help!

http://www.southallblacksisters.org.uk/

Fashion bastardise: culture and people

2010-04-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

Going back to 2002, I was at Winchester art school, in third year my teachers said I should apply for MA Womenswear Fashion at Central St Martins. This was unexpected, as the year before I was failing the course. I applied. I went for an interview with Louise Wilson, MA Fashion Course director at Central St Martins. She's responsible for most comtemporary fashion designers in London. At 21 I found Louise, one of the most grounded people I'd met, I was slightly intimidated by her energy. Anyone thats met her will agree that her aura is over powering, but not for the negative. Still love her even after all the grief she put me through. Not to ever forget that she's one of those people who told me, I'm capable of doing anything I want.

Interview ended by Louise saying 'the whole point of fashion is to bastardise and debase culture'. I left this interview overwhelmed, dripping with anger and inspiration. Louise's last line running around my head, and I was analaysing evrery angle of that sentence. So much so, that on train back I missed my train stop to Winchester, and ended up in some other town in south of England full off green woods, and with no human in sight.

I wrote a letter to Louise, I dont remeber every word I wrote, but the main gist of letter was. I disagreed, and opposed her thoughts about fashion bastardising and debasing culture. Fashion provides clothes for people, clothes are an essential need of people's lives. I strongly think fashions objective should be to improve and simplify human standards, rather than do the opposite. As a person/ designer, I'm not out there to debase, lower state of human life or culture. I've always thought clothes are meant to enhance people, and not to make them look like idiots. Another reason I thought this statement was so disappointing and depressing, thinking that this is what my life, profession is meant to be about, to degrade culture.

I can point out examples of how commercial, and general fashion has defected mass populations minds. One example, use of cheap labour in fashion (although this was not what I was thinking about when I was 21). Cheap fashion that is manufactured for pennies, and sold for pounds. Cheap labour has not improved, living standards of people who make these clothes, and some of the makers don't get paid! This also has created mass confusion, and wastage in western society. Another example: high end fashion, that comes up with excellent crafted garments, but it's main job is to cater for the rich and project the elitist image. These are just a couple of examples of how fashion has bastardised culture.

I have more to say about this, I think it will make sense to elaborate this in the next issue of Overload.

LIK + Neon open again

2010-02-26T12:46:00.000-08:00

I was at Lik + Neon's opening for a while, took some pics, it's looking good

LEARN TO SHARE, ihtgw presentation for Blow Off Schedule, London Fashion Week February 2010

2010-02-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

I did fashion week presentation outside, Houses of Parliament in London. If you google, what people do in Houses of Parliament, this is what comes up:

'What MPs do. The UK public elects Members of Parliament (MPs) to represent their interests and concerns in the House of Commons. ... This gives MPs further insight and context into issues they may discuss when they return to Westminster'

I don't think MP's represent my general: concerns, and interests. Thats another issue, but it did connect with my presentation. UK is well known country for colonisation, taking over people's land in other countries, and slave trade. All this originates from the problem of greed, and selfishness. When man is use to taking whatever they want, when ever they want. It doesn't matter who they have to walk all over, as long as they get what they want. That leaves us in state we are today: mass level of unfairness, and inequality. Only because we have forgotten simple human values, such as sharing and being good to people.

Below me talking about the presentation, pictures of protest boards opposite houeses of parliament and pictures of presentation.

Are all Muslim women suppressed, dunces? NO

2010-02-17T03:57:00.001-08:00

There's been ANOTHER program on BBC 2 about Muslim's. This program is about muslim women learning how to drive. Another attempt, at portraying Islam as a stone age lifestyle. Program is mainly about muslim women who: spend years learning how to drive, or they fail their theory test five times before they pass, or they have burdening life's back at home that make their driving lessons harder. Program is set in Bradford, and those who don't know about Bradford; Bradford is a city located in Northern England. It's a well known area for high level, population of Pakistani immigrants from the 1960's. From first hand experience of knowing a handful of, Pakistani families from Bradford. Without any exaggeration, they can be generally described as the most traditional Pakistani's in England.

Going back to program, that shows dumb down image of muslim women. I would like to point out that, this program shows extreme examples of muslim women. I'm a pakistani muslim women myself, and guess what, when I was 19, I passed my driving and theory test at first attempt (without taking a zillion driving lessons). My mum, my sister also passed their driving, and theory test first time. As well as so many other muslim women I know. But no these programs don't talk about the average everyday muslim, they rather empathise on showing the most extreme, and negative examples of Muslim's. Worst part is, when viewers start believing in what they watch.

