Within seconds of sitting down, Vibhuti Amin is quick to tell me that she loves what she does—studying the intersection between chemistry, climate, and fashion.

Amin is currently in the midst of her second year at Central Saint Martins’ Material Futures Program in her home city of London, having returned from a brief stint stateside at Boston University. She credits the Material Futures Program with providing her with eye-opening challenges and opportunities; the two-year multi-disciplinary course prides itself on cultivating the next generation of artists, designers, and architects focused on “anticipating the future needs, desires, and challenges that we face in the 21st Century.” It’s ideal for Amin, who describes herself as undertaking her most recent project — a deconstruction of every aspect of how and why we consume — “for people and the planet.”

Central to Amin’s artistic practice is an exploration of fiber, form, and the ethics of everyday objects. Her Comforts of Conquest series explores the colonial and ecological impacts of natural fibers like pashmina, sourced from changthangi goats in Ladakh and handwoven by Kashmiri artisans. Utilizing 35mm photography as well as archival and material research, she traces the ugly history of one of the world’s most luxurious fabrics. Imperial British trade, she notes, made massive profits off pashmina by erasing its cultural origins and marginalizing the indigenous labor which produced it. In Comforts of Conquest she also explores the complicated histories of other costly knits like cashmere, which was similarly extracted and mass-marketed from the Himalayas by imperial British trade. Throughout her series she incorporates microscopic images of the fibers which make up expensive fabrics. In doing so, she encourages viewers to question the power that luxury items and processed, harmful materials hold over our lives and our planet. 

In another project, La Vie En Modulaire, Amin challenges us to reconsider the impact of the fashion industry’s pollution by reimagining the iconic Christian Louboutin red heels without the 40+ synthetic plastics, foams, and metal reinforcements that make up the construction of the shoe. Even beyond their ecological impact, luxury fashion items like heels are often collectable items, thus exacerbating the fashion industry’s consumption crisis by encouraging excess. Amin presents an alternative kind of red footwear; one with several kinds of biodegradable and exchangeable heels, straps, and insoles. Designed for reuse and recycling, through her shoe she imagines a world where the focus of our fashion and artmaking is sustainability.

At their core, Amin’s works aim to reimagine high fashion objects and materials with a focus on sustainability, resilience, and cultural memory. “It’s not just about me,” she says proudly. “It’s about all of us.” 

Vibhuti can be found on instagram @by.vibhuti, and studying in the library at Central Saint Martins most weekdays.