Democratising Fashion? - Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender
Designer Ashish Gupta considers the true audiences for fashion in William Morris Gallery's new exhibition...
May 10, 2023
Fashion designer Ashish Gupta is an all too easy target for the ‘anti-woke’. His sequins spell out slogans like ‘More Glitter less Twitter’, the hallmarks of performative liberalism. Reconstructed tie-dye trousers, symbols of the ‘self-indulgence and commodification of late capitalism’, stand against hippy culture tourism.
But Ashish’s designs should not be so quickly dismissed. And, for those who wish to do so, Fall in Love and Be More Tender lets you go a little deeper. Most compelling are the outfits curated in contrast - something on-the-nose paired with something subtle, or two works created at different times, can together suggest some historical continuity, and challenge stereotypes.
Take his IMMIGRANT t-shirt (SS2017), shown with a Red Skirt and Veil. The former shouts out Brexit, the British government, and the Home Office’s Hostile Environment. But the latter, adorned with Zardozi, the South Indian embroidery used when women marry and move into a new home, speaks more quietly to the lived experience and two-way flows of migrations.
Ashish is based in East London, but his patterns and toiles are realised by artisans in his other studio in Delhi, India. With William Morris, he shares a respect for traditional crafts and production; India exports around £200 million worth of embroidery every year, but the ‘skill, expertise and Indian context’ is scarcely acknowledged. Here, cultural sustainability comes first; the environment is a clear, but secondary, concern.
In his documentary, we see Ashish barter the weight of sequins like spices and bemoans how he misses the food from home. Opposite him sits a photograph of a woman in tartan eating thali. It’s one of many commissioned from another Ashish – Shah, a Mumbai-based photographer who seeks to challenge European and American visual languages. Shot on location in both Delhi and Walthamstow, they speak to Ashish’s many cultural heritages.
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His ‘hybrid’ textiles are woven with his conventional education at Central Saint Martin’s, contemporary sportswear and workwear, and ‘indigenous’ textile traditions. These contexts are unravelled in the curation. Fair Isle knitwear speaks to how Christian missionaries from the Shetlands carried patterns and practices from 19th century Scotland to India. But these imperial histories get rooted in the contemporary and popular culture; like the Dutch wax print dress, worn by M.I.A.
We hear before we see Yellow Brick Road, as reworked Western classics like Creep whisper from upstairs. Ashish’s AW2017 runway collection embodies his multidisciplinary approach, with reference to queer visual culture, writers and activists from Salman Rushdie to Susan Sontag, and models made up with Mexican wrestling masks - ready to take down Donald Trump.
No doubt Ashish’s practice challenges binaries – of race, gender, and sexuality. But for a museum which speaks to ‘art for art’s sake’, it goes heavy on the politics of Ashish’s practice. The expectation for artists from historically marginalised communities to be so engaged is an additional pressure, a double marginalisation.
Fall in Love lets us engage with his work on different levels. There’s more beauty to be found in his subtle designs, here politicised as ‘subversive’; the fact he closes Yellow Brick Road with one of his trademark diagonals suggests that sometimes, he thinks so too.
We can only speculate from the film which opens Fall in Love, the artist’s own documentary (or truth), and the only time we hear him in his own words. Instead of perpetuating an individual or ‘great man of history’, it gives us a hint of the collaboration which permeates his practice. There are the artisans in India at work, his teachers, stylists, and designers, and the high fashion models forced to crack a smile in his sequins. A final contrast; the joy and colour that draws people to his work, and the aspects of those who can afford to wear it.
Inclusion does not equal access; an Ashish sequined pouch will set you back £150 in the shop. But the William Morris Gallery remains free for all to enter. And Fall in Love, full as it is of these contrasts, is another wonderful show, which questions who fashion is really for.
Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender is showing at William Morris Gallery until 10 September.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
Fashion designer Ashish Gupta is an all too easy target for the ‘anti-woke’. His sequins spell out slogans like ‘More Glitter less Twitter’, the hallmarks of performative liberalism. Reconstructed tie-dye trousers, symbols of the ‘self-indulgence and commodification of late capitalism’, stand against hippy culture tourism.
But Ashish’s designs should not be so quickly dismissed. And, for those who wish to do so, Fall in Love and Be More Tender lets you go a little deeper. Most compelling are the outfits curated in contrast - something on-the-nose paired with something subtle, or two works created at different times, can together suggest some historical continuity, and challenge stereotypes.
Take his IMMIGRANT t-shirt (SS2017), shown with a Red Skirt and Veil. The former shouts out Brexit, the British government, and the Home Office’s Hostile Environment. But the latter, adorned with Zardozi, the South Indian embroidery used when women marry and move into a new home, speaks more quietly to the lived experience and two-way flows of migrations.
Ashish is based in East London, but his patterns and toiles are realised by artisans in his other studio in Delhi, India. With William Morris, he shares a respect for traditional crafts and production; India exports around £200 million worth of embroidery every year, but the ‘skill, expertise and Indian context’ is scarcely acknowledged. Here, cultural sustainability comes first; the environment is a clear, but secondary, concern.
