Interviewing Parth Ghawghawe


Models: (left to right) Harmony Charles, Isaiah Trevino, Alex Hernandez, Malcolm Guidry, Parth Ghawghawe, Diana Farmer, Ava Hale, Surina Srivastava, Neha Prasath; Photographer: Ethan Rodarte; Designer: Jiagia Studios

By Taylor Schult

On April 13th, 2024, I had the privilege of attending the annual Hook’d spring fashion show, Haus of Hook’d. This event was so inspiring to witness, seeing all of the talented designers bring their visions to life and debut them on the runway. Fashion is a jaw-dropping form of art, and it allows for so much creativity and individuality to shine. 

After this event, I also had the pleasure to interview one of the designers, Parth Ghawghawe. He is a senior at the University of Texas and has been a part of Hook’d for several years. His brand, Jiagia Studios, allows him to combine his love for art and fashion into one. A notable thing about this brand is the overall love and consideration for sustainability. When asked about the inspiration behind that, Ghawghawe said, “I love the thrift culture around UT, and seeing people bring life to old pieces inspired me to thrift some of the items to put my screen prints over. Also, having these stores close to campus made it easy to source, helping execute to bring to life the vision for the collection.”

For the fashion show, he designed a collection titled “Illusiflora: In the Lab’s Heart, a Cubist Flower Blooms.” One of the first things I had to ask was what inspired this collection because I hadn’t seen anything like it. He said it’s a “story around flowers and cubism.” In these pieces, lab researchers have discovered a kind of cubist flower and decided to put it on clothing items. They incorporated things like thrifting, screen printing, sewing, and some crochet into this collection. 

Ghawghawe also elaborated a little further, saying, “This past summer, I was obsessed with drawing abstract art and nature, so that definitely carried over to this collection. We also hid a lot of storytelling with the prints and why certain ones appear at certain points. One of the ideas we had was that when people look back at the runway photos, they can try to piece together the scenes and story on each piece.” This collection has so much storytelling, and I think it all translated beautifully. 

Not all designers who presented at this fashion show are a part of Hook’d, but Ghawaghawe is. I asked how his art style has evolved, and he said, “Being in Hook’d, I got exposed to a lot of fashion, which encouraged me to continue down my screen printing and creating clothing path.” As a member of Hook’d, I agree that it’s a great way to get inspiration. At each meeting, you are surrounded by dozens of people, all with their sense of style. I love how he took what he saw in meetings and other organization events to further his expression. 

A considerable part of his expression is art, mainly drawing. He said, “I’ve always loved drawing, so learning screen printing allowed me to transfer them directly onto clothing.” Combining media is a great way to make a name for yourself because it allows you to create your signature look. And he has definitely accomplished that. 

One of the last things I asked was what inspires him to design. And he has two answers. The first was the ability to use screen printing. He said, “My first collection was me experimenting with blending painting compositions with the garments, and so this time, I wanted to incorporate sewing and more all-over prints.” He also mentioned how his background in science led to the overall laboratory look of this collection. The other thing that inspired him was the people he surrounds himself with. “When it comes to every day, seeing artists on Instagram always creating motivates me to keep creating. Also, just sharing my art and talking about it with others motivates me to keep creating different reactions from my friends.” 

Overall, I enjoyed each collection at Haus of Hook’d. It was a fantastic event with an amazing turnout, and I’m excited to see what they do next year. And for Parth Ghawaghawe specifically, it’ll be amazing to see where his design career takes him next. He said that fashion has been his primary way of sharing his art, saying that “so many places around UT had opportunities to vend and sell clothes, so it just became a fun and quick way to share my designs and keep creating more as I could sell it as well.” This is only the beginning of his brand, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.