River Island unveils Ashish collaboration

River Island has announced a link-up with Ashish Gupta of the Ashish label as its penultimate Design Forum collaboration, with the designer being the first in the series to come up with a gender-neutral collection.

Previous participants in Design Forum have included Sibling, Eudon Choi and Zoe Jordan.

The designer is best known for his ultra-high-end heavily sequinned pieces that blur the lines between casual daywear and eveningwear. For instance, each of his seasonal collections includes embellished jeans that retail somewhere north of £1,000 a pair, as well as other intricately embellished tops, bottoms, dresses and accessories.

But for the River island link-up, the pricing is rather more affordable with an entry price of £30 rising to a maximum of £180.

Describing his collection as “something lazy and a bit dreamy” Gupta said he wanted to inject a sense of humour yet deliver an easy-wear concept, adding “something relaxed enough to slouch around the house in, yet stylish enough to be taken out.”

The 15-piece collection takes in loungewear, outerwear and dresses with “a fun and playful quirkiness”. It includes fridge-magnet alphabet sweats and embroidered pyjamas that have tongue-in-cheek slogans including “sick of all this chic” and “good in bed”. There are also on-trend dramatically oversized sleeping bag puffa jackets and the designer’s signature glamour coming through in shimmering slip dresses.

They will launch via a short film at London Fashion Week’s Fashion Film event in September. Fashion Film is an initiative of The British Fashion Council that is sponsored by River Island.

The collection will then be on sale exclusively via River Island’s e-store.

Through his Ashish label, Gupta has been a regular name on the London Fashion Week runway and is a three-time New Generation award winner. He has also previously collaborated with the high street via a Topshop link-up.

River Island unveils Ashish collaboration

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