Politics. Wars. Brexit. Economics. Family stuff. Non-paying retailers. Last time we chatted, Ashish Gupta was gripped by a glumness sparked by circumstance. So for the new season this usually sunny soul decided to regroup. He decided to pay fresh attention to London, seek fresh stimulation in a new category (knitwear), and to lean on some old friends. The result was a collection in which joy, anger and humor were interwoven, and that was shot in spots on the streets of London to which he has a deep connection.
He said: “London’s been home for most of my life but I was starting to feel disillusioned with it: and if you stop enjoying something it soon becomes awful. And there was a parallel with the administrative minutiae of running my business, which for various reasons including the effects of Brexit and others which I can’t go into here has also become a slog. So this collection is about finding an antidote to that by leaning into community, place, and the joy of the work.”
It was an approach epitomized by the ‘In Pursuit Of Magic’ sweater, shot on Hackney Road and worn over a ruffle tulle dress by Nisha Bhatt, a former Ashish intern who is currently studying at Central Saint Martins. This and other knitwear pieces were developed in consultation with New York based Shradha Kochhar (another former intern): together she and Ashish made a collection that referenced heritage techniques and patterns while upending them with detail.
Theo (surname unknown), an art historian friend, wore the sequin and studs ‘Angry Homosexual’ biker one recent Friday night on Old Compton Street—plus ça change—and Princess Julia modeled a bias cut sequin kind-of buffalo check outside London’s most reliably romantic restaurant, Andrew Edmunds. That classic adman/publishing/hybebeast boozer the Sun and 13 Cantons—still serving eye-wateringly priced Staropramen after all these years—served as backdrop to a shot of Jaime Winstone, actor, wearing a sequin tartan suit alongside her dog Donnie Disco. Many of the other photographs were taken in places significant to Gupta, including outside a block of flats where he once couchsurfed as a newcomer to the city and just across from a Mayfair shop where he once earned a crust altering pants.
Both making this collection and going out on the street with old friends to shoot it, said Gupta: “made me realize that what I thought I’d lost was still there: I’d just stopped looking for it.” For those keen to wear garments that encompass both extravagant surface and genuine depth this excellent designer remains a go-to.