LONDON — Ashish Gupta, a master in camp, glamourous sequin creations that have won over the likes of Cate Blanchett, Taylor Swift and Selina Gomez, will debut his first bridal collection on Wednesday with a direct-to-consumer approach.
The inaugural six-look bridal range draws inspiration from the designer’s archival pieces with a renewed perspective.
It includes a hand-sewn glass-bead fringed dress, a cream silk organza gown adorned with cascading hand-appliquéd florals and a recreation of the confetti veil, hand-embroidered with colorful sequins and beads, that has gone viral on social media. The veil was originally made for a friend years ago.
Gupta, who launched his namesake label in 2001, said bridal requests have been coming his way since the beginning of his career.
“When I started selling in Browns and Mrs. B [Joan Burstein] called me up one day and wanted me to design a dress for her to wear to her daughter Caroline’s wedding. It was interesting because I was also doing a dress for Caroline to get married in,” he recalled.
A look from Ashish’s first bridal range.
Courtesy of Ashish
But interest in his capability as a bridal designer really piled up when the confetti veil, which was based on a look from the brand’s spring 2014 collection, began to show up on every bride’s Pinterest board.
“People keep messaging me with screen grabs of the veil from Pinterest, and said: ‘I think you’ve done this veil. Can we do something like this?’ Only in the last week, we’ve had three potential clients come in who want me to do things for their weddings. Also, a couple of years ago, we did a little bridal capsule for Matches, which did really well,” Gupta said.
Then there was the high-profile Ambani wedding. The bride, Radhika Merchant, wore one of the Ashish fringe dresses for one of the events, and that generated considerable buzz and interest for the brand, too.
With production handled in India by local artisans, Gupta thinks the bridal range, which caters to all scenarios related to a wedding, is fairly and competitively priced, starting from around 2,000 pounds and going up to just under 4,000 pounds for the more labor-intensive pieces.
He advises brides-to-be to get in touch three to six months before the wedding for a timely turnaround.
“It’s like a couture process with me. You’re going to do rounds of fitting, then the embroideries. That process does take a while. I have my studio in India, and I have people who work exclusively on my brand. Everything is hand done and finished and then refitted,” added Gupta.
A look from Ashish’s first bridal range.
Courtesy of Ashish
The launch of bridal, according to Gupta, was partially also because of the drastic changes in the British luxury retail landscape, with key retail partners like Farfetch and Matchesfashion going bankrupt. Having control over production, distribution and CRM is more important than ever amid a volatile trading environment.
“I never had my own platform. It wasn’t something I ever considered. And then, obviously, last year, after I started doing my own online store, I suddenly realized actually how much freedom you have. Having the DTC makes it a little bit easier because you can offer something that a lot of people don’t realize,” he said.
The designer admitted that business has been challenging post-Brexit.
“Brexit has been horrific. As a British brand selling in Europe, it’s been disruptive. A lot of people don’t like to talk about Brexit anymore, but we’re still feeling the repercussions of that. Everything costs extra now. Also, with a lot of stores in Europe, there’s a hesitation to buy smaller British brands because the duties are increased,” Gupta said.
A look from Ashish’s first bridal range.
Courtesy of Ashish
He is closely watching the trade war U.S. President Donald Trump is waging on the world, too. The brand’s business in America so far has been stable. It consistently sells in stores like Ikram in Chicago and Mirages in Aspen.
Looking ahead, Gupta said he will update the bridal range every six months and intends to keep the team small.
“Everything is changing so quickly around us. As a small brand, I mean, on the positive side, you can change quite quickly and adapt to things. All the work that I do is so labor intensive. I can only manufacture a certain amount of things every season. In a way, it’s nice to keep it small. Everything you make is special,” he added.