An Interview With Vibhuti Amin
by Mollie Smith. You can find Vibhuti Amin on Instagram (@by.vibhuti)
Vibhuti Amin wants you to think a bit more about what goes into the making of a luxury item – that much is clear within the first few seconds of our interview.
Amin is currently in the midst of her second year at Central Saint Martins’ Material Futures Program in London, having returned from a brief stint stateside at Boston University. The Bangalore-born artist, designer, and researcher 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.”
In her initial 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 collectible items, exacerbating the fashion industry’s consumption crisis by encouraging excess. Amin presents an alternative kind of red footwear; one with several kinds of modular and biodegradable components. Designed for reuse and recycling, she imagines a world where the focus of our fashion and artmaking is sustainability.
Central to Amin’s artistic practice is an exploration of how and why we consume what we do. This quickly brought her research back to her home country of India, where she began exploring the ethics of everyday fibers and patterns.
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 extractive history of one of the world’s most luxurious fabrics. Imperial British trade, she notes, made massive profits off pashmina by marginalizing the indigenous labor that produced it. Her current project explores the effects of colonisation and climate change on endangered craft and artisan communities in India.
Amin’s practice is about more than just the ecological impacts of fast fashion; it’s about how these practices disproportionately affect communities in the Global South, who are often the ones whose labor produces these textiles in the first place. Her long-term investigation of these topics aims to not only raise awareness, but also help these communities find sustainable, climate-neutral solutions through microbial dyes and alternative methods. Amin urges us to question the power that fashion holds over our lives and our planet, encouraging us to reimagine a world where sustainable fashion might be synonymous with equity, resilience, and cultural memory.
We sat down with her to discuss research, design, and decolonizing our consumption.
Mollie Smith: You describe yourself as a material researcher and designer — can you explain that for someone who, like, has no familiarity with the idea of material futures and your program? Like what is it that you do?
Vibhuti Amin: Absolutely! I actually studied chemistry in college. I was a chemistry major and a visual art minor, and I was on the pre-med track before I decided about three years in that I didn’t want to be a doctor. I knew I wanted to do something creative, so I started exploring the overlap of science and design and how to bridge the two. I’d always had a creative practice of some sort on the side, whether that was working in Charcoal Magazine or just painting classes. I discovered sustainable fashion. I was always very drawn to the fashion industry, but wasn’t sure how to have a positive impact. I started working for a sustainable fashion magazine, where I wrote articles about material innovation within the space. This sparked my interest in materials like mycelium leather, plant-based fur, and others. When I came across the Material Futures program at Central Saint Martins, it was super exciting because it allowed me to explore the intersection of science, design, and technology, for sustainable innovation. I’m still mainly interested in the fashion industry, but combining my background in science and the arts for sustainable textile research.
MS: It’s so interesting you say that. I think people always talk about moving towards sustainable fashion, but when you think about it, as a species, it doesn’t really feel like a choice considering our climate!
VA: Yeah, absolutely. I think we are at a point where the fashion industry needs a systematic restructuring. I think a big way to do that is rethinking our material choices and how we produce, why we produce. There is so much discourse about materials because of things like vegan leather. Everyone says, like, “Oh, leather’s bad, let’s shift to vegan leather…” but vegan leather’s just plastic! I think material innovation and smart material choices is important, and that’s a big part of my practice and what I’m trying to do with material innovation.
MS: Do you feel like a large part of your practice also means educating people? Are there things you would want someone to take away from what you’re doing?
VA: I think material innovation is big in fashion right now, and all of these huge companies like LVMH and Kering are investing into material research and innovation. That being said, a lot of what I advocate for is place-based material innovation that can support marginalized communities that have long been extracted from by the fashion industry. Fashion and textiles is an industry that was born during the colonial era, and it’s rooted in extraction and oppression that stems from colonial times and continues on today. I grew up in India, and it’s crazy now looking back at textile histories of India and how so many crafts and traditions declined because the British brought them to the UK as a part of industrialization. I’m very interested in studying how these colonial histories have persisted in the fashion industry and continue to impact the social and ecological landscapes of those communities today. I think understanding the histories of our objects is vital to design education.
A still from Amin’s Comforts of Conquest series, mentioned below.
