Priya Ahluwalia put down the lime green dress she was hand-embroidering in silver sequins before she darted into her office and hauled out her fall 2024 mood board to give Vogue Runway a studio preview. “The collection is called Reveries,” she began. “I started thinking about the stories you get told as you grow up. For me, that was Indian and Nigerian folk tales and fairy tales, which get passed on and on by word of mouth.”
The dress taking shape was to be asymmetrically draped like one of the 18th-century saris she had seen in her research. Only this one had a glam London girl dressed-to-go-out vibe. “It’s more ethereal and otherworldly this time, I’d say,” she added.
The designer says she’s at a point where Ahluwalia is getting a lot of knocks on the door for custom-made, and she wanted to show more of what she and her team can do in that direction. “This is a collaboration with Levi’s,” she said, gesturing toward a giant wired leaf-shaped collar growing from a bodice that was part of a spiraling patchworked showpiece, alongside a sweeping floor-length denim coat and tailored men’s suit.
Anyone familiar with Ahluwalia’s wavy-patchwork technique will recognize that this way of transforming deadstock denim into pressed, fresh fashion has been central to her mission since she made such a huge impact with her sustainable graduate collection at Westminster University. That was a while ago now, and her brand—and branding—has a proper following. “One of the things that’s really lovely is that you really see people wearing Ahluwalia. I mean, we’re in Soho, and some days it’s like playing Ahluwalia bingo on the streets around here.”
Everything her large community—which includes musicians, artists, filmmakers, and creative entrepreneurial young people—loves about Ahluwalia was getting packed and ready to go to the Westminster Hall venue where she showed. The colors of her knitwear patterns—blended shades of green, pinks, pale blue, and burnt orange—ran across polo shirts, cardigans, and dresses. It’s those easy-to-wear but impactful styles that attract all those customers.
Beneath a table were all of the Ahluwalia shoes and boots that are stamping their mark on streets, party floors, and red-carpet events. She turned around a couple pairs of sandals to show the Ahluwalia A-shaped heels. Next to them were her brilliantly fly patchworked men’s shoes inset with bright blue uppers. “With men’s shoes, I always think: Would a man in Congo wear this? If the answer’s yes, we do it!” she said. She was referring, of course, to the ultra-dandyism of the Sapeurs. Fearless, joyful standards of dressing—you can completely see how the cult of Ahluwalia is radiating that attitude throughout a new generation.
