MA FASHION Ashley Restrepo is a Salvadoran-Colombian fashion designer from New Jersey, USA. She is a researcher whose practice explores identity, heritage, cultural memory, and the relationship between clothing and power. Her work is informed by her multicultural background and experiences across New York and London, using fashion as a way to investigate the histories, contradictions, and stories embedded within dress. With a background in menswear design, Ashley's practice combines research-led design with an interest in tailoring, utility, modularity, and the boundaries between menswear and womenswear. Her approach is grounded in experimentation and development, moving between historical research, visual investigation, garment construction, draping, pattern cutting, and material exploration. Her current practice focuses on El Salvador and the complex histories that surround the country, particularly the experiences of Indigenous communities and the lasting effects of colonialism, religion, political instability, migration, and foreign intervention. Through her research, Ashley questions who has truly benefited from the systems imposed upon El Salvador and its people. Her collection title, El Salvador de Quién? (The Savior of Whom?), reflects this central question, challenging the idea of who the country has been "saved" for and who has been left behind. Ashley draws inspiration from historical clothing, Indigenous dress, military uniforms, political imagery, and everyday garments, examining how clothing can represent protection, resistance, identity, and belonging. She is particularly interested in how garments evolve through cultural exchange, adaptation, and survival. Her research considers the influence of Spanish colonial dress alongside Indigenous traditions and explores how these histories continue to shape contemporary Salvadoran identity. Her design process is highly research-driven. She collects archival imagery, photographs, historical texts, garments, and cultural references before translating these discoveries through drawing, CAD, draping, toile-making, and material experimentation. Rather than treating research as a route to a predetermined outcome, Ashley allows the design process to develop through questioning, testing, and discoveries. Her work ultimately seeks to create garments that carry meaning beyond their physical function. By combining historical references with contemporary silhouettes, Ashley aims to create fashion that encourages conversations around heritage, identity, and the complicated histories that shape how people understand themselves and their culture.