Ashish: Ready-To-Wear AW19

And the best invite of the season award goes to… Ashish! Ashish Gupta’s AW19 invitation was a printed prescription for sequins, because on the Sunday evening of London Fashion Week we’re all very much in need of a pretty pick-me-up. They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, following that logic should you also not judge a show by its invite? Luckily Ashish did not disappoint.

The show started with a strike of a gong, which led into a calming live soundtrack performed by a percussionist from an upper level at the back of the space. The show notes provocatively read only “nothing is as it seems”. Playing with perception, fabrications appeared at a glance to be one thing but on closer inspection were all created through Ashish’s signature sequins and complex embroidery techniques. For example pieces that seemed to be crocheted like a floral Afghan blanket, in closer inspection consisted purely of sequins. Pronounced Peter Pan collars were constructed of pearls and two-dimensional seeming ditzy florals were in fact sequin flowers intensely embellished to look like a print. Ashish produced a show with a level of handiwork not so easily translatable in photographs or via a quick glimpse from the front row, let alone for those in the second or third. They were designs that truly warranted a closer look.

Accompanying the lashings of sequins, styled by Anna Trevelyan, were humongous hairstyles; proper bouffant barnets created by Sam McKnight and glitter-encrusted eyelids by Isamaya Ffrench. There’s nothing like an injection of sparkle, especially of the Ashish variety.