September 16, 2019 |
It’s always a party at Ashish. Sometimes political, others a full-on rave. But there was something a bit different about his yesterday’s show. For SS20, the tone seemed slightly more serious and less radical, resulting in a collection full of wearable clothes with great meaning behind them. The space of the Seymour Leisure Centre (which also hosted Molly Goddard’s show this season) was there to reflect the sporty character of the clothes on display. But unlike a few seasons ago, there was no sweat involved.
Soundtracked by traditional Mongolian music performed live by Michael Ormiston and Candida Valentino, a sense of calm dominated the space. And calm isn’t something we associate with Ashish Gupta. Tracing his fascination with all things shiny back to the pre-sequin days, the Indian-British designer based the collection on the traditional shisha mirror embroidery, which in his hands covered full tracksuits, denim and shirting. While a full look of sequins can’t really be called subdued, the minimal volume of the garments definitely contributed to his most restrained work to date. But don’t be so quick to think he’s calmed down – you could still find plenty of word “fuck” embroidered on the clothes. We stopped counting after 10…
Photographs by Jason Lloyd-Evans
