Inside Ashish Gupta's Spring/Summer 2018 show at London Fashion Week.
For a designer who loves the rainbow hues and once created a collection inspired by a box of crayons, Ashish Gupta's Spring/Summer 2018 collection at the London Fashion Week was rather dark, intense and rife with messages to fight hate.
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
'There's something very powerful about something as simple as a T-shirt with a slogan on it,' Gupta told Huffington Post UK.
It's a tool he has effectively used in the past as well.
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
It's a tool he has effectively used in the past as well.
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
HuffPost UK added, 'Gupta strongly believes in the power of language, and it angers him the way it is sometimes used thoughtlessly, or at worst callously.'
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
But while the collection was decidedly dark hued...
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
Ashish Gupta's message wasn't.
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
Every seat in the audience had the words of Martin Luther King, Jr: 'Only in the darkness can you see the stars.'
Photographs: Mary Turner/Reuters and @ashish_uk/Instagram.
Photographs: Mary Turner/Reuters and @ashish_uk/Instagram.
Explaining what was on his mind, Ashish Gupta wrote in The Guardian, 'I have a Leigh Bowery quote up in my studio that says: 'The reason I use sequins at the moment is because if I cannot cast the light at least I can reflect it.'
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
He also threw in the moon and the stars...
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
... And created a collection that was 'fun without being frivolous'.
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
HuffPost UK wrote, 'Ashish's designs serve to remind us that even in the darkest of times there is always a (fabulously sparkling) glimmer of hope -- as long as you can be proud of who you are.'
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters.
In case you missed it: The London Fashion Week Diary
- London Fashion Week opens with curvy models
- Tamil women show London how it's done!
- Meet the Indian designers who are taking over London
- Models in wheelchairs rule the ramp
