His spectacular sequin designs have won Ashish Gupta legions of fans around the world. As he prepares for his first retrospective, he talks to Eva Wiseman about 20 years of fighting gloom with glitter

Is the sequin perhaps the most glamorous product of evolutionary biology? Psychologists say humans are drawn to things that sparkle because once our ancestors searched for light reflecting on rivers in their search for water. Now we search for sparkle elsewhere – a diamond ring, a disco ball – and find new meaning in it beyond survival. Like glamour, or value, or – in the case of Ashish Gupta, a fashion designer renowned for his artistry with sequins – freedom.

This month sees Ashish’s first retrospective, showcasing 20 years of his label’s hand-embroidered sequined clothes, like the dressing gown in zardozi, a south Asian embroidery method using gold thread, and the pink T-shirt with the slogan “Fall in love and be more tender”, and sparkling pieces worn by stars such as Beyoncé, Rihanna and Debbie Harry. Walking into his London home feels like stepping backstage – he’s replaced his front-door panels with red glass, so we stand bathed for a calm minute in dark light. He designed the kitchen countertops to house huge planters, and lush trees grow up towards the glass roof. There are stone busts, Indian glass paintings and piles of books, but not a single sequin. They’re all, presumably, on the work currently being hung at the William Morris Gallery in east London. “The curator said,” Gupta grins, “‘This is really interesting for me, because it’s the first time I’ve ever worked with a living artist.’ And I said, ‘Well, we’ve still got three months, you never know what might happen!’” Revisiting his archive at the age of 47 has been a strange experience, “a little bit surreal, actually. You kind of time travel. In some ways it feels as if a lifetime has gone by quite quickly.”

Continue reading…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

Blind date: ‘How did the call end? I needed to feed the cats’

Claire, 33, global regulatory affairs, meets Chris, 33, senior statistician What were…

Nato chief warns of ‘real risk of conflict’ as talks with Russia over Ukraine end

US says it has heard nothing new from Moscow in four hours…

It came out of the sky: US releases highly anticipated UFO report

Report says intelligence sources do not think aliens are behind UFOs but…

Call centre staff to be monitored via webcam for home-working ‘infractions’

Exclusive: Teleperformance, which employs 380,000 people, plans to use specialist webcams to…