September 20, 2023 |
This season, London Fashion Week was closed out by one of the city’s brightest emerging talents. Aaron Esh, who was a finalist at this year’s LVMH Prize, made his catwalk debut inside the Tate Modern, where the London skyline backdropped the elegant affair. Esh’s expertise stretches far beyond his years. Having graduated in 2022 from Central Saint Martins (where his final. collection was instantly snapped up by SSENSE), he’s made quite an impression for his sublime tailoring and romantic drapery, often borrowing techniques from couture to elevate the wardrobe of the London lad.
He grew up fascinated with Raf Simons, inner-city skater boys and Savile Row (Esh comes from a lineage of tailors and clothing factory owners). His concoction of design inspirations – be it nights spent on sticky dancefloors to hosting dressed-up dinner parties with friends – makes for ultra-modern results. Tailoring is lean and quietly sensual; narrow at the waist, with delightful details like keyhole cut outs at the chest or sharp, curved lapels. Blazers were dressed down with baseball caps, distressed jeans and flip flops shaped like commas. Introducing womenswear into his design repertoire, his draped dresses, bubble skirts and bug eye shades will undoubtedly win over his growing clientele who’ve loyally already been buying his menswear thus far. As far as debuts go, Aaron Esh’s was pretty stellar.
Photography courtesy of Aaron Esh.
