Ashish RTW Spring 2024

The set of Ashish Gupta’s show was a man sleeping on a white swan bed, while another model sat on a hanging glitter crescent moon. Above them, the phrase “everybody is a star” was hanging.

“It’s my version of ‘Sleeping Beauty,’” said the designer in a preview.

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His return to the London Fashion Week runway was a fuse of “sex-positive, body-positive, joyful celebration of everyone,” with the elements of disco, Studio 54 and Asha Puthli, a singer-songwriter from India who trained as an opera singer but soon made a name for herself as a disco queen when she moved to New York City.

Vibrantly embroidered psychedelic dresses and separates in every sherbet tone sashayed across the runway with the models flicking their wrists, twirling around and acting as if they were in a remake of “The Stepford Wives.” He compared the casting to a “dream, where you see different people.”

The idea of the dream continued in his conversations with artist Linder Sterling, whom he collaborated with on the collection, as well as the collection’s “dreamworld.”

“We wanted this idea of a dream, because I feel like dreaming is so important right now, to be able to dream, and the power of dreams,” said Gupta.

He paid homage to Louise Wilson, his former professor at Central Saint Martins.

“She always used to say, ‘dream, because if you don’t f—ing dream, what are you going to do? What are you going to make?’” he said.

A bit of glamour, glitter and grandness added joy and warmth to the last full day of London, which was partly gloomy thanks to the typical weather of clouds and rain.

Launch Gallery: Ashish RTW Spring 2024

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