If London Fashion Week was Love Island, we’d pick Ahluwalia Studio to be couple up with on the first week. Her today’s London Fashion Week Men’s debut might have been a wonderful surprise for some, but we already knew she’s been steadily growing off the schedule. With her mum’s wedding coming up next month, Priya Ahluwalia took nuptials as her source of inspiration. Family imagery turned into her first ever prints, psychedelic and covering trousers and backpacks (created in collaboration with everyone’s favourite old school bag brand Invicta).
“I was thinking about the 1990s and everyone in my family was going to raves, but I wasn’t allowed to go,” she explains. This nostalgia in her work has an upbeat positivity about it though. “I was listening to garage, drinking Bacardi & Coke,” she reminisces. The cut of Ahluwalia’s grandad’s old suit was reworked and updated into contemporary times, embellished with delightfully unexpected scarf inserts. Her signature patchwork upcycling of deadstock and vintage clothes continued on from her past collections, but felt more elevated and streamlined.
This was a collection ready to be packed, sold and worn on the streets. Innovative, sustainable and easy on the eye – all things we want in our wardrobe for the summer of 2020. Despite being celebrated for being a sustainable business, Ahluwalia’s debut presentation wasn’t just about that. “I wanted to prove myself as a designer,” she told us at the presentation. Well, she did way more than just that – she set herself up as one of the shiniest stars of the London scene. And it’s only day one.
