ASHISH the King of Sequins
A London Fashion Week Highlight
Fashion Roundtable attended the Ashish AW25 London Fashion Week show, a playful array of bold colours and sequins with a strong political undertone and deeper meaning. Designer Ashish Gupta, who was born in Delhi, trained in fine art before moving to London in 1995. Graduating from the prestigious Central Saint Martins he launched his first collection in 2001 and showcased at LFW in 2004.
He has become a global icon with his designs worn by celebrities such as Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus and Madonna. He had also won the prestigious NEWGEN award 3 times, with his work exhibited at both the V&A museum and The MET in New York.
The show started off in a dark low-lit room covered in balloons and sequins. Models proceeded down the catwalk, chewing bubblegum with voluminous hair with balloons tied to the ends, followed by emotionally ambiguous melodies.
A pioneering voice for diversity and challenging stereotypes and misconceptions, Ashish played around with the role that fashion can have with T-shirt slogans saying ‘Wow what a shit show’ and models holding banners with ‘The end is near’ taking centre stage. He included models of mixed diversities in age, gender and race, emphasising his mission for social inclusion and a breath of fresh air for the fashion industry that is so used to seeing young size-zero models.
To hear more from Ashish, check out the podcast interview with Fashion Roundtable’s founder Tamara Cincik: ASHISH Fashion is a Global Conversation.
Who is the next Jonathan Anderson? Vogue Business raises the question
With Jonathan Anderson skipping the Autumn/Winter 2025 season, Vogue Business asks: ‘which London designers have what it takes to reach the level of Anderson one day?’
Maliha Shoaib spoke to experts, including Fashion Roundtable’s founder Tamara Cincik, about what has made Anderson so successful and which designers could step into the spotlight next.
Jonathan Anderson is the visionary designer behind JW Anderson, which he founded in 2008. He has been the creative director at Loewe since 2013.
Britain’s fashion industry isn’t ‘fluff’, BBC – it’s worth £60bn
Despite being a major contributor to the British economy, the fashion sector continues to suffer from a wider perception problem, Melissa Twigg writes for The Telegraph
‘Everyone who works in fashion has been at the receiving end of The Look. Usually it happens during a party or at a dinner that’s not industry-related and someone asks what you do. You reply, and that’s when they hit you with it. The slightly patronising stare that says, “Ah, you’re a bit frivolous”. Silly, even. Fluffy.
The one time you don’t expect to get The Look is during an interview with BBC News, but that’s what happened to Vogue’s Julia Hobbs when she was brought into the studio on Sunday to discuss London Fashion Week…’
Melissa’s article features insights from industry leaders, including our founder and CEO, Tamara Cincik.
Event: UK’s Arts, Culture and Creative Industries Conference, London & On-line 8th April 2025
Britain’s creative industries already contribute £125 billion annually to the UK economy and employ 2.4 million people. The Labour Government wants to grow this further through its comprehensive strategy to bolster the UK’s creative industries.
Join colleagues from across the creative industries at Westminster Insight’s flagship UK’s Art, Culture and Creative Industries Conference.
With a focus on reforms to working conditions, export markets, intellectual property (IP), copyright and AI regulation, we will hear from creators themselves about the conditions that enable creativity. With a focus on creative sector skills, we will explore the steps that are being taken to plug current and future skills gaps.
Don’t Miss: the Reducing Environmental Impact from the Creative Industries Panel, featuring Tamara Cincik, Fashion Roundtable founder & CEO
Hear from leading educators about how to ensure a rich and broad arts education for all children and discover how museums, galleries, performing arts and public broadcasters can be supported to bring art and culture to wider audiences.
Training Bursaries for Fashion Textile Crafts
Apply for up to £4,000 to start training in a fashion textile craft or to further develop your skills with Heritage Crafts, sponsored by The Costume Society
Many people are dissuaded from training in heritage crafts because of the cost, and therefore the make-up of the sector is not truly representative of the mix of backgrounds that make up the UK as a whole. This bursary has been set up to help cover or subsidise the cost of training for someone who would otherwise be prevented from pursuing this career path as a result of the cost.
Bursaries are for:
new entrants who have demonstrated a commitment to starting a new craft career and need to acquire the necessary hand skills;
early-career practitioners who have not yet attained the hand skills required to achieve commercial success; or
early- or mid-career craftspeople who need to acquire distinctly different hand skills to develop new ways of achieving commercial success.
Fashion textile crafts can include, but are not limited to, dressmaking, tailoring, pattern cutting, hat making, millinery, glovemaking, fabric pleating, corset making, and so on. Applications for training that prioritises the acquisition of practical hand skills will be favoured over training that is predominantly theoretical or design-oriented.
The deadline for applications is 5pm on Friday 7 March 2025. If you have any questions or need assistance with the application process, please email Tess Osman, at tess@heritagecrafts.org.uk.