Priya Ahluwalia sent out the collection she named Affinