About
Ayesha Mahmood is a textile designer working at the intersection of culture, contemporary art, and storytelling. Grounded in a practice-based approach, she uses techniques and material exploration to translate cultural research and community narratives into considered textile outcomes.
Ayesha's work expresses identity and lived experience while pushing textiles beyond traditional functional use into more expressive, narrative-led forms. She is also committed to a socially engaged practice, aiming to build meaningful collaborations and support the communities that inform her work.
She aims to create work that is meaningful and cross-disciplinary, connecting fashion, art and cultural contexts within a contemporary design landscape.
AURALAI – Hearing Through Multiple Senses
Auralai, meaning “hearing through multiple senses,” is a transdisciplinary fashion project that translates the Carnatic composition Gowrimanohari into visual and tactile textiles.
Using scientific experiments such as Chladni patterns, sound is made visible through vibration, allowing music to be experienced beyond hearing. Inspired by the deaf community in Chennai, India, particularly Little Angels School, the project draws from their belief that the absence of hearing does not mean an inability to communicate.
This perspective shaped Ayesha's approach to creating a multisensory collection.
The work moves beyond superficial cultural references. Textiles are meaningful, experimental and immersive, evolved by the musical composition where Talam (rhythm) and Ragam (melody) are translated via technique, scale, colour, pattern and even intentional breaks.
Auralai uses fashion as a medium to build connections across disciplines and communities, reducing the gap between those who hear and those who do not.
5th December, 2025
This collaboration with TOYOTA Singapore was an initiative to ideate inclusive fashion for people with disabilities. Ayesha contributed a textile artwork from this collection as a car wrap for the Corolla Cross.
Photograph by TOYOTA, in partnership with Paralympian Toh Wei Soong.
Quek Yu Tong
Anchanaa Ashok
Jahnavi Gupta
Andrea Sanchez Guajardo
Lim Sin Rong, Vanessa
Nurul Izza Binte Rahmat
