London Fashion Week: Shine Bright Like A Diamond With ASHISH’s AW16 Collection

This is a repost of my Forbes Lifestyle article which can be found here.

“Shine bright like a diamond,” Rihanna says. With Ashish‘s design pieces, now you can. Ashish has unveiled its new AW16 collection inspired by a box of rainbow coloured crayons at the London Fashion Week yesterday and it is everything a girl could have wished for.

Ashish is a London based designer who has debuted its first collection in 2005 at London Fashion Week (and subsequently won the New Generation Award three times) and quickly gathered a stylish crowd of loyal followings. For those unfamiliar with the brand, Ashish is a cult label famous for its heavy usage of sequins and sequinned embellishment in almost all of his designs.

Anything and everything could be the design inspiration for Ashish – his friends, people in the street, TV, movies, holidays, magazines, flea markets, car boot sales, vintage. The inspiration for the new season is a box of crayons he used to love as a child. What an amazing collection it is: the vibrant colours on each look instantly lit up the runway space and the rows, threads, strings, and basically masses of sequins danced and sparkled under the industrial lighting and gave each piece a life of its own (pictured above and below).

The designer elaborated to me on his choice of material: “I love how sequins sparkle; they are so magical. They give the dimension of ‘light’ to a colour – you can create effects like an oil slick, or a wet look, or a rainbow… it’s so much  more than a flat colour. I love how it gives weight to a fabric and how they hang on a body. I use them because they light you up.”

Being a long term fan of the designer label myself, I couldn’t have agreed more with his consistent and insistent use of sequins. His collections never reflect any trend and a piece can be worn year after year without looking outdated – I should know, for I still wear my first piece of Ashish dress often, purchased five years ago, to this day.

What’s his secret?

Ashish tells me: “I think a T-shirt should feel as special as an evening gown, and an evening gown should be as comfortable and easy as a T-shirt. I like to mix things up and give everything a casual edge while making it super special. I always think about how wearable or practical something is. I like things to have pockets and zips, clothes should be easy to get on (and off). I don’t like clothes to feel too ‘precious’… they should be casual, easy but glamourous. However this needs to be balanced by an attention to detail and finishing – I think the beautifully handcrafted nature of these garments gives them a longevity and timeless quality.”

With such heavy utilisation of embroidery, it is essential that all work involved with sequins are completed by hand. A lot of couture techniques have been employed in Ashish’s work simply as most of the designs cannot be done by machine or mass produced. Between four and twelve men hand embroider each piece sometimes for up to a week or more. As a result, every single piece slightly varies from the next, and it’s those imperfections and differences that give every piece value and timelessness. It is fair to say the designer’s work is superbly balanced between Ready To Wear and Couture.

Ashish considers his work as fashion Marmite (a British food spread famous for its unique flavouring) – people either love it or hate it. His collections, past or present, were clearly not designed to please the mass population. Although a loyal admirer of the brand for years myself, I can still understand how the daring, loud and attention-grabbing garments can be intimidating and undesirable to some. However it is this unapologetic attitude in speaking strong personalities through texture and a variety of metallic hues that gained Ashish the followers supporting his work today. The designer himself confesses that he would prefer to keep things on the smaller side and to be able to oversee everything personally. Mass production has never been his aim, in fact, “I think I would probably be worried if it had mass appeal”, he jokes (or maybe not).

Finally, what’s Ashish’s vision of a perfect girl who wears his pieces? “I feel happy when anyone wears my clothes, I think it’s the best compliment. If I had to define my girl I’d say – she has a sense of humour, she is definitely not basic, and of course….she likes lashings of sequins and glamour.”

And with that, I simply cannot wait for the new AW16 collection to arrive in stores.

You can buy Ashish’s SS16 and previous collection looks at Net-a-Porter, Browns Focus, Louisa Via Roma, and Far Fetch.

Follow me at @DemureAndStylish