"When your garments are showcased at a museum with legendary designers, you know ‘You have arrived’!" - Mr. Ajay Kumar

Collections need Connections, Connections need Communities, Communities need Culture, Culture needs Curation and Curation needs Connoisseurs.

As seen through the eyes of the curator Madelief Hohé at Kunstmuseum Den Haag in collaboration with Art Director Maarten Spruyt, the one-of-a-kind global fashion collaboration between Mr. Ajay Kumar and the Kunst Museum sees the culmination of a journey tracing the past, present and future of fashion emerging from India and its global influence. The exhibition opened on 9th October, 2021 till 16th of January 2022 in the heart of Haag at the Kunst Museum.

Mr. Ajay Kumar is an eponymous brand with a maximalist approach on Indianness and this New Fashion emerging from the East with roots in one’s cultural heritage, emulating modern Indianness forms the basis of this curation that connects the iconographic signature Indian pieces to the the museum’s 18th century Western pieces made from Indian Chintz fabric.

The exhibit holds great significance as History is being Created by an Indian Designer wherein Mr. Ajay Kumar’s flauntwear is being showcased alongside notable and legendary designers like Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier, Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen.

The museum has curated two signature pieces from the designer’s Firdaus collection. Inspired by Amir Khusro’s Paradise of Earth symbolism to Taj Mahal, Firdaus by Mr. Ajay Kumar is a contemporary take on our new world paradise. Firdaus, our new paradisiacal world. An all inclusive collection that transcends borders, eras and silhouettes, Mr. Ajay Kumar’s signature bomber jacket creations interact with exceptional vintage 18th century chintz pieces, a cultural lineage that connects traditional prints with modern print language and silhouette. As the curator notes, the history of fashion depicts that we have been connected for centuries by the threads of global fashion and how beautiful global inspiration and connection can be in fashion.

As a new-age designer, Mr. Ajay Kumar feels that it makes the brand more responsible to justify our culture and heritage. Fashion changes but the roots remain the same. An artist without borders, an artist that hearts India at the core, Mr. Ajay Kumar’s prints are building a new, modern Indian print language that translates the richness of India for a global audience to consume without having to restrict oneself within the borders of ethnicity.

Mr. Ajay Kumar quotes, “ It is strange how we hold on to these pieces from our past for rebuilding our future, reviving our heritage yet creatively infusing them with new ideas. It is indeed an honour to be given the recognition at a global platform and a privilege to showcase alongside legendary designers and new emerging global designers.”

Other emerging global designers include Kenneth Ize, Jamie Okuma, Christopher John Rogers, Karim Adduchi, Hanifa, Lisa Konno, Duran Lantink, Yamuna Forzani, Tomo Koizumi, Thebe Magugu whose work incorporates influences beyond the typical western view of fashion.

Unlike the designers who drew on non- western inspiration in the 1990s, the makers like Mr. Ajay Kumar are themselves from a diverse cultural background. This fact is no longer ‘erased’ in order to conform exclusively to the western ‘gaze’, but is now used to highlight identity. And to develop it further, by emulating classic patterns in a new way, perhaps even ‘surpassing’ them.

The exhibition will examine three phases: the period from the 17th to the 19th century, featuring fashion that would not have looked as it did without the contacts brought about by international trade; fashion by western designers who were inspired by‘the east’, Africa and America in the 20th century, from Paul Poiret to John Galliano and Jean Paul Gaultier; and a recent section, featuring work from the past two decades that shows a process of growing awareness among designers from diverse backgrounds, who believe it is important to make their background a visible element of their fashion and use innovative methods to do so. New Global Fashion for a Global Wardrobe.

About Kunst Museum

With 160,000 works of art, the Kunstmuseum is one of Europe's largest art museums. The museum has a leading collection of modern and contemporary visual arts, fashion and applied arts. With no fewer than 300 of his works of art, it is also the international home of Piet Mondrian. Kunstmuseum Den Haag is located in a breathtaking building, the final great master- piece by Dutch architect H.P. Berlage, dating from 1935. It is one of the earliest examples of modern museum architecture in the world and was designed as a total work of art.

The modern art collection features many highlights, including works by big- name artists like Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Sol Lewitt, Louise Bourgeois and Francis Bacon. In the field of post- war modern art, the museum has parti- cularly strong collections of Minimal Art and of work by artists who have interpreted and used abstraction in a highly individual way. The museum continues to expand its collection through regular acquisitions of work by artists from the 1960s to the 1980s and by contemporary artists like Louise Bourgeois, Paul Thek, Daniel Richter, Wilhelm Sasnal, Marlene Dumas, Isa Genzken and Berlinde de Bruyckere.