“Fall in Love and Be More Tender,” the Ashish Retrospective at the William Morris Gallery Finds Joy in the Subversive

That’s an education in itself — and by happenstance, one more addition to the current international explosion of interest in the couture-level marvels of Indian crafts that has taken off with Hamish Bowles’ “India in Fashion” exhibition and the Dior show in Mumbai. “There used to be this whole kind of snobbery, a looking down a little bit [about the production in India],” Gupta observes. In fact, the country annually exports embroideries worth about £200 million globally. “It’s interesting to see how fashion is moving so quickly on that now.”

Go in close, and you’ll understand both how the designer uses traditional Indian techniques such as mirror-embroidery or precious gold-thread zardozi-work, and how he subtly skews the multi-colored power of sequins to land his political-satirical liberationist commentaries. Amongst them are blue sequin-covered ripped jeans, held by models toting imitations of British supermarket plastic carrier bags. One had a very familiar high street logo, reversed to read S&M. Stuffed into it was a copy of The Sun tabloid newspaper with a headline blaring ‘Rishi in School Gender Row.’

‘Rishi,’ meaning Rishi Sunak, the current UK prime minister, whose parents are of Indian descent. The ‘gender row,’ being the violent politicization of Trans rights currently going on. “That one’s for real,” Gupta says. “That headline came out on the day we opened the exhibition.”

The impact of his show is a delight, full of laughs, wonder and seriousness. That’s Ashish, all over, celebrating equitable representation and inspirational kindness in his myriad ways since 2001.

Fall In Love And Be More Tender, curated with Roisin Inglesby and Joe Scotland is at The William Morris Gallery, London E17 4PP. Entry is free.