We speak to Aaron Christian, founder of The Asian Man - an Instagram account dedicated to curating images of stylish South Asian men - about diversity on the menswear scene and how he got into fashion.

Earlier this year on 2 March, Pakistani-British actor (a potential candidate to take the role of James Bond after Daniel Craig) Riz Ahmed delivered Channel 4’s annual diversity lecture in parliament. In it he warned that the failure of TV, as well as wider pop culture, to champion diversity is alienating young people in the UK and leading to divisions in society. “People are looking for the message that they belong, that they are part of something, that they are seen and heard and that despite, or perhaps because of, their experience, they are valued," Ahmed said. "They want to feel represented.”

It was a speech that struck a chord with Aaron Christian, a freelance commercial director and co-founder of the style collective Individualism. Having worked in the fashion industry for many years, Ahmed's words made Christian think about diversity and how few men he saw in fashion that looked like him. Determined to do something about it, he took to social media.

"In his speech, Riz Ahmed made a great point about being given the chance to be seen in different roles and having the opportunity to play different parts," Christian wrote in a Facebook post. "I’ve always felt that one of the routes to change is the ability to actually see one's self in these roles too. I wont get into my childhood memories of never having a brown superhero or character to 'be' when I was young. The possibility of being able to be shown in a variety of ways really is needed.

"We need to see ourselves in all our diversity, and show others that too."

The result? Christian set up The Asian Man, an Instagram account dedicated to highlighting men with South Asian heritage making waves on the international style scene: models, bloggers, designers, PRs in the fashion industry who not only look great in a street style shot, but who are all doing work every man who cares about menswear should know about.

We caught up with Christian to talk about Asian diversity, how he got into the style scene and which other Instagram accounts we should be following.

GQ: Why did you start The Asian Man?

Aaron Christian: While I was working at Mr Porter I began shooting the shows and travelling to direct films. The shows were always a great place to be inspired and to meet the most stylish and interesting people in menswear and fashion, but - to put it bluntly - I couldn’t help but notice that there weren't more people that looked like me.

Recently there has been a great deal of talk about the lack of diversity in many industries - and rightly so. There was always talk about whether designers should cast models that represented a more diverse audience and consumer. However, even though this has begun to happen with black and Chinese and Korean models, I have yet to really see one brown face. The more I looked the less I found. Which was odd as the Asian-Indian population is pretty vast.

When I got back from the shows I started a Tumblr, which I filled with images of stylish brown men. I didn’t have a masterplan - maybe the hope of connecting with these people and hearing their stories. I even thought it could work as a documentary and started interviewing people, but work was so busy I couldn't set time aside for it.

Fast forward a few years, I left Mr Porter and became a freelance commercial director and I had more time to pick up on the idea again. That's when I started the Instagram account.

How did you get into the style industry?

So I’m one of the rare born-and-bred Londoners. My parents moved here when they were in their early twenties from Malaysia and I was born in Limehouse, raised in Stratford and now live in Bow.

From a young age I was always interested in style, even if I didn’t know what that specially was. I went to a Catholic primary and secondary school where I had to wear a school uniform, so you had to get creative when thinking of how you could visually stand out. As you could imagine, when everyone was getting their bags from Argos, I made sure mine was from Index, or if everyone had Hush Puppies or Clarks, I'd save up for Kickers.

After school I studied film at uni. Like most students I didn’t have a clue about what do do after getting my degree. My brother, who was working as a freelance stylist, said we should work together on something while I figured out what I wanted to do. I agreed with the condition I could do films in whatever we chose to do.

We had this awful idea of trying to become the male versions of Trinny and Susannah and ended up creating a style consultancy called Individualism. This was around 12 years ago.

Unfortunately, the business side fell flat on its face, but the website and blog we created alongside it to market the service ended up being really popular. I grew the team, we began throwing style-themed parties, created an accessories line and an app to London's stores, and even did style seminars. It was all very new, very fresh and very fun.

However, it was difficult to earn money through Individualism. I took an internship at Esquire and later got a job under the magazine's former editor Jeremy Langmead in his new role as editor of Mr Porter. After four amazing years, I left to go freelance. I now work as a commercial director and still shoot for many fashion brands and houses.

Which Asian men do you think are currently shaking up the fashion scene?

From a streetwear perspective, Kish Kash (above) is a legend in the industry. His knowledge is incredible and he is still one of the most charming people I’ve met on the scene. Also, I'm a big fan of Abhishek Bhatt (a young bespoke tailor who's one of the sharpest men I know - he also plays the ukulele), @Sangiev
(a young YouTuber doing interesting things in style from a blogging perspective) and @nehjatski simply for his epic beard and style.
You regram a lot of stylish guys on your account. Any particular favourites you look to for style inspiration?

From a style perspective, I love what Thian Pillay, co-founder of Non Conformist does. He can move from street to sartorial effortlessly and still has his own spin on everything. He also has probably the most stylish little girl I’ve ever seen.

Baldev is great at putting together designer looks (I love how eclectic his outfits are) and Vikesh Tailor has some seriously great sartorial pieces.

Which labels would you recommend we look up?

I'd say Non Conformist, as mentioned above, and Eidos: not an Asian brand, but its latest collection featured an all-Asian cast, which looked really cool.

Source: gq-magazine.co.uk