The Tamesis
When reasons beyond Ashish Gupta’s control forced the cancellation of his London Fashion Week show, he bounced back. “Losing the show was like a curveball that sent everything into free fall,” said the designer, “so I wanted to create a lookbook that reflected that.” The loss was not his alone: Ashish’s shows are often among the wildest, wittiest and most powerful in London.
Still, this last-minute lookbook does a great job of conveying the refined shapes and intricate surfaces of Ashish’s “minimalism,” and makes it clear how free-flowing the brand’s clothes are. The just-shown trampoline enhances the style and silhouette of this collection, with its variety of patterns and silhouettes always pleasing to the eye.
During the flight, a dark tulle strip skirt was embroidered with handmade flowers, like a vibrant black cloud, and the model wearing a sequined plaid shirt drove at high speed on the cloud. Plaid coats in six colors are made from precise sequined pixels but given a blurry feel by metallic threads. The gold mini dress is embellished with an extremely intricate mixture of beads and sequins, giving the garment visual richness and tweedy depth. Ridges of black and pearl sequins are sewn vertically onto the body of another garment, creating the effect of glassware.
As is typical with Gupta, many of the looks featured highly traditional patterns, including plaid, houndstooth and argyle. It’s the expression of sequins that gives them such surprising and subversive energy. “I wanted to push the idea that almost every look is something completely different, with completely different patterns, lacking continuity, being disruptive. What brings them together is technology,” he said. Hopefully Ashish’s runway hiatus is only temporary.
