For the V&A’s latest Fashion in Motion catwalk show, Ashish seemed the natural choice to coincide with the museums Fabric of India exhibit and as part of the V&A’s India Festival, which is running through Autumn and Winter to celebreate the 25th Anniversary of the museum’s Nehru Gallery. As an Indian born, London based designer, his work combines all the attitude of the capital with the remarkable workmanship that India has to offer.
“I’m greatly honoured to have been asked to do a retrospective show of my work as part of the Fashion in Motion series at the V&A,” commented Ashish. “I will be combining work from collections from the last 10 years. Going through my archives has been a fun and nostalgic experience and I am looking forward to creating an exciting presentation of the best of a decade of my work.” Of course, putting together a retrospective show involves sifting through 20 seasons worth of pieces and some 2000 samples, most definitely a nostalgic experience. “It’s quite interesting to see where you were in life at that time,” says Ashish. “It brought back quite a lot of memories. It reminds you of where you were, what you were doing, who you were seeing and who you’d just broken up with.”
Embodying a sense of rebellious joie de vivre, Ashish is far from traditional and so the idea of his staging a retrospective at the V&A, one of London’s most treasured establishments is definitely interesting. “London for me has always been very youthful, with a raw energy. I think it’s one of the most directional of the Fashion Weeks. I always thought the great thing about London was how you could be a young designer and if you have something to say, you can say it,” says the designer of his hometown. Whilst both the designer and the museum are darlings of London in their respective fields, the combination of the two different worlds is a great mix and seeing Ashish’s rough, undone garments against the historical beauty of the Raphael gallery posed a beautiful juxtaposition for the show.