Draft:Ashish Gupta

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White mannequin on dark blue backdrop featuring a full-length jumpsuit with rainbow-colored sequins in clusters, mimicking the texture and composition of crochet granny squares
ASHISH, jumpsuit, Fall 2019.

Ashish Gupta (born Delhi, 1973), known through his eponymous brand ASHISH, is an Indian-born and London-based fashion designer often called the "king of sequins." Known for his rainbow palette and joyful approach to fashion, his designs deploy hand-stitched beading and sequins to reimagine common patterns and motifs - tie dye, camouflage, and crochet, to name a few. The fashion press reports on Ashish's inclusive model casting, artistic inspirations, and ways his designs explore the politics of optimism and inclusion in fashion.

Early life and education

Born in Delhi, India, Ashish Gupta is the son of two doctors.[1] The designer cites contraband copies of American and European fashion magazines as his earliest access to fashion.[2] While attending a strict Irish Catholic boys school as a child, he was bullied and remembers turning to fashion and cinema as a form of escapism.[3]

As a young adult, Gupta studied art and advertising in India.[4] He moved from Delhi to the UK, first earning a bachelor's degree from Middlesex University[5] and then going on to study at Central Saint Martins in 1996.[6] There, he received encouragement from course director Louise Wilson and graduated with a master's degree in 2000. That year, he went to Paris in search of jobs, his portfolio was stolen.[7]  Without a job lined up, he returned to India to create a ten-garment collection, which included a Harris Tweed design with sequin bows and a kimono-fabric lining that received notice from a magazine editor.

Career

In 2001, after a friend wore one of his designs into Browns Focus boutique in London, buyer Yeda Yun contacted Gupta and became his first buyer.[8] That year, Gupta founded his eponymous label.

The brand ASHISH's first runway show was at London Fashion Week in 2005.

Photograph of white garment label noting the origin of a sweater covered in gold sequins with white beaded trim
Detail of a label noting the sweater was embroidered by hand in India. Shown on ASHISH, "USA" sweater, Fall 2014, Texas Fashion Collection, University of North Texas College of Visual Arts and Design.

As of 2024, his design studio is based in the Hackney neighborhood of East London, and he frequently spends time in his workshop in Delhi, India, where he works with a team of 40-50 skilled artisans who make his designs by hand.[6] While other garment workers are often paid a daily rate, Gupta's team is compensated with a permanent salary, ensuring their job security and some financial stability.[4] His mother oversees the factory.[9] He also frames his practices as collaborative, highlighting the Indian artisans, teachers, stylists, and models he works with.

Themes

Early in his career, Gupta avoid being stereotyped as an Indian designer, but later in his career he drew inspiration from South Asian and Indian culture.[8] For example, his Spring 2020 collection featured a Rajasthani mirror-work technique called shisha, while other collections featured traditional block printing, Bandhani-style tie dye, and woven khadi.[4] Dense, metallic zardozi also features in several of his collections.[9] For his Spring 2017 collection, he incorporated elements of Indian traditional dress like saris and lungis and alongside t-shirts and tracksuits,[10] a decision he described by saying, "I wanted to celebrate Indian culture, because it is also such an integral part of British culture."[11] While his cultural identities shape his work, he also draws inspiration from experiences during his everyday life and while traveling.[12]

Gupta challenges gender binaries through his designs, subverting narrow ideas about how heterosexuality and masculinity are fashioned. For the Spring 2016 womenswear runway show, he engaged in gender fluid casting, including two male models who wore glittering designs, high heels, and a peach-toned dress with surface design referring to a naked body. For the Spring 2024 collection, the designer partnered with Irish creator Hazel Gaskin to create glamorous-yet-real images of the dream-like collection on models and queer creatives cast across age, race, and gender identity. His designs continue this trend of expanding the gender associations in fashion, including a frequently cited lumberjack shirt rendered in sequins from 2010 and cargo pants and high-visibility construction vests from Fall 2013.

Accolades

His label won the British Fashion Council NewGen award three times. As of 2014, Gupta had created ten collaborative collections with Topshop.[13] In 2017, he worked with high street brand River Island to create a fifteen-look collection of gender neutral designs.[14] The collection included loungewear, outerwear, and dresses, all marketed to and pictured on masculine, feminine, and androgynous figures.[15]

For the label's label's tenth anniversary, Gupta mounted a runway show at the Victoria and Albert Museum on 23 October 2015, which was featured as part of the museum's Fashion in Motion Series.[16] The retrospective event featured over thirty looks that the designer selected from over a thousand samples,[17] which were chosen based on the designer's personal attachment to them.[18]

The spring 2019 exhibition "Camp: Notes on Fashion," curated by Andrew Bolton for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, featured two of Gupta's designs.[19] The sequined ensembles included shirts with graphic lettering, one reading "You are much lovelier than you think," and the other "Fall in love and be more tender." The latter was a nod to Susan Sontag's 1964 essay, which also inspired the exhibition.[20]

The William Morris Gallery in London presented the first major survey of Gupta's work, an exhibition titled "Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender." The project was curated by Roisin Inglesby and Joe Scotland and on view from 1 April - 10 September, 2023.[21] It was the first fashion exhibition hosted by the gallery, and in its first week drew over five-thousand visitors.[6] Echoing the designer's inclusive model casting for runway and editorial, the exhibition featured Bonaveri mannequins in a variety of brown and tan shades.[12]

His designs are also included in the permanent collection of the Texas Fashion Collection, which featured his work in the 2021 exhibition "Delight" and a two-part exhibition "Labor of Luxury" in 2024.[22]

Celebrity clients

A slew of celebrities have worn Gupta's designs, including: Beyonce, Debbie Harry, Hunter Schafer, Rhianna, Charlie XCX, Miley Cyrus, Sarah Jessica Parker, Katy Perry, Madonna, Victoria Beckham, Lily Allen, MIA, Patrick Wolff, Kelly Osborne, and Jerry Hall.[2][23] He also designed outfits for Taylor Swift for the "Red" section of the musician's international Eras Tour in 2024.