Lik + Neon, Bricklane

2010-02-16T09:26:00.000-08:00

Lik + Neon refurbished finally, and there's an event on 24th Feb, you can see invite above. I thought I'd take this chance to talk about Lik + Neon, at some other point I'll go into more detail. But for now I'll talk about a few brief points.

In 2002 Lik + Neon opened as a retail space on Sclater Street, just off Bricklane. At this time Brickline was still a dead end, there was some other shops, events and stuff. But it wasn't half of what it is now, and sometimes these days, when I'm in Bricklane. I can't help but think Bricklane is doomed to be the next Camden. Lets hope not, if everyone keeps their socks pulled up.

Janice who started Lik + Neon, has strong focus on showcasing work of originality, and quality. In shop, you also can find: collectables, rare 70's, 80's deadstock, sport and surfwear.

Check out Lik + Neon's event next Wednesday

Maya civilisation kept their slaves besides them, and we keep our slaves in other side of the other world.

2010-02-15T11:12:00.000-08:00

I came across film: Apocalypto released in 2006, directed by Mel Gibson. Film is set in Mexico, during the declining period of the Maya civilisation (centuries ago). In film people are shown to be sold as slaves, and shows an example of how a cilivilisation survives on slavery. Not that different from the way we function these days. One big difference is, Maya civilisation kept their slaves besides them, and we keep our slaves in other side of the other world.

No matter how messed up: police, law and order is, without that, I think there would some people even in this time. Who also would want to use a human as a table, as they did in Maya civilisation. Humans haven't changed that much. However barbaric Maya civilisation appears, but maybe they were better people than us, as their doings were more visible, and not hidden as ours.

How many people like to imagine, that their Nike trainers were made in non slave conditions. How do you calculate it being fair, when you buy a pair of trainers for £60/ £70. A percentage of that money goes to the sales assistant, who earns a fair wage cause they are visible. Then money is spent on: shipping, rent, electricity, business rates, designer, and Nike owner (who earns the bulkiest amount). How is there, any money left for the person who made the trainer, and why not pay them nothing at all, cause no one will ever find out.

See how we probably worse than Maya civilisation.

1 of the greatest fashion designers couldn't even live with himself - that says a lot about the fashion industry

2010-02-12T07:36:00.000-08:00

Shock news yesterday Alexander McQueen committed suicide. I'm trying to come terms with this, I've mentioned in the past that McQueen's work, was one of the first to inspire me to do fashion, and go to Central St Martins. I was most familiar with his early work, from the mid 90's, at the time not many people knew who he was, only most fashion heads knew about him. Alexander McQueen was regarded as one of best fashion designers in UK, and a well known designer around the world. Although he was going through a down period after his mothers death, earlier this month, that appears to be the main reason of his death. But there's not much mention of McQueen's, general mental state.

I watched a documentary about McQueen, that was made in the late 90's/ 2000. In this documentary McQueen talked about: the way the fashion industry runs: one side being full of high beauty and bitchy. Another contrast side, where people are not visible: struggling making garments for peanuts (slave labour). McQueen spoke about this in a: thoughtful, melancholic and resigned tone. - Fashion industry works this way, but it seemed that some part of him wished it worked in a different way, but what can you do about it.

I saw this documentary again (not youtube above) a few years ago, after I started working on: ' Say No To Fashion' project. In the past few years i've questioned luxury fashion; materialistic attitude it injects into society, and aswell it being a huge support force for celebrity culture. This lead me to pay less attention to McQueen's collections in the past few seasons. But last night there was plenty of coverage on internet and T.V, about McQueen's work. That reminded how excellent McQueen's vision, and craftsmanship was. He was unique and rare talent .

Not much has been spoken about this yet, I wonder will anyone go into detail. About the mess the fashion industry is in, and the way it runs. McQueen hanging himself says a thousand words, about him, and the fashion industry. One of the greatest fashion designer of this time, could not even live with himself! McQueen was owned by the Gucci group, that is far removed from ethical consciousnes. Gucci and LVMH are two of the most corrupt fashion groups.

Sometimes I wondered, how do people in positions such as McQueen's live with themselves. My question was answered in a disturbing way yesterday. McQueen's death is an alarm call to the fashion world. Fashion world needs to wake up! Remember that we are making clothes for people, and not creating a society full of mental complexities.

US AND UK GOVERMENT NEEDS TO BE SECTIONED ASAP!

2010-02-09T03:31:00.000-08:00

If you watch this program, at the end of it your symptoms are: your allergy towards muslims has increased, your thinking Islam is a medieval religion that cant be applied to this time, overall your dislike for muslims has grown. Then bullseye, you've been a victim of media, the program accomplished what it set out to do, to generate more hatred towards Islam!

