Forget the runway: Yashana Malhotra, a Central Saint Martins student, debuts her designs on the sidewalks of London.
This Fashion Student Brings Her Voluminous Dresses to the Streets (and Your TikTok Feed)
Street style is popular for a reason: There’s something magical about seeing a fabulous fit in the wild. It’s memorable. And there’s a new emerging designer who is using this approach to her advantage. That would be Yashana Malhotra (@outofyourgaze), a fashion student who is using the sidewalks of London as a way to make her bold, extravagant frocks be known.
Malhotra is a 25-year-old fashion designer and artist who is currently finishing up her womenswear studies at Central Saint Martins. On her TikTok page, which she launched in 2019, Malhotra shares videos of herself sitting on the subway, popping out for flowers, or just posing on the streets in her handmade dresses, which always turn heads. Why? Because they often are voluminous, featuring beautiful, full skirts and puffed shoulders—in other words, not your everyday sweats. “My work as a designer sees fashion more through a fine art perspective,” says Malhotra of her aesthetic. “I love big dresses. I want clothing to be excessively large, so the body doesn’t feel contained.”
For Mahotra, wearing her epic designs in a more casual setting is a natural approach to dressing (she says she feels her most “powerful” in them). But she also sees the power in how doing so can familiarize people with her work, and she has become quite accustomed to people stopping and staring. “I don’t think I’ve ever been out and not turned every head on a street,” she says, adding that the gawking comes from all ages. “I’ve had 5-year-old girls say they want to have the dress, to a 68-year-old who told me she’ll wear it to a wedding when she has it—and everyone in between.”
Below, Malhotra discusses what inspires her work, what fabrics or silhouettes are her go-to signatures, and how people react to her wearing it.
This story originally appeared on: Vogue - Author:Christian Allaire