In his documentary, we see Ashish barter the weight of sequins like spices and bemoans how he misses the food from home. Opposite him sits a photograph of a woman in tartan eating thali. It’s one of many commissioned from another Ashish – Shah, a Mumbai-based photographer who seeks to challenge European and American visual languages. Shot on location in both Delhi and Walthamstow, they speak to Ashish’s many cultural heritages.
His ‘hybrid’ textiles are woven with his conventional education at Central Saint Martin’s, contemporary sportswear and workwear, and ‘indigenous’ textile traditions. These contexts are unravelled in the curation. Fair Isle knitwear speaks to how Christian missionaries from the Shetlands carried patterns and practices from 19th century Scotland to India. But these imperial histories get rooted in the contemporary and popular culture; like the Dutch wax print dress, worn by M.I.A.
We hear before we see Yellow Brick Road, as reworked Western classics like Creep whisper from upstairs. Ashish’s AW2017 runway collection embodies his multidisciplinary approach, with reference to queer visual culture, writers and activists from Salman Rushdie to Susan Sontag, and models made up with Mexican wrestling masks - ready to take down Donald Trump.
No doubt Ashish’s practice challenges binaries – of race, gender, and sexuality. But for a museum which speaks to ‘art for art’s sake’, it goes heavy on the politics of Ashish’s practice. The expectation for artists from historically marginalised communities to be so engaged is an additional pressure, a double marginalisation.
Fall in Love lets us engage with his work on different levels. There’s more beauty to be found in his subtle designs, here politicised as ‘subversive’; the fact he closes Yellow Brick Road with one of his trademark diagonals suggests that sometimes, he thinks so too.
We can only speculate from the film which opens Fall in Love, the artist’s own documentary (or truth), and the only time we hear him in his own words. Instead of perpetuating an individual or ‘great man of history’, it gives us a hint of the collaboration which permeates his practice. There are the artisans in India at work, his teachers, stylists, and designers, and the high fashion models forced to crack a smile in his sequins. A final contrast; the joy and colour that draws people to his work, and the aspects of those who can afford to wear it.
Inclusion does not equal access; an Ashish sequined pouch will set you back £150 in the shop. But the William Morris Gallery remains free for all to enter. And Fall in Love, full as it is of these contrasts, is another wonderful show, which questions who fashion is really for.
Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender is showing at William Morris Gallery until 10 September.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
Fashion designer Ashish Gupta is an all too easy target for the ‘anti-woke’. His sequins spell out slogans like ‘More Glitter less Twitter’, the hallmarks of performative liberalism. Reconstructed tie-dye trousers, symbols of the ‘self-indulgence and commodification of late capitalism’, stand against hippy culture tourism.
But Ashish’s designs should not be so quickly dismissed. And, for those who wish to do so, Fall in Love and Be More Tender lets you go a little deeper. Most compelling are the outfits curated in contrast - something on-the-nose paired with something subtle, or two works created at different times, can together suggest some historical continuity, and challenge stereotypes.
Take his IMMIGRANT t-shirt (SS2017), shown with a Red Skirt and Veil. The former shouts out Brexit, the British government, and the Home Office’s Hostile Environment. But the latter, adorned with Zardozi, the South Indian embroidery used when women marry and move into a new home, speaks more quietly to the lived experience and two-way flows of migrations.
Ashish is based in East London, but his patterns and toiles are realised by artisans in his other studio in Delhi, India. With William Morris, he shares a respect for traditional crafts and production; India exports around £200 million worth of embroidery every year, but the ‘skill, expertise and Indian context’ is scarcely acknowledged. Here, cultural sustainability comes first; the environment is a clear, but secondary, concern.
In his documentary, we see Ashish barter the weight of sequins like spices and bemoans how he misses the food from home. Opposite him sits a photograph of a woman in tartan eating thali. It’s one of many commissioned from another Ashish – Shah, a Mumbai-based photographer who seeks to challenge European and American visual languages. Shot on location in both Delhi and Walthamstow, they speak to Ashish’s many cultural heritages.
His ‘hybrid’ textiles are woven with his conventional education at Central Saint Martin’s, contemporary sportswear and workwear, and ‘indigenous’ textile traditions. These contexts are unravelled in the curation. Fair Isle knitwear speaks to how Christian missionaries from the Shetlands carried patterns and practices from 19th century Scotland to India. But these imperial histories get rooted in the contemporary and popular culture; like the Dutch wax print dress, worn by M.I.A.
We hear before we see Yellow Brick Road, as reworked Western classics like Creep whisper from upstairs. Ashish’s AW2017 runway collection embodies his multidisciplinary approach, with reference to queer visual culture, writers and activists from Salman Rushdie to Susan Sontag, and models made up with Mexican wrestling masks - ready to take down Donald Trump.
No doubt Ashish’s practice challenges binaries – of race, gender, and sexuality. But for a museum which speaks to ‘art for art’s sake’, it goes heavy on the politics of Ashish’s practice. The expectation for artists from historically marginalised communities to be so engaged is an additional pressure, a double marginalisation.