VA: My last project, for example, examined the Cashmere industry and its colonial roots in Kashmir, India. That’s where cashmere was born, and the British traded it to Europe, commodified it, turned it into a luxury good, and now there’s so much demand for cashmere, to the point that lands throughout Asia are degraded. There’s no land for goats to pasture on because they have too many to keep up with our consumption. My project was specific to Kashmir, but it was also working with pastoral communities in the Changhtang plateau and using goat hair to extract keratin and make a new regenerative yarn out of that. This was a critique of colonial histories, but also as a way of exploring alternative forms to support these communities which now bear the brunt of climate change.
MS: If I’m understanding correctly, a lot of what you’re talking about is this idea that sustainable fashion isn’t just about understanding the problematic nature of a scarcity mentality, but also understanding the predatory ways that communities have been treated for producing these materials.
VA: Yes, absolutely. And if you look at, like, climate change impacts, it’s the Global North that produces most of the carbon emissions in the world, and it is the Global South that’s disproportionately impacted by every .1 degree Celsius increase of temperatures. The fashion industry is one of the largest producers of greenhouse gas emissions, of waste, and has a history of extracting from the Global South. I think it’s important to acknowledge and understand where our textiles come from. I don’t think we can work towards a decolonial textile future without understanding and recognizing its colonial roots and legacies.
MS: Can you talk a little bit about your La Vie En Modulaire project?
VA: That was my first project in Material Futures! I wanted to use it as a kind of material exploration project. I learned how to 3D print, I did biomaterial research, and I investigated the Louboutin red heel to then develop a 3-component modular high heel alternative. From there, I wanted to explore the intersection of climate change and colonialism. I worked with a community in Beed, India where most women get hysterectomies because of climate change and migrations due to extreme drought. I worked with a local journalist who conducted interviews for me, and I discovered that I loved the social aspect of working with communities in India. So for my third project, Comforts of Conquest, I was like, I’m gonna tie in climate, fashion, and colonialism. That’s now informed where my practice sits and what I’m going to work on in my final project.
Amin’s La Vie en Modulaire project, as mentioned above.
MS: Where do you see this study and practice taking you? Are there things you’ve been able to accomplish through your studies that have been goals of yours?
VA: Absolutely! In June I was part of the Next Gen Assembly, which is an advocacy group as part of Global Fashion Agenda. This has unlocked for me a new side of advocacy within the fashion industry, and gave me the opportunity to speak at the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen. We worked on a collective manifesto which shares our views on how fashion can value the rights of nature and are launching our campaign in November that shares how we can implement these values into our local communities. In my upcoming video I’ll be sharing my research for my current project and the concept of decolonizing the future of fashion through material innovation that works with marginalized communities! So stay tuned. I’m also speaking at Kering’s Internal Sustainability Conference as their youth representative from Asia. I’m really excited about it because it’s exciting to know that companies like Kering are interested in my conversation around these topics! There’s a lot of material innovation, but none of it works with people, localized communities, or place-based research. It’s a challenging industry to sometimes speak on issues of decolonisation, and so great to see companies like Kering be receptive to our authentic voices.
Amin speaking at the Global Fashion Summit Copenhagen 2025.
MS: That’s so awesome. What else can people look for in your final cumulative project?
VA: I’m currently at the beginning of that! I’m looking at similar themes as Comforts of Conquest, but exploring the natural dyeing craft of Kalamkari in India. It’s a hand-painted dyeing technique that’s super interesting. It’s completely natural and has 23 steps, and started on the coastal regions of India. During British colonization, Europeans became so fascinated by it, and there was such a high demand for it that it evolved into ‘chintz’ in Europe. It became so popular that the UK and France had to ban ‘chintz’ textiles because it was harming their own silk trade. They spent over a hundred years trying to imitate the dyeing techniques, which led to industrialization and printing, the invention of synthetic dyes, and completely destroyed the Kalamkari industry in India. Over the last 50 years, the government has been trying to revive crafts and art forms in India. Because of the heat waves and droughts in India, Kalamkari, a river-based process, has especially suffered. It’s increasingly hard for artisans to keep up with the demands of the fashion industry, so they now use a lot more synthetic dyes and it’s harming local waste streams. My project is looking at working with this community and developing alternative forms of dyeing using microbes from local soils, and more. The goal is to help restore agency to these workers and help them adopt tools for their crafts that are climate-resilient.
You can find Vibhuti Amin on Instagram @by.vibhuti