Activism

In a 2023 interview, Gupta stated, "Equality has always been part of the world I was imagining."[8] The designer recalls growing up in India under Section 377, a colonial-era law that criminalized homosexuality.[2] He first experienced Pride after moving to England in his twenties.[5] Many of his designs feature rainbow palettes, a nod to the Pride flag.

In 2021, he partnered with the House of Voltaire to release a limited edition calendar featuring Gupta's photography, which center queer desire in the style of a traditional pinup calendar.[24]

For his Fall 2017 collection "The Yellow Brick Road," the designer drew inspiration both from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and an interpretation of the film created by Indian-born author Salman Rushdie, who uses the story to explore ideas of migration and concepts of home.[21] The collection included a t-shirt with the word "Immigrant" on the front, a design informed by the increasing anti-immigrant policies of the British Home Office and that year's Brexit political events.[3]

Other statement shirt phrases included "Love sees no colour," "Unity in adversity," "More glitter less Twitter," and "Proud," among others.[8][25] In a 2021 interview, Gupta spoke on this use of language: "We live in a polarized world and that language is weaponized now. Part of the reason why I started putting words and phrases on clothes was as a means to make people think."[4]

Personal life

Gupta divides his time between Delhi and London, where he lives in the Queen's Park neighborhood.[1] His home features his collection of homoerotic art, which includes Larry Clark photographs and small works by Louis Fratino.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b Watson, Ellie Pithers,Simon (2020-12-21). "Inside fashion designer Ashish Gupta's home in London". Architectural Digest India. Retrieved 2024-07-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ a b c Maheshwari-Aplin, Prishita (2022-11-13). "Ashish Gupta On Expressing Identity Through Art - BRICKS Magazine". bricksmagazine.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  3. ^ a b Critique, Art (2023-05-10). "Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender exhibition – a glittering testament to a fashion genius". Art Critique. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  4. ^ a b c d Gustin, India (Nov 5, 2021). "Ashish Gupta: the backbone of the Indian social system is craftsmen". Lampoon Magazine. Retrieved July 11, 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Designer Diaries: inclusivity is at the heart of everything this London label creates". www.stylist.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  6. ^ a b c Mower, Sarah (2023-04-12). ""Fall in Love and Be More Tender"—The Ashish Retrospective at the William Morris Gallery Finds Joy in the Subversive". Vogue. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  7. ^ "A Shimmer of Sequins at Ashish in London". Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  8. ^ a b c d "Ashish Gupta: "Equality has always been part of the world I was imagining"". Harper's BAZAAR. 2023-03-15. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  9. ^ a b "Democratising Fashion? - Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender |". www.gowithyamo.com. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  10. ^ Cummings, Faith (2016-09-30). "How One Fashion Show CELEBRATED Indian Culture Instead of Appropriating It". Teen Vogue. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  11. ^ Leitch, Luke (2016-09-19). "Ashish Spring 2017 Ready-to-Wear Collection". Vogue. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  12. ^ a b c Teehan, Katie (2023-08-02). "The Way I Work... Fashion Designer Ashish". Service95. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  13. ^ "Ashish Topshop Collection". Nylon. 2014-05-29. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  14. ^ Howells, Sian (2017-11-15). "One To Watch: Ashish Gupta -". Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  15. ^ "Ashish And River Island's Gender Neutral Collaboration Is The Snuggly Collection Of Your Hung-Over Dreams". HuffPost UK. 2017-06-28. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  16. ^ Victoria and Albert Museum (2015-11-09). Fashion in Motion / ASHISH behind the scenes. Retrieved 2024-07-11 – via YouTube.
  17. ^ Azhar, Rohaizatul (2015-10-23). "Ashish Marks 10-Year Anniversary With a Catwalk Show at Victoria & Albert Museum". WWD. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  18. ^ Dazed (2015-10-26). "Ashish stages smash hit retrospective at the V&A". Dazed. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  19. ^ "Camp: Notes on Fashion". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  20. ^ "Tender Loving Care with Ashish Gupta". www.thevoiceoffashion.com. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  21. ^ a b "Ashish Fall in Love and Be More Tender". 1 April 2023. Retrieved July 11, 2024.
  22. ^ "Past Exhibitions and Events | Texas Fashion Collection". tfc.cvad.unt.edu. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  23. ^ "Ashish Gupta | SHOWstudio". www.showstudio.com. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  24. ^ HAÜS (2021-12-25). "GAZE BY ASHISH". HAÜS. Retrieved 2024-07-11.
  25. ^ "A New ASHISH Exhibition Is Coming to London's William Morris Gallery". Hypebae. 2023-03-17. Retrieved 2024-07-11.


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