Fall in Love lets us engage with his work on different levels. There’s more beauty to be found in his subtle designs, here politicised as ‘subversive’; the fact he closes Yellow Brick Road with one of his trademark diagonals suggests that sometimes, he thinks so too.
We can only speculate from the film which opens Fall in Love, the artist’s own documentary (or truth), and the only time we hear him in his own words. Instead of perpetuating an individual or ‘great man of history’, it gives us a hint of the collaboration which permeates his practice. There are the artisans in India at work, his teachers, stylists, and designers, and the high fashion models forced to crack a smile in his sequins. A final contrast; the joy and colour that draws people to his work, and the aspects of those who can afford to wear it.
Inclusion does not equal access; an Ashish sequined pouch will set you back £150 in the shop. But the William Morris Gallery remains free for all to enter. And Fall in Love, full as it is of these contrasts, is another wonderful show, which questions who fashion is really for.
Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender is showing at William Morris Gallery until 10 September.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
Fashion designer Ashish Gupta is an all too easy target for the ‘anti-woke’. His sequins spell out slogans like ‘More Glitter less Twitter’, the hallmarks of performative liberalism. Reconstructed tie-dye trousers, symbols of the ‘self-indulgence and commodification of late capitalism’, stand against hippy culture tourism.
But Ashish’s designs should not be so quickly dismissed. And, for those who wish to do so, Fall in Love and Be More Tender lets you go a little deeper. Most compelling are the outfits curated in contrast - something on-the-nose paired with something subtle, or two works created at different times, can together suggest some historical continuity, and challenge stereotypes.
Take his IMMIGRANT t-shirt (SS2017), shown with a Red Skirt and Veil. The former shouts out Brexit, the British government, and the Home Office’s Hostile Environment. But the latter, adorned with Zardozi, the South Indian embroidery used when women marry and move into a new home, speaks more quietly to the lived experience and two-way flows of migrations.
Ashish is based in East London, but his patterns and toiles are realised by artisans in his other studio in Delhi, India. With William Morris, he shares a respect for traditional crafts and production; India exports around £200 million worth of embroidery every year, but the ‘skill, expertise and Indian context’ is scarcely acknowledged. Here, cultural sustainability comes first; the environment is a clear, but secondary, concern.
In his documentary, we see Ashish barter the weight of sequins like spices and bemoans how he misses the food from home. Opposite him sits a photograph of a woman in tartan eating thali. It’s one of many commissioned from another Ashish – Shah, a Mumbai-based photographer who seeks to challenge European and American visual languages. Shot on location in both Delhi and Walthamstow, they speak to Ashish’s many cultural heritages.
His ‘hybrid’ textiles are woven with his conventional education at Central Saint Martin’s, contemporary sportswear and workwear, and ‘indigenous’ textile traditions. These contexts are unravelled in the curation. Fair Isle knitwear speaks to how Christian missionaries from the Shetlands carried patterns and practices from 19th century Scotland to India. But these imperial histories get rooted in the contemporary and popular culture; like the Dutch wax print dress, worn by M.I.A.
We hear before we see Yellow Brick Road, as reworked Western classics like Creep whisper from upstairs. Ashish’s AW2017 runway collection embodies his multidisciplinary approach, with reference to queer visual culture, writers and activists from Salman Rushdie to Susan Sontag, and models made up with Mexican wrestling masks - ready to take down Donald Trump.
No doubt Ashish’s practice challenges binaries – of race, gender, and sexuality. But for a museum which speaks to ‘art for art’s sake’, it goes heavy on the politics of Ashish’s practice. The expectation for artists from historically marginalised communities to be so engaged is an additional pressure, a double marginalisation.
Fall in Love lets us engage with his work on different levels. There’s more beauty to be found in his subtle designs, here politicised as ‘subversive’; the fact he closes Yellow Brick Road with one of his trademark diagonals suggests that sometimes, he thinks so too.
We can only speculate from the film which opens Fall in Love, the artist’s own documentary (or truth), and the only time we hear him in his own words. Instead of perpetuating an individual or ‘great man of history’, it gives us a hint of the collaboration which permeates his practice. There are the artisans in India at work, his teachers, stylists, and designers, and the high fashion models forced to crack a smile in his sequins. A final contrast; the joy and colour that draws people to his work, and the aspects of those who can afford to wear it.
Inclusion does not equal access; an Ashish sequined pouch will set you back £150 in the shop. But the William Morris Gallery remains free for all to enter. And Fall in Love, full as it is of these contrasts, is another wonderful show, which questions who fashion is really for.
Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender is showing at William Morris Gallery until 10 September.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
Fashion designer Ashish Gupta is an all too easy target for the ‘anti-woke’. His sequins spell out slogans like ‘More Glitter less Twitter’, the hallmarks of performative liberalism. Reconstructed tie-dye trousers, symbols of the ‘self-indulgence and commodification of late capitalism’, stand against hippy culture tourism.