Copy and paste link below to watch program: 'Generation Jihad'. The name explains it all! I think, producers of programs of this category, should stop bother coming up new, imaginative names for; anti Islam programs, and just call them: 'WE HATE MUSLIMS'. This will make the central objective of program, more transparent.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qt1pm

Most insane things about all this is that; terrorist groups were originally funded by the US, and European goverments. To corrupt individuals, and yes to portray a deformed, tainted image of Islam. And now they make these programs, asking how these groups started. US AND UK GOVERMENT NEEDS TO BE SECTIONED ASAP!

IM A MUSLIM SO WHAT

2010-02-03T06:24:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about this for while and also tried to ignore it. To be honest I wouldn't ever claim myself to be that religious, but I firmly believe in god. Looking back at the past decade, when there was a mass scale change of peoples perceptions of religion. I witnessed more than ever before; people converting to Islam, people who were muslim started wearing head scarfs and growing beards. At the same time, there was growing hatred towards Islam.

Often I wander, if I was not a muslim, would I also find muslims so annoying? The answer; maybe I would because of the way they are portrayed. Islam is just a simple way of life and not about terrorism. Islam helped me, to refrain from lots of things, that I know I'd be doing if I didn't follow this religion. As much as I wish this was not true, but occasionally I and many other muslims; get judged/ stereotyped, because of the fact that we're muslims. I think this is a BIG SHAME, and hope that 10 years down, we'd be in a place. where people are more accepting and respectful!

LIK + NEON is closed for refurbishment, but will re-open soon

2010-02-03T06:10:00.000-08:00

LIK + NEON is closed for refurbishment, but will re-open soon may towards fashion week?!

NO CLASS/ OVERLOAD 2010

2010-02-03T05:38:00.000-08:00

Below images of Spring/ Summer 2010 collection. I made this collection last year, printed and hand dyed most of the fabric for this collection. It was mainly conceptual, idea of No Class, came from eradicating the class system, a step towards people being able to see each other at one. On the whole we do live in an unhealthy climate, where many people are ready to walk all over the next person to achieve 'success'.

Overload; was another concept part of this collection, that was about: too much information, too much of everything, mainly thanks to the internet.

If anyone wants to buy t shirts from this collection, you can visit my big cartel shop link below:

http://samiamalik.bigcartel.com/

SAY NO TO FASHION, EDITION 2

2009-12-19T15:55:00.000-08:00

I've spent a while in the past year talking to various people about use of cheap labour within the fashion industry. What it boiled down to, what do fashion retailers they themselves have to say. I contacted most high street shop head offices; who refused to discuss ethical policies with me in person.

Only way that I could develop next area of SAY NO TO FASHION project, by interacting and getting direct feedback from retail companies. Seeing that they didn't to discuss, their ethical policies with me. I decided to go to shops and make up stories that I was interested in buying garments. This was only way to start conversation, and record anything that companies had to say about ethical policies.

Below some a few films I've made so far:

Hennes,

when top are sold for £8 and and companies try to say they were made in good good work conditions, this needs to be questioned!

Louis Vuitton, make bags in china, but still write inside bag made in France and sell them for thousands of pounds. I decided to ask the shop manager about details and naturally she lied.

My 1st ever visit to primark on oxford street, it had to be filmed, and ending was a bit funny

Resent and like towards fashion

2009-11-24T14:56:00.000-08:00

1st of all this is my 3rd blog post within a month, it goes to show how crap the weather is here. And I can't be asked to ride my bike and check out the going ons outside, at this time of the year.

Following blog is about my hate and love for fashion, it does my head in and I've tried my best to run away from it. But it doesn't seem to workout.

I often contemplate why I'm involved with fashion, one conclusion: maybe it's genetic. My grandmother was a great craftswomen. My mum also makes clothes, and knows endless craft skills. Although my mum never literally inspired me, I use to be more fascinated by the way she use to put her make up on, then how she made clothes. I simply wasn't interested in learning how to make clothes, although I had a poxy a fashion wheel, that was fun. But nowhere as a great as computer games, I was miles more fascinated spending hours, working out ways, to score more points on computer games. Trainers was another weakness and this was all before the age of 10. Then came secondary school.

I grew up in crude end of west london, hounslow. I went to a girls secondary school, and it was a huge daily thing to 'look good'. It was very girly, piles of make up by the time I was 14, but at the same time everyone was boisterous. I didn't have much direction or focus, only thing that seemed naturally appealing was: fashion and then music. If this sounds shallow, trust me it was. I was in a school full of 75% 1st generation south asians born and bred in UK. It was all about 'fitting in'. Thank god I grew out of these habits!

