When reasons beyond Ashish Gupta’s control forced the cancellation of his show at London fashion week, he bounced back. “Losing the show was a curveball that left everything in freefall,” said the designer, “so I wanted to make a lookbook that reflected that.” The loss was not his alone: Ashish shows are often among London’s wildest, wittiest and most powerful.
Still, this last minute lookbook did a fine job of transmitting the refined shapes and complex surfaces of Ashish’s “maximal minimalism,” as well as making it clear how free-flowing the label’s garments are to move in. The trampoline just out of shot elevated a collection whose patterns and silhouettes were varied and consistently joyful.
Caught mid-flight, a skirt of dark strips of tulle embroidered with hand-applied florals resembled a darkly dynamic cloud on which its sequin check-shirted model was traveling at speed. A check coat in six colors was crafted from precise pixels of sequin, but lent a blurriness via tinsel thread. A gold minidress was embellished with a wildly complex melange of bead and sequin that lent the garment the visual richness and depth of tweed. Ridges of black and pearl sequin were sewn vertically across the body on another dress to create the effect of glassware.
As he tends to, Gupta skinned many of the looks with highly traditional patterns including checks, houndstooth and argyle. It was their articulation in sequin that gave them such a surprising and subversive exuberance. He said: “I wanted to push the idea of almost every look being a completely different thing with a completely different pattern, with this disruptive lack of continuity. What binds it all together is the technique.” Here’s hoping that Ashish’s runway suspension is only temporary.