But Ashish’s designs should not be so quickly dismissed. And, for those who wish to do so, Fall in Love and Be More Tender lets you go a little deeper. Most compelling are the outfits curated in contrast - something on-the-nose paired with something subtle, or two works created at different times, can together suggest some historical continuity, and challenge stereotypes.
Take his IMMIGRANT t-shirt (SS2017), shown with a Red Skirt and Veil. The former shouts out Brexit, the British government, and the Home Office’s Hostile Environment. But the latter, adorned with Zardozi, the South Indian embroidery used when women marry and move into a new home, speaks more quietly to the lived experience and two-way flows of migrations.
Ashish is based in East London, but his patterns and toiles are realised by artisans in his other studio in Delhi, India. With William Morris, he shares a respect for traditional crafts and production; India exports around £200 million worth of embroidery every year, but the ‘skill, expertise and Indian context’ is scarcely acknowledged. Here, cultural sustainability comes first; the environment is a clear, but secondary, concern.
In his documentary, we see Ashish barter the weight of sequins like spices and bemoans how he misses the food from home. Opposite him sits a photograph of a woman in tartan eating thali. It’s one of many commissioned from another Ashish – Shah, a Mumbai-based photographer who seeks to challenge European and American visual languages. Shot on location in both Delhi and Walthamstow, they speak to Ashish’s many cultural heritages.
His ‘hybrid’ textiles are woven with his conventional education at Central Saint Martin’s, contemporary sportswear and workwear, and ‘indigenous’ textile traditions. These contexts are unravelled in the curation. Fair Isle knitwear speaks to how Christian missionaries from the Shetlands carried patterns and practices from 19th century Scotland to India. But these imperial histories get rooted in the contemporary and popular culture; like the Dutch wax print dress, worn by M.I.A.
We hear before we see Yellow Brick Road, as reworked Western classics like Creep whisper from upstairs. Ashish’s AW2017 runway collection embodies his multidisciplinary approach, with reference to queer visual culture, writers and activists from Salman Rushdie to Susan Sontag, and models made up with Mexican wrestling masks - ready to take down Donald Trump.
No doubt Ashish’s practice challenges binaries – of race, gender, and sexuality. But for a museum which speaks to ‘art for art’s sake’, it goes heavy on the politics of Ashish’s practice. The expectation for artists from historically marginalised communities to be so engaged is an additional pressure, a double marginalisation.
Fall in Love lets us engage with his work on different levels. There’s more beauty to be found in his subtle designs, here politicised as ‘subversive’; the fact he closes Yellow Brick Road with one of his trademark diagonals suggests that sometimes, he thinks so too.
We can only speculate from the film which opens Fall in Love, the artist’s own documentary (or truth), and the only time we hear him in his own words. Instead of perpetuating an individual or ‘great man of history’, it gives us a hint of the collaboration which permeates his practice. There are the artisans in India at work, his teachers, stylists, and designers, and the high fashion models forced to crack a smile in his sequins. A final contrast; the joy and colour that draws people to his work, and the aspects of those who can afford to wear it.
Inclusion does not equal access; an Ashish sequined pouch will set you back £150 in the shop. But the William Morris Gallery remains free for all to enter. And Fall in Love, full as it is of these contrasts, is another wonderful show, which questions who fashion is really for.
Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender is showing at William Morris Gallery until 10 September.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
Fashion designer Ashish Gupta is an all too easy target for the ‘anti-woke’. His sequins spell out slogans like ‘More Glitter less Twitter’, the hallmarks of performative liberalism. Reconstructed tie-dye trousers, symbols of the ‘self-indulgence and commodification of late capitalism’, stand against hippy culture tourism.
But Ashish’s designs should not be so quickly dismissed. And, for those who wish to do so, Fall in Love and Be More Tender lets you go a little deeper. Most compelling are the outfits curated in contrast - something on-the-nose paired with something subtle, or two works created at different times, can together suggest some historical continuity, and challenge stereotypes.
Take his IMMIGRANT t-shirt (SS2017), shown with a Red Skirt and Veil. The former shouts out Brexit, the British government, and the Home Office’s Hostile Environment. But the latter, adorned with Zardozi, the South Indian embroidery used when women marry and move into a new home, speaks more quietly to the lived experience and two-way flows of migrations.
Ashish is based in East London, but his patterns and toiles are realised by artisans in his other studio in Delhi, India. With William Morris, he shares a respect for traditional crafts and production; India exports around £200 million worth of embroidery every year, but the ‘skill, expertise and Indian context’ is scarcely acknowledged. Here, cultural sustainability comes first; the environment is a clear, but secondary, concern.
In his documentary, we see Ashish barter the weight of sequins like spices and bemoans how he misses the food from home. Opposite him sits a photograph of a woman in tartan eating thali. It’s one of many commissioned from another Ashish – Shah, a Mumbai-based photographer who seeks to challenge European and American visual languages. Shot on location in both Delhi and Walthamstow, they speak to Ashish’s many cultural heritages.
