Aditi Srivastava on God’s Country and Post-Colonial Fashion

Fashion has long absorbed and recycled the visual language of empire. Textiles, craft traditions, and silhouettes travel across borders, often severed from the histories that shaped them. In recent years, designers have begun confronting that legacy more directly, interrogating the power structures embedded in clothing and the cultural memory that garments carry.

For designer Aditi Srivastava, these questions form the foundation of God’s Country, a collection that explores colonial symbolism, South Asian craft traditions, and the uneasy relationship between beauty and power. Drawing on personal history, family memory, and the visual codes of both Indian craftsmanship and European aristocracy, the collection examines how identity can be negotiated through clothing.

In conversation with Féroce, Srivastava reflects on the origins of the project, the symbolism behind the garments and headpieces, and the role of visible labour and craft in resisting fashion’s increasingly disposable culture.

The Personal History Behind God’s Country

God’s Country deals with post-colonial identity and its fractures. What was the first image, memory, or feeling that sparked this collection?

I think I was drawn to India and its colonisation because of the current socio-political sphere we’re in, where it is virtually impossible to engage with the rhetoric of the times without confronting the place we occupy in the world. Identity is at the centre of all politics. A pivotal shift for me came from noticing traditional Indian craft appearing in contemporary ready-to-wear, often stripped of its origin and absorbed purely aesthetically. Concurrently, I noticed how much the intricate Indian maximalism, saree-like drapery and textiles I grew up with surfaced in my work organically.

Both my grandmothers grew up in colonial India, so this complex narrative of power, resistance, and survival was a natural draw for me. I was thinking about these strong motifs from my grandmothers’ homes. Pearls in mahogany boxes, delicate lace curtains yellowed over time, flora carved into Kashmiri teak, ornate silverware. Intricacies and maximalism that I love employing in my own work.

Colonial Symbols and the Politics of Power

The title carries a lot of weight. What does “God’s Country” mean to you in this context, and who gets to claim it?

“God’s Country” came to me quick and hot, and I was struck by how searing it felt on the tongue. I wanted the title to stay open and up to the viewer’s discretion, especially because both nations have, in different ways, laid claim to it.

The English Crown justified its colonisation and imperialism under the banner of the Anglican Church, while in India religion too has often been weaponised in the service of political power. In the wake of so much exploitation, the title reads less as a tribute and more as a provocation.

The double entendre is meant to hold that tension and question who, within this struggle for power and dominance, is afforded reverence, dignity, and humanity.

Reclaiming and Disrupting Colonial Symbols

How do you navigate the line between reclaiming colonial symbols and reproducing their power?

Towing the line between reclaiming colonial symbols and reproducing their power is difficult and extremely precarious, but I think it greatly matters the way in which these symbols are employed. I’m interested in grounding them in their context, disrupting their authority, and exposing their violence or ideology.

This approach is the driving metaphor for my collection. For instance, in my second look I manipulated a delicate, hand-dyed Banarasi silk saree into a rigid corset with shredded boning channels and a raw, distressed pleated hem. To me, the saree is in itself a metaphor for resistance and survival. A garment that has consistently managed to adapt to the zeitgeist, evolve and survive.

I was thinking about restriction, constraint, and obedience in this narrative. The juxtaposition of taking this ancient artform and shredding it, restraining it, taking its dynamic folds and pleats and forcing them still all felt like a physical capture of my narrative.

The same sentiment follows through with the headpieces. The gabled and French hoods are canonically those of Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, and I find it noteworthy how despite being bourgeois women of immense privilege, they both in different ways became symbols of a loss of autonomy, identity and agency.

I constructed the hood out of wire and safety pins, embellished with oxidised jewellery and tipped with pearls. The hand-linked washer blinder and lace mourning veiling reflect the same ideas of a lost sense of self.

Punk, Hardware, and Material Symbolism

The hand-linked safety pin top feels both armour-like and fragile. What does working with found objects and hardware allow you to say that fabric alone wouldn’t?

The genesis of my safety pin top came from oxidised black metal jewellery collected over time. I was drawn to safety pins as a long-time fan of the punk movement and its spirit of rebellion. The metalwork, paired with safety pins chain-mailed together to create this delicate cage, further carried my thesis forward. That oppression is vicious, its claws sink deep, but its foundation is fragile.

I like the idea of breaking down my element of construction to this basic utility piece. A lot of saree draping is held in place with a humble safety pin, and I wanted to employ that in chain-mailing the piece. I also loved using safety pins as a reference to the punk movement and the idea of rebellion and chaos in clothing. The piece came together intuitively, and I let the form inform my construction and decision-making.

As a love letter to my hometown of Hyderabad, pearls make several appearances in this top. While it is anchored in symmetry, I wanted it to have an organic, natural touch by virtue of its freshwater pearls. This extended into the accessory paired with this look, a silver chrome-plated clutch made from Atlantic clam shells.

The crucifix at the bust is a reference to the Anglican Church and its role in British colonisation, as well as serving as another nod to the punk movement.

Craft, Labour, and Cultural Memory

How important is the visible labour in these pieces, the linking, pinning, and building, to the story you’re telling and how do you see this collection speaking to contemporary conversations about post-colonial identity and cultural memory?

Handcrafted and detailed construction was central to my technical approach, particularly because it was these handloom textiles and practices that were lost to time and colonisation. In this era where trends are passé before they resonate and our clothing feels increasingly impersonal and remote, the care of craft and quality feels paramount. I sought to create something that feels artistically ancient yet practically contemporary and refreshing in this capsule.

Fashion is a political artform, and it is simply impossible to separate clothing from its context. I think it is crucial that we retain the intellectual and historical elements in fashion, be it cultural or otherwise. It is such an inherently human artform. Every garment is made by hand and is touched by another human being. I hope this collection makes that apparent for the wearer.

I find that South Asian influences in fashion often get boxed into a limited, narrow look, and through this capsule I aim to subvert that expectation. This capsule has had the most personal storytelling of all my work, and it was extremely important to me that I translated my heritage with integrity.

I believe representation done authentically and sincerely can have impactful effects. This collection has helped me settle into my identity, combining elements of my South Asian heritage with the dark, haunting, romantic quality of the gothic and the macabre. I loved tapping into this historical narrative arc, and I hope to keep revisiting it in my future work.

TEAM CREDITS

Fashion Designer: Aditi Srivastava

Http://www.instagram.com/aditixs

https://www.aditisrivastava.net/

Model: Faranaz Colton

Http://www.instagram.com/faranazcolton

Photographer: Nafisah Crumity

Http://www.instagram.com/nafisahs.photocollection

http://nafisahc21.wixsite.com/bluesphotos