Just before I turned 15; I started practising my religion Islam, and I thought I wanted to do something good with myself. I deiced I was going to do fashion, and then I saw Alexander McQueen's show on fashion tv. I thought I have to go to the same art school as him - st martins. From that point my life was fixed.

Thats exactly what I did, 1st I went to st martins did my foundation there, I was good at: drawing, painting, making sculptures. But I had do no fashion skills, I didn't undertsand: fashion layout drawings, had no idea how to: sew and pattern cut. I was crap in fashion foundation! One of my teachers said theres no way you will go to study BA fashion at martins, which I didn't. But I went to do my MA there, yes it was a victory, to be accepted in Royal College and St Martins both at the same time. From this point I lost it, and I almost became too confident about myself. I came back to reality after end of 1st year of MA, when I worked out I couldn't afford to go back, but that day I felt a MASSIVE RELIEF.

My MA Womenswear course at st martins, was a frustrating experience. I was 24 years old, that year I was desperate to grow as a person, rather than just growing as a student, pleasing my teachers, and being part of an institute couldn't have been more dry and mundane. I wasn't focusing on my course, but I was learning about a lot of other areas of life, and reality which was incredibly beneficial. After I left the course, I was FREE! I went back to working on my label in 2006.

I first started working on my label in 2002, after I finished BA Fashion at Winchester school art (which was an amazing experience). My label started by recycling clothes, I moved back to my house in west london. Where I had lots of old clothes that I didn't wear, I recycled them and sold them. Somehow this project moulded into t shirts. When I went back to working on my label in 2006, I started with t shirts. But this time there was myspace, in 2002/ 03 you could only dream of such an efficient networking site.

When I started on myspace, I didn't want to waste the chance to share important information. I started putting up blogs about cheap labour, and started to use as a channel, to experiment with my work. I kept doing more research related to use of cheap labour within the fashion industry. More I found out, more resentful I became towards fashion industry. In the past fews years it did get to the point, that I physically and mentally felt unwell, about walking into high street shops. I've come to terms with this now. But I still have a lot of angst towards fashion. Fashion is intensively, pointlessly: superficial bitchy and also a racist industry. One of the biggest problems with the fashion industry is that; it does not intend and not know how to treat people fairly!

I really don't want to grow as an undignified person, without any morals. And generally working within fashion, thats exactly what it asks me to do, to be: undignified and have no care for morals. Working on my label gives me the perfect space, but financially right now its tough. I love designing and making good things, and that seems to win over all my anger towards fashion.

M.I.A looks likes she's fighting for democracy but in reality she's contributing to the corruption

2009-11-04T14:34:00.001-08:00

MIA President t shirt 50% designed by ihtgw

After much contemplation I've decided to write this, mainly working out, that I'm one of the victims who has not much to loose, and also considering that; I don't hesitate being vocal about uncovering the truth. Here goes:

In 2007 a couple of months before launch of M.I.A's 2nd album, her brother Sugu contacted me via myspace to work on, design samples for M.I.A's KALA album merchandise t shirts. I emailed a few samples of my work to Sugu and he liked them, from there I had a meeting with M.I.A. Before meeting started; Sugu asked me to pretend we were mates, as in we hang out together, this was not true at all, because, as I said we met on myspace, only to discuss M.I.A's merchandise t shirts and there was no friendship beyond that. This was the first indication that things were slightly dodgy. First meeting with M.I.A; she gave me her art work, looked at samples of my design work, explained what she likes and didn't like. This gave me a good indication of how to work on: design layout and what materials would be best to use for type of design she wanted to achieve.

Within a week or two I had all key merchandise samples ready. This all required a good 5 days work week, involving: leg work, buying/ choosing materials, having meetings with printers explaining how the art has to be designed on t shirt, and matching different material with different colour t shirts. On top of this, there was more bits of work, they wanted me to do such as: designing a collection and a few other t shirt prints. After all this was completed, all key samples were sent to M.I.A; she liked the samples.

Next meeting was arranged; by this meeting I had to be straightforward about my freelance rates, as there was no discussion of this at the start. 2nd meeting involved talks about: quote, quantities, t shirt colours, logistics, further design ideas, and also this meeting took over 3 hours. The meeting before this, I was waiting for a good 2 hours and M.I.A didn't even show up. For me this is serious valuable time, that I can invest in my own work. In 2007 I was working on developing my label, I was not looking to do any work experience, I've had my fair share of useful work experience in my late teens and early twenties. In first meeting with M.I.A, I had no idea of exactly what I was expected to do, therefore I had I no time to think about freelance rates, and contracts before hand. By the last meeting I knew; there was no way I could do all this running for scraps, I had bills to pay. I went away put together quotes for; dealing with manufacturing 5000 t shirts. Without any exaggeration, my quotes and freelance rates were fair and realistic. But if M.I.A agreed with my quotes then she would have to sell t shirts on her webstore for an extra £10/£15.