His ‘hybrid’ textiles are woven with his conventional education at Central Saint Martin’s, contemporary sportswear and workwear, and ‘indigenous’ textile traditions. These contexts are unravelled in the curation. Fair Isle knitwear speaks to how Christian missionaries from the Shetlands carried patterns and practices from 19th century Scotland to India. But these imperial histories get rooted in the contemporary and popular culture; like the Dutch wax print dress, worn by M.I.A.
We hear before we see Yellow Brick Road, as reworked Western classics like Creep whisper from upstairs. Ashish’s AW2017 runway collection embodies his multidisciplinary approach, with reference to queer visual culture, writers and activists from Salman Rushdie to Susan Sontag, and models made up with Mexican wrestling masks - ready to take down Donald Trump.
No doubt Ashish’s practice challenges binaries – of race, gender, and sexuality. But for a museum which speaks to ‘art for art’s sake’, it goes heavy on the politics of Ashish’s practice. The expectation for artists from historically marginalised communities to be so engaged is an additional pressure, a double marginalisation.
Fall in Love lets us engage with his work on different levels. There’s more beauty to be found in his subtle designs, here politicised as ‘subversive’; the fact he closes Yellow Brick Road with one of his trademark diagonals suggests that sometimes, he thinks so too.
We can only speculate from the film which opens Fall in Love, the artist’s own documentary (or truth), and the only time we hear him in his own words. Instead of perpetuating an individual or ‘great man of history’, it gives us a hint of the collaboration which permeates his practice. There are the artisans in India at work, his teachers, stylists, and designers, and the high fashion models forced to crack a smile in his sequins. A final contrast; the joy and colour that draws people to his work, and the aspects of those who can afford to wear it.
Inclusion does not equal access; an Ashish sequined pouch will set you back £150 in the shop. But the William Morris Gallery remains free for all to enter. And Fall in Love, full as it is of these contrasts, is another wonderful show, which questions who fashion is really for.
Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender is showing at William Morris Gallery until 10 September.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
Fashion designer Ashish Gupta is an all too easy target for the ‘anti-woke’. His sequins spell out slogans like ‘More Glitter less Twitter’, the hallmarks of performative liberalism. Reconstructed tie-dye trousers, symbols of the ‘self-indulgence and commodification of late capitalism’, stand against hippy culture tourism.
But Ashish’s designs should not be so quickly dismissed. And, for those who wish to do so, Fall in Love and Be More Tender lets you go a little deeper. Most compelling are the outfits curated in contrast - something on-the-nose paired with something subtle, or two works created at different times, can together suggest some historical continuity, and challenge stereotypes.
Take his IMMIGRANT t-shirt (SS2017), shown with a Red Skirt and Veil. The former shouts out Brexit, the British government, and the Home Office’s Hostile Environment. But the latter, adorned with Zardozi, the South Indian embroidery used when women marry and move into a new home, speaks more quietly to the lived experience and two-way flows of migrations.
Ashish is based in East London, but his patterns and toiles are realised by artisans in his other studio in Delhi, India. With William Morris, he shares a respect for traditional crafts and production; India exports around £200 million worth of embroidery every year, but the ‘skill, expertise and Indian context’ is scarcely acknowledged. Here, cultural sustainability comes first; the environment is a clear, but secondary, concern.
In his documentary, we see Ashish barter the weight of sequins like spices and bemoans how he misses the food from home. Opposite him sits a photograph of a woman in tartan eating thali. It’s one of many commissioned from another Ashish – Shah, a Mumbai-based photographer who seeks to challenge European and American visual languages. Shot on location in both Delhi and Walthamstow, they speak to Ashish’s many cultural heritages.
His ‘hybrid’ textiles are woven with his conventional education at Central Saint Martin’s, contemporary sportswear and workwear, and ‘indigenous’ textile traditions. These contexts are unravelled in the curation. Fair Isle knitwear speaks to how Christian missionaries from the Shetlands carried patterns and practices from 19th century Scotland to India. But these imperial histories get rooted in the contemporary and popular culture; like the Dutch wax print dress, worn by M.I.A.
We hear before we see Yellow Brick Road, as reworked Western classics like Creep whisper from upstairs. Ashish’s AW2017 runway collection embodies his multidisciplinary approach, with reference to queer visual culture, writers and activists from Salman Rushdie to Susan Sontag, and models made up with Mexican wrestling masks - ready to take down Donald Trump.
No doubt Ashish’s practice challenges binaries – of race, gender, and sexuality. But for a museum which speaks to ‘art for art’s sake’, it goes heavy on the politics of Ashish’s practice. The expectation for artists from historically marginalised communities to be so engaged is an additional pressure, a double marginalisation.
Fall in Love lets us engage with his work on different levels. There’s more beauty to be found in his subtle designs, here politicised as ‘subversive’; the fact he closes Yellow Brick Road with one of his trademark diagonals suggests that sometimes, he thinks so too.
We can only speculate from the film which opens Fall in Love, the artist’s own documentary (or truth), and the only time we hear him in his own words. Instead of perpetuating an individual or ‘great man of history’, it gives us a hint of the collaboration which permeates his practice. There are the artisans in India at work, his teachers, stylists, and designers, and the high fashion models forced to crack a smile in his sequins. A final contrast; the joy and colour that draws people to his work, and the aspects of those who can afford to wear it.
