GAP has always found a way to make its wardrobe staples interesting. For its Fall 2026 collection, the American fashion brand is giving its familiar hoodies and sweatshirts a new perspective by collaborating with Mumbai-based illustrator Yash Pradhan. The partnership marks GAP’s first-ever artist collaboration in India, bringing Pradhan’s playful illustrations to 18 styles across menswear, womenswear, and kidswear. Through a mix of print, embroidery and appliqué, the collection takes a different look at everyday dressing, with artwork that adds a distinct visual identity to the brand’s classic silhouettes.
Artist Yash Pradhan
For Pradhan, the collaboration also marks another step in his creative journey that took an unexpected turn. He studied banking and business alongside chartered accountancy, and was close to following that career path when he realised he kept returning to doodling. “At that point, I realised I wanted to pursue something that genuinely brought me joy,” he says. He began exploring art and design more seriously, and what started with doodling gradually grew into illustration, graphic design, murals, installations and more. Today, he works across formats, allowing his illustrations to move beyond the canvas and into different aspects of everyday life.
This isn’t the first time he has worked with GAP. Their association began in 2023 with a project inspired by Mumbai, giving Pradhan the opportunity to interpret the city he lives in through his illustrations. The Fall 2026 collection took that creative relationship in a new direction. “I’ve always enjoyed exploring how illustrations can exist beyond the formats people usually associate them with, and apparel offers a completely different way for people to experience the work,” he says.
Bringing his artwork to clothing came with its own set of considerations. Pradhan describes his visual language as maximalist, with plenty of colours, shapes and forms coming together. GAP’s hoodies and sweatshirts, on the other hand, have a clean, familiar identity. He wanted to bring the two together without losing what makes either distinct. “I wanted to create an interesting contrast between the two,” he explains. The idea was to let the illustrations stand out while keeping the garments easy to wear.
He also had to rethink how his artwork would translate onto fabric. The silhouette, scale, and placement of an illustration can change how it works on a garment, which meant the process involved plenty of experimentation. The team explored print, embroidery and appliqué, with each technique offering a different way to bring the artwork to life. “Something that looks great on a digital canvas might not necessarily translate in the same way onto a hoodie or sweatshirt,” he says. It was an opportunity to work with the limitations of a new medium, and find creative solutions along the way.
For the visual direction, Pradhan looked at the things he encounters in everyday life. Shapes, details he spots while travelling, and random moments that stay with him often find their way into his work. For this collection, he explored gender-fluid designs, and little moments from everyday life in India, bringing these references into compositions that could sit alongside GAP’s understated aesthetic. His approach leaves room for interpretation, too. “I enjoy taking familiar references and interpreting them in a way that feels a little unexpected,” he says.
His personal relationship with fashion follows a similar back-and-forth between expressive dressing, and everyday essentials. While he enjoys experimenting with colours, patterns and different combinations, his usual wardrobe leans towards clean, simple pieces. “I see fashion as another form of visual expression. It’s interesting how much you can communicate through what you wear without necessarily having to say anything,” he says. It is also why he enjoys working with clothing as a medium. A garment gives an illustration a life beyond the studio, allowing people to make it part of their own wardrobes and personal style.
Beyond this collaboration, Pradhan hopes to see more Indian artists work with global fashion brands, and bring their individual perspectives into the conversation. He points out how Indian creativity often gets associated with familiar references such as truck art and textiles, while contemporary artists continue to explore a much wider range of visual influences. “There’s so much more to explore,” he says. For him, the opportunity lies in giving artists the space to bring their own visual identities to global platforms, without reducing their work to a single idea of Indian culture.
He also sees plenty of room for illustration to move between fashion, popular culture, and design. “Fashion is particularly interesting because it allows an illustration to become part of someone’s everyday life. It moves from being something you look at to something you can wear, interact with, and interpret in your own way,” he says.
And perhaps that’s what makes this collaboration an interesting exercise for both worlds. Pradhan gets to take his illustrations beyond the formats he has worked with so far, while GAP gets to bring an independent Indian artist’s perspective to a familiar wardrobe category. For the people wearing the collection, the artwork can be as simple as a detail they notice, or as personal with a design they can connect with. Either way, it gives the everyday sweatshirt a new point of view.
