Ashliia Williams is 27 and from Nottingham. Her new clothing label is called Expression Project and we sat her down and asked her to verbalise about the idea and her new pop-up shop.
WHERE DID IT ALL BEGIN?
The brand was originally called ‘Wild Heart’, I like to travel when I can, experience new culture, eat new food, I’m quite open-minded and that name seemed to work. But over the last 3-4 months I’ve had a lot stress and although the brand was all ready to go something in my head said ‘no’. Even though I write a blog I find it hard to talk to people about problems and it came to me that I was actually searching for was an ‘expression’, an emotion or a feeling,I’m actually expressing how I feel it through the clothing itself.
As Expression was born I suddenly became more confident in what the whole flow was and I wanted it to have a bigger meaning that people could relate to. There’s a lot of pressure in society on who you should be and people voice criticism that is way too personal, that’s where a lot of it comes from, other people should let you be who you are.
WHAT ABOUT THE CLOTHES?
We use designers and a local clothing company, I’m hoping to keep all of that in Nottingham and I’m talking to a few illustrators here to move it all in that direction. We’re obviously doing the basics such as branded t-shirts in black, white and gold, a snapback cap and tote bag but after that we’ve got the Rebellion collection which is all the prints and designs we’ve been working on, one of them is ‘My Body, My Choice’ which reflects my love of tattoos and everything else that’s going on.
WHO’S WEARING THEM?
We want to include everyone, I don’t want it to be just early twenties but everyone from teenagers to ‘adult adults’ with an open mind. We’re making bits for skating but also styling so that females can buy a larger size and wear it as a t-shirt dress, I want my customers to be able to play with the clothes as much as possible, be creative with it. The clothes are for people with a certain state of mind rather than a certain age, I don’t want to title it that way.
WHAT’S THE POP-UP SHOP AT 200 DEGREES FOR?
We’ve talked to 200 Degrees for a while about working together and we’ll be bringing loads of stock, chatting about the clothes and encouraging people to try things out, it’s a bit nerve racking but we’re really looking forward to it!
EXPRESSION PROJECT POP-UP SHOP
200 Degrees, Carrington St
Saturday 4th August, 10am.
T-shirts £15 (logo) and £25 (design)
Baseball Hat £22
Tote Bags £8
https://www.expressionproject.co.uk