Inclusion does not equal access; an Ashish sequined pouch will set you back £150 in the shop. But the William Morris Gallery remains free for all to enter. And Fall in Love, full as it is of these contrasts, is another wonderful show, which questions who fashion is really for.
Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender is showing at William Morris Gallery until 10 September.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
Fashion designer Ashish Gupta is an all too easy target for the ‘anti-woke’. His sequins spell out slogans like ‘More Glitter less Twitter’, the hallmarks of performative liberalism. Reconstructed tie-dye trousers, symbols of the ‘self-indulgence and commodification of late capitalism’, stand against hippy culture tourism.
But Ashish’s designs should not be so quickly dismissed. And, for those who wish to do so, Fall in Love and Be More Tender lets you go a little deeper. Most compelling are the outfits curated in contrast - something on-the-nose paired with something subtle, or two works created at different times, can together suggest some historical continuity, and challenge stereotypes.
Take his IMMIGRANT t-shirt (SS2017), shown with a Red Skirt and Veil. The former shouts out Brexit, the British government, and the Home Office’s Hostile Environment. But the latter, adorned with Zardozi, the South Indian embroidery used when women marry and move into a new home, speaks more quietly to the lived experience and two-way flows of migrations.
Ashish is based in East London, but his patterns and toiles are realised by artisans in his other studio in Delhi, India. With William Morris, he shares a respect for traditional crafts and production; India exports around £200 million worth of embroidery every year, but the ‘skill, expertise and Indian context’ is scarcely acknowledged. Here, cultural sustainability comes first; the environment is a clear, but secondary, concern.
In his documentary, we see Ashish barter the weight of sequins like spices and bemoans how he misses the food from home. Opposite him sits a photograph of a woman in tartan eating thali. It’s one of many commissioned from another Ashish – Shah, a Mumbai-based photographer who seeks to challenge European and American visual languages. Shot on location in both Delhi and Walthamstow, they speak to Ashish’s many cultural heritages.
His ‘hybrid’ textiles are woven with his conventional education at Central Saint Martin’s, contemporary sportswear and workwear, and ‘indigenous’ textile traditions. These contexts are unravelled in the curation. Fair Isle knitwear speaks to how Christian missionaries from the Shetlands carried patterns and practices from 19th century Scotland to India. But these imperial histories get rooted in the contemporary and popular culture; like the Dutch wax print dress, worn by M.I.A.
We hear before we see Yellow Brick Road, as reworked Western classics like Creep whisper from upstairs. Ashish’s AW2017 runway collection embodies his multidisciplinary approach, with reference to queer visual culture, writers and activists from Salman Rushdie to Susan Sontag, and models made up with Mexican wrestling masks - ready to take down Donald Trump.
No doubt Ashish’s practice challenges binaries – of race, gender, and sexuality. But for a museum which speaks to ‘art for art’s sake’, it goes heavy on the politics of Ashish’s practice. The expectation for artists from historically marginalised communities to be so engaged is an additional pressure, a double marginalisation.
Fall in Love lets us engage with his work on different levels. There’s more beauty to be found in his subtle designs, here politicised as ‘subversive’; the fact he closes Yellow Brick Road with one of his trademark diagonals suggests that sometimes, he thinks so too.
We can only speculate from the film which opens Fall in Love, the artist’s own documentary (or truth), and the only time we hear him in his own words. Instead of perpetuating an individual or ‘great man of history’, it gives us a hint of the collaboration which permeates his practice. There are the artisans in India at work, his teachers, stylists, and designers, and the high fashion models forced to crack a smile in his sequins. A final contrast; the joy and colour that draws people to his work, and the aspects of those who can afford to wear it.
Inclusion does not equal access; an Ashish sequined pouch will set you back £150 in the shop. But the William Morris Gallery remains free for all to enter. And Fall in Love, full as it is of these contrasts, is another wonderful show, which questions who fashion is really for.
Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender is showing at William Morris Gallery until 10 September.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
Fashion designer Ashish Gupta is an all too easy target for the ‘anti-woke’. His sequins spell out slogans like ‘More Glitter less Twitter’, the hallmarks of performative liberalism. Reconstructed tie-dye trousers, symbols of the ‘self-indulgence and commodification of late capitalism’, stand against hippy culture tourism.
But Ashish’s designs should not be so quickly dismissed. And, for those who wish to do so, Fall in Love and Be More Tender lets you go a little deeper. Most compelling are the outfits curated in contrast - something on-the-nose paired with something subtle, or two works created at different times, can together suggest some historical continuity, and challenge stereotypes.
Take his IMMIGRANT t-shirt (SS2017), shown with a Red Skirt and Veil. The former shouts out Brexit, the British government, and the Home Office’s Hostile Environment. But the latter, adorned with Zardozi, the South Indian embroidery used when women marry and move into a new home, speaks more quietly to the lived experience and two-way flows of migrations.
