For the lookbook of their Fall-Winter 2019 collection titled Irula, Ashya designers Moya Annece and Ashley Cimone worked with a creative team of women of color –  including London-based photographer Ronan McKenzie, stylist Jess Willis and art director Radha Rathi, who is based in Chennai, India. The duo then released the collection for pre-order through The Helm, which is a female-founded lifestyle brand committed to elevating and investing in female entrepreneurs.

We caught up with the duo, which recently completed the Elaine Gold Launch Pad fellowship, to discuss the collection, how they chose the talent, and their hopes for change in the industry.

What inspired the collection and campaign?

We are particularly enamored by the origins of people and the cultural roots of their communities, so we were immediately drawn to researching South India just after receiving an invitation to participate in the Chennai Design Fair. We saw this as an opportunity to delve into the history of the neighboring regions.

The Irula tribe is one of India’s oldest indigenous communities and is also known as the “people of the night” as the word Irular in Tamil is associated with darkness or night. The community is known for their intimate and ancient knowledge of the venomous snake inhabitants. Their intimate relationship with the most venomous snakes in India is what initially caught our attention and their crucial role in saving the lives of thousands of Indians through venom extraction for the purpose of creating anti-venom instantly pulled us in.

How did you choose the talent?

The overall experience with the collaborators for this lookbook was synergetic and explorative. We initially connected with the London-based photographer Ronan McKenzie last fall. We were particularly drawn to Ronan’s documentary style images and the way that she unearths the hidden beauty of people within their environments. We met in person for the first time in NYC and connected on many levels immediately. This quickly spiraled into talks around a collaboration and the next time we saw Ronan was in South India for our lookbook project.

Separately, we were introduced to the Chennai-based creative director Radha Rathi through South Indian model Nidhi Sunil (the AW19 lookbook model), who then helped bring the visuals to life through art direction and styling in India.

For each collection, it’s important that we collaborate with locals to share cultural stories in the most authentic and respectful way. We often too tap our community for collaborators––for the NYC component of our lookbook, we sought out lead stylist Jessica Willis, who bridged the creative concept in an elegant and thoughtful way.

As a label, what does it mean to you to work with female talents of color?

As two women of color, we find that it is our distinct cultural heritage that informs the way we view the world and drives our desire to cultivate thoughtfulness in the travel space and diversify narratives. We’re very deliberate in working with mostly female and POC teams. This is true for us in front of and behind the scenes of our work, and specifically for this Autumn- Winter 19 lookbook, as it was led by a creative team of women of color. In our past careers, we rarely had the opportunity to work in diverse spaces even though we live in an extremely diverse world. Part of our mission is to use the brand as a vehicle to diversify cultural perspectives and we feel it is necessary for this to be reflected in all aspects of our business.  Representation is not only important so that we can see ourselves but also be seen and valued in our communities at large.

What message do you have to the industry?

Share more! The fashion industry is notoriously elusive. We feel that in order for the industry to push forward, there must be more sharing of information around navigating entrepreneurship, raising capital, innovations, and sustainable practices. We do understand that we operate in a competitive environment, but what many creative startups lack is the business acumen needed to survive. It’s the strength of our community and support from industry leaders that is helping us find our footing as a small business in a corporate dominated space. We hope to serve as mentors for up and coming designers one day and contribute to a new culture of sharing.

How do you hope the industry will change when it comes to diversity and inclusion?

We hope to see more diverse executive leadership roles especially in corporations. It’s fantastic to see more diversity within the modeling industry and on creative teams, but in order to create systemic change, we must see diversity amongst the gatekeepers.

This season for the launch of the collection we partnered with female founded VC fund and contextual commerce platform, The Helm. They recently launched their official e-commerce platform that features only female-founded companies. Earlier this year, when meeting with founder Lindsey Taylor Wood, we were instantly drawn to the mission––to make it easier to invest in women.

As perfectly phrased by The Helm, “If we want the future to include companies that consider women, are led by women, and create wealth for women, we need to invest in them.” With Ashya being a women of color-founded brand, there was clear alignment for obvious reasons. We believe in The Helm’s mission and are honored to be part of a roster of talented female-led companies including Mansur Gavriel, Lorod, Lizzie Fortunato, and more.