About a month went by; after emailing these quotes, and there was no reply from M.I.A's team, I thought they didn't like the samples, and weren't going to use them. M.I.A launched her webstore in early August 2007, and she was selling t shirts I sampled, technically I had had 50% design rights over those t shirts. I spoke to one of my long term business advisors, who has worked in the fashion industry for atleast 30 years. He was adamant that I take further action; he heard, a very similar story from another designer about MIA.

This was not a simple copy right issue, it was a technical copy right issue, only specialist design lawyers are skilled enough to work on these issues. They understood my case, and agreed that I had rights over each one of those 5000 t shirts. These lawyers cost £400 an hour, there was no way I could afford to hire these lawyers, so I had to put the case on hold.

In the past couples of years I've come across similar stories about M.I.A. What triggered me to write this today: recently I found out MIA president T shirts (t shirts I sampled), were her best selling merchandise t shirts. When I first heard this, I laughed it off, but it kept on knocking on my head in past couples of days. Fact there's no mention ever by MIA that I even worked on designing those t shirts, she could have even given me that much credit. I have tried to discuss above issue with MIA and her team, but there is NEVER no response. A fews months after all this happened in 2007, I received a message on myspace from Afrikan Boy, who said maya and sugu, recommended he contact me for t shirt designs. And no, there was no work with Afrikan Boy; I laid out costs and contracts from the first second and he never replied. THE SHAME!

From all this I learnt it was absolutely vital to layout contracts before any discussion of design work proceeds. Another reason I decided to write this because as humans, we are all responsible for each other; if anyone reads this and passes the word, it might save someone else being used abused victim of MIA and her team.

Delirium's Library: Where to Get ZInes in London

2009-11-02T09:50:00.000-08:00

Delirium's Library: Where to Get ZInes in London

Lik + Neon, 106 Sclater Street, London E2 (Just off Bricklane)

OVERLOADED Exhibition blow off schedule september 09

2009-09-23T01:55:00.000-07:00

great DJ sets by: rObo|hEr0, Hit club DJ's, KWERK, George Aizawa. George also showed collection of great pictures. below some clips and photos

OVERLOADED

2009-09-03T12:47:00.001-07:00

Finally making a collection with jacket, trousers, shirts, shorts. EXCITED! On saturday 19th september between 1pm and 8pm, im doing an installation during blow off schedule london fashion week. there will be several different DJ sets and more art by other people. everyones welcome so pop down even if its for 5mins.

Above exhibition flyer and below few images of collection in the making. this collection is continuation of previous concept: NO CLASS. Main inspiration for this collection: every day life, routines, simple ways, reality, past, present, future and ordinary days. Amalgamation of energies: people, races, religions.

SERIOUS ISSUES

2009-06-28T14:34:00.001-07:00

NO CLASS

2009-06-28T14:11:00.000-07:00

NO CLASS is my current project it's based on eradicating: class system, status symbols and racism. This is an ongoing collection that I'm working on at the moment, and I'm only doing new prints/ art when I feel time is relevant; development of collection is slow but I'm excited about directions it will progress into.

what ihtgw means

2009-04-09T05:49:00.001-07:00

I made up ihtgw in 2002 it means I have to get work . Theres was no plan to make ihtgw part of my design work, it was just my personal response to way capitalism has structured everyones lives; to survive you have to have a job that earns you money. And the average persons obsession about having or getting a job; that can be soul destroying and often has no real point to it. By making up ihtgw my question to myself was: how do I achieve infinite freedom in this system.

RACE AGAINST THE RACE

2009-04-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

Idea behind concept of this collection is about people racing against each other in: work race, different races, religions fighting against each other and human race; people trying to get ahead of each other. Although I'm a determined person and I can work very hard when I want, but idea of racing against people is alien to me, I don't enjoy frivolous competitions against people, and I'm completely content about people trying over take me when I'm walking. This way I usually find myself watching people racing against each other against a race that doesn't have prize that I aspire, thats why I don't bother running the race.

See collection at: www.myspace.com/ihtgw

RACE AGAINST THE RACE

2009-04-02T11:26:00.001-07:00

small scale

2009-03-18T15:16:00.000-07:00

thats my first pastel drawing in a few years, i'll be doing more of those cant wait

ihtgw

2009-03-18T15:09:00.000-07:00