Aaron Christian has worked in the luxury sector for nearly two decades. Having grown up in East London, his teenage interest in menswear first manifested through Individualism – a style blog and men’s fashion collective he helped to found during the #menswear boom of the late 2000s alongside his brother, Reuben. In 2011, he became Video Editor of the then-newly launched Mr Porter, covering the men’s fashion weeks in Milan, Paris and London. It was going to these bi-annual shows that really hit something home – as a man with Malaysian-Indian-Sri Lankan heritage, there just weren’t many people who looked like him there either on the catwalks, in the audience or behind the scenes. It was after this that he founded The Asian Man, a platform he used to search out and showcase other men of South Asian heritage who, like him, were interested in fashion.
In the years since, Christian has made it his mission to seek out an uplift South Asian creative talent, not only through a wildly successful podcast, What is this Behaviour?, but also through his work with luxury brands in the UK through his production company, AC Studios (with clients including Walpole members Church’s, Belmond and dunhill), that he founded in 2018.
During South Asian Heritage Month (18th July to 17th August 2024), we sat down with Christian to speak about his journey in the industry, his role as a mentor for younger generations, and the importance of representation of South Asian communities in the luxury sector.
Walpole: The Asian Man started as a Tumblr back in 2012 before becoming the Instagram account it is today. What was your thought behind the account when you set it up originally?
Aaron Christian: I set it up while I was working at Mr Porter and travelling to the menswear shows in Europe to cover them for their social channels. It was the first kind of exposure I’d had to the fashion circuit, and while I thought the catwalks were amazing, it dawned on me that there didn’t seem to be that many people on or off the catwalk that were of South Asian heritage. It started as curiosity – why weren’t there more people who looked like me and who was making those decisions at the brands? It struck me as strange that there was this massive South Asian market for menswear and so little representation. I took that as a challenge – to find and feature other men from a South Asian background who were interested in fashion like myself. At first it was a little slow and I could only do a post of a new guy every two or three months (mostly by keeping an eye on street style blogs), but that picked up in time as word spread amongst the community about the account.
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It’s now over a decade since you launched The Asian Man. What’s changed for South Asian representation in British society in that time?
The biggest change for The Asian Man itself was when we moved the account to Instagram – it was a better platform than Tumblr as it made it easier to find and connect with other South Asian guys. I think perhaps the biggest change for me personally was when I launched the podcast What is this Behaviour? with Almass Badat and my brother Reuben in 2020. With this, we have been able to speak to a far wider cross-section of the South Asian creative community, not just fashion, but music, art, dance, theatre, film and sport.
Also, I think the younger generation below me, Gen Z, have a different attitude towards creativity and identity – they are a lot braver in putting themselves out there and expressing themselves creatively, especially in the digital space.
Obviously, the luxury industry changed too post-Black Lives Matter – there was definitely more of a push from allies across the space to try to use their voice and cover their blind spots. More people started to do the work to make sure those from various underrepresented communities were better represented. I started to see more South Asians like me in TV ads, fronting campaigns and on catwalks.
It’s interesting hearing you speak about the importance of visual representation of people with South Asian heritage as this was around the time you launched your own agency, AC Studios, which seeks to connect luxury brands to more diverse talent in production roles…
Yes, what I want to do with AC Studios is to lead from a point where I'd like to see change within the industry. I'm in a position where I get to hire talent, both in front of the camera and behind it and I think that's really equally important for representation. When I speak to people of South Asian heritage, often I hear that the reason why they found it difficult to break into the creative space was they didn’t have a mentor – I found that too getting into film space. So as I've grown in my career, I've tried to use my position to help others break through, and AC Studios is a big part of that. Now a lot of those people I’ve worked with have gone to work for different companies and they're doing the same thing. I think that's beautiful because as a community we are now really starting to spread our roots and grow that South Asian network.
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It’s also something we wanted to do with 'What is this Behaviour 101’ – a spin-off of our podcast. This is a list of one hundred and one South Asian people making waves on the British creative scene across multiple categories that we launched in 2022 at Soho House White City in London.
What do you think isn’t talked about enough in the luxury sector when thinking about the South Asian community?
My thought on this is best summed up with the journey I’ve been on with The Asian Man. I set this up as a celebration of stylish South Asian guys, but I realised very quickly how deeply it connected with a large audience who didn’t see themselves represented in mainstream media. It still frustrates me that there is this big South Asian audience who are interested in the luxury sector, but the sector itself doesn’t often do campaigns or projects that speak to that audience. What I want to do with AC Studios is to help connect luxury brands to these audiences in an authentic way. And I say audiences because there are so many different ones within the wider South Asian community – different religions, different subcultures, it's so rich and diverse. I just feel like they’re missing a trick and sleeping on an audience that would love to be spoken to.
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What’s an achievement you’ve been particularly proud of across all your work?
I’m really proud that our podcast, What is this Behaviour?, is now available on British Airways long-haul flights. We worked with the airline to select about 15 episodes that really represented the best of the pod. It’s so satisfying to receive DMs from people from all different backgrounds who have discovered the podcast on their flight.
Who are the other people of South Asian heritage working on the luxury scene right now whose work you admire?
Readers should go and look up the work of Kalpesh Lathigra who’s an amazing photographer. He has a similar background to me – he grew up in Newham/Forest Gate. What I love about his story is that he's finally getting his flowers. He's been working for many years in photography and he’s now helping the younger generation breakthrough. He's had to really break through so many barriers.
I’d also draw people’s attention to Harsh Agarwal, the designer behind menswear label Harago. His brand is connected to Indian artisans and puts a spotlight on them and their specific kind of craft work, but in a beautiful, modern way. He navigates both worlds – the South Asian space and the Western aesthetic. As a soul, as a person, he's so curious and has such joyful energy – plus he’s got great taste.
Finally, we hear that The Asian Man is set to become a book soon?
Yes, that’s a project I’ve been working on for the past couple of years and hopefully it will be ready towards the end of 2024.
> Find out more about the work of AC Studios at acstudios.io
