THE BODY IS A WONDERLAND

Her gold-dusted breastplates, hung on walls or cast across the body as clothing, have raised pertinent questions around the role of the female body and the narratives that consume it. Misha Japanwala talks to Akanksha Kamath about identity, agency and loving your body

- Akanksha Kamath

CHANCES ARE YOU HAVE SEEN a Misha Japanwala artwork without even knowing it. It’s everywhere on your social media feed—the armour-like breastplate dipped in metallic gold hanging on a wall as a cerebral piece of sculpture, framing the female body under a draped sari, or silhouetting singer and rapper Cardi B’s pregnant belly in the music video ‘Rumours’ alongside pop sensation Lizzo.

For 26-year-old Japanwala, a BFA fashion design graduate from Parsons School of Design, art and fashion are the flip sides of the same coin, both with the power to be political in their presentation. “So much of what we consider fashion today is about enhancing the body. Whether it’s in the style of draping, in tucks and folds, or even in the way we use shapewear and corsetry, clothing has always been used as a tool to manipulate the appearance of what the natural body is,” she explains over a phone call across the border, from her family home in Karachi. In recognising this, the New York-based artist deliberately strips away the fuss and frills of fashion, bringing her approach to the bare body.