Ashish is based in East London, but his patterns and toiles are realised by artisans in his other studio in Delhi, India. With William Morris, he shares a respect for traditional crafts and production; India exports around £200 million worth of embroidery every year, but the ‘skill, expertise and Indian context’ is scarcely acknowledged. Here, cultural sustainability comes first; the environment is a clear, but secondary, concern.
In his documentary, we see Ashish barter the weight of sequins like spices and bemoans how he misses the food from home. Opposite him sits a photograph of a woman in tartan eating thali. It’s one of many commissioned from another Ashish – Shah, a Mumbai-based photographer who seeks to challenge European and American visual languages. Shot on location in both Delhi and Walthamstow, they speak to Ashish’s many cultural heritages.
His ‘hybrid’ textiles are woven with his conventional education at Central Saint Martin’s, contemporary sportswear and workwear, and ‘indigenous’ textile traditions. These contexts are unravelled in the curation. Fair Isle knitwear speaks to how Christian missionaries from the Shetlands carried patterns and practices from 19th century Scotland to India. But these imperial histories get rooted in the contemporary and popular culture; like the Dutch wax print dress, worn by M.I.A.
We hear before we see Yellow Brick Road, as reworked Western classics like Creep whisper from upstairs. Ashish’s AW2017 runway collection embodies his multidisciplinary approach, with reference to queer visual culture, writers and activists from Salman Rushdie to Susan Sontag, and models made up with Mexican wrestling masks - ready to take down Donald Trump.
No doubt Ashish’s practice challenges binaries – of race, gender, and sexuality. But for a museum which speaks to ‘art for art’s sake’, it goes heavy on the politics of Ashish’s practice. The expectation for artists from historically marginalised communities to be so engaged is an additional pressure, a double marginalisation.
Fall in Love lets us engage with his work on different levels. There’s more beauty to be found in his subtle designs, here politicised as ‘subversive’; the fact he closes Yellow Brick Road with one of his trademark diagonals suggests that sometimes, he thinks so too.
We can only speculate from the film which opens Fall in Love, the artist’s own documentary (or truth), and the only time we hear him in his own words. Instead of perpetuating an individual or ‘great man of history’, it gives us a hint of the collaboration which permeates his practice. There are the artisans in India at work, his teachers, stylists, and designers, and the high fashion models forced to crack a smile in his sequins. A final contrast; the joy and colour that draws people to his work, and the aspects of those who can afford to wear it.
Inclusion does not equal access; an Ashish sequined pouch will set you back £150 in the shop. But the William Morris Gallery remains free for all to enter. And Fall in Love, full as it is of these contrasts, is another wonderful show, which questions who fashion is really for.
Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender is showing at William Morris Gallery until 10 September.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
Fashion designer Ashish Gupta is an all too easy target for the ‘anti-woke’. His sequins spell out slogans like ‘More Glitter less Twitter’, the hallmarks of performative liberalism. Reconstructed tie-dye trousers, symbols of the ‘self-indulgence and commodification of late capitalism’, stand against hippy culture tourism.
But Ashish’s designs should not be so quickly dismissed. And, for those who wish to do so, Fall in Love and Be More Tender lets you go a little deeper. Most compelling are the outfits curated in contrast - something on-the-nose paired with something subtle, or two works created at different times, can together suggest some historical continuity, and challenge stereotypes.
Take his IMMIGRANT t-shirt (SS2017), shown with a Red Skirt and Veil. The former shouts out Brexit, the British government, and the Home Office’s Hostile Environment. But the latter, adorned with Zardozi, the South Indian embroidery used when women marry and move into a new home, speaks more quietly to the lived experience and two-way flows of migrations.
Ashish is based in East London, but his patterns and toiles are realised by artisans in his other studio in Delhi, India. With William Morris, he shares a respect for traditional crafts and production; India exports around £200 million worth of embroidery every year, but the ‘skill, expertise and Indian context’ is scarcely acknowledged. Here, cultural sustainability comes first; the environment is a clear, but secondary, concern.
In his documentary, we see Ashish barter the weight of sequins like spices and bemoans how he misses the food from home. Opposite him sits a photograph of a woman in tartan eating thali. It’s one of many commissioned from another Ashish – Shah, a Mumbai-based photographer who seeks to challenge European and American visual languages. Shot on location in both Delhi and Walthamstow, they speak to Ashish’s many cultural heritages.
His ‘hybrid’ textiles are woven with his conventional education at Central Saint Martin’s, contemporary sportswear and workwear, and ‘indigenous’ textile traditions. These contexts are unravelled in the curation. Fair Isle knitwear speaks to how Christian missionaries from the Shetlands carried patterns and practices from 19th century Scotland to India. But these imperial histories get rooted in the contemporary and popular culture; like the Dutch wax print dress, worn by M.I.A.
We hear before we see Yellow Brick Road, as reworked Western classics like Creep whisper from upstairs. Ashish’s AW2017 runway collection embodies his multidisciplinary approach, with reference to queer visual culture, writers and activists from Salman Rushdie to Susan Sontag, and models made up with Mexican wrestling masks - ready to take down Donald Trump.
No doubt Ashish’s practice challenges binaries – of race, gender, and sexuality. But for a museum which speaks to ‘art for art’s sake’, it goes heavy on the politics of Ashish’s practice. The expectation for artists from historically marginalised communities to be so engaged is an additional pressure, a double marginalisation.
Fall in Love lets us engage with his work on different levels. There’s more beauty to be found in his subtle designs, here politicised as ‘subversive’; the fact he closes Yellow Brick Road with one of his trademark diagonals suggests that sometimes, he thinks so too.
We can only speculate from the film which opens Fall in Love, the artist’s own documentary (or truth), and the only time we hear him in his own words. Instead of perpetuating an individual or ‘great man of history’, it gives us a hint of the collaboration which permeates his practice. There are the artisans in India at work, his teachers, stylists, and designers, and the high fashion models forced to crack a smile in his sequins. A final contrast; the joy and colour that draws people to his work, and the aspects of those who can afford to wear it.
Inclusion does not equal access; an Ashish sequined pouch will set you back £150 in the shop. But the William Morris Gallery remains free for all to enter. And Fall in Love, full as it is of these contrasts, is another wonderful show, which questions who fashion is really for.
Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender is showing at William Morris Gallery until 10 September.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
Fashion designer Ashish Gupta is an all too easy target for the ‘anti-woke’. His sequins spell out slogans like ‘More Glitter less Twitter’, the hallmarks of performative liberalism. Reconstructed tie-dye trousers, symbols of the ‘self-indulgence and commodification of late capitalism’, stand against hippy culture tourism.
But Ashish’s designs should not be so quickly dismissed. And, for those who wish to do so, Fall in Love and Be More Tender lets you go a little deeper. Most compelling are the outfits curated in contrast - something on-the-nose paired with something subtle, or two works created at different times, can together suggest some historical continuity, and challenge stereotypes.
Take his IMMIGRANT t-shirt (SS2017), shown with a Red Skirt and Veil. The former shouts out Brexit, the British government, and the Home Office’s Hostile Environment. But the latter, adorned with Zardozi, the South Indian embroidery used when women marry and move into a new home, speaks more quietly to the lived experience and two-way flows of migrations.
Ashish is based in East London, but his patterns and toiles are realised by artisans in his other studio in Delhi, India. With William Morris, he shares a respect for traditional crafts and production; India exports around £200 million worth of embroidery every year, but the ‘skill, expertise and Indian context’ is scarcely acknowledged. Here, cultural sustainability comes first; the environment is a clear, but secondary, concern.
In his documentary, we see Ashish barter the weight of sequins like spices and bemoans how he misses the food from home. Opposite him sits a photograph of a woman in tartan eating thali. It’s one of many commissioned from another Ashish – Shah, a Mumbai-based photographer who seeks to challenge European and American visual languages. Shot on location in both Delhi and Walthamstow, they speak to Ashish’s many cultural heritages.
His ‘hybrid’ textiles are woven with his conventional education at Central Saint Martin’s, contemporary sportswear and workwear, and ‘indigenous’ textile traditions. These contexts are unravelled in the curation. Fair Isle knitwear speaks to how Christian missionaries from the Shetlands carried patterns and practices from 19th century Scotland to India. But these imperial histories get rooted in the contemporary and popular culture; like the Dutch wax print dress, worn by M.I.A.
We hear before we see Yellow Brick Road, as reworked Western classics like Creep whisper from upstairs. Ashish’s AW2017 runway collection embodies his multidisciplinary approach, with reference to queer visual culture, writers and activists from Salman Rushdie to Susan Sontag, and models made up with Mexican wrestling masks - ready to take down Donald Trump.
No doubt Ashish’s practice challenges binaries – of race, gender, and sexuality. But for a museum which speaks to ‘art for art’s sake’, it goes heavy on the politics of Ashish’s practice. The expectation for artists from historically marginalised communities to be so engaged is an additional pressure, a double marginalisation.
Fall in Love lets us engage with his work on different levels. There’s more beauty to be found in his subtle designs, here politicised as ‘subversive’; the fact he closes Yellow Brick Road with one of his trademark diagonals suggests that sometimes, he thinks so too.
We can only speculate from the film which opens Fall in Love, the artist’s own documentary (or truth), and the only time we hear him in his own words. Instead of perpetuating an individual or ‘great man of history’, it gives us a hint of the collaboration which permeates his practice. There are the artisans in India at work, his teachers, stylists, and designers, and the high fashion models forced to crack a smile in his sequins. A final contrast; the joy and colour that draws people to his work, and the aspects of those who can afford to wear it.
Inclusion does not equal access; an Ashish sequined pouch will set you back £150 in the shop. But the William Morris Gallery remains free for all to enter. And Fall in Love, full as it is of these contrasts, is another wonderful show, which questions who fashion is really for.
Ashish: Fall in Love and Be More Tender is showing at William Morris Gallery until 10 September.
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app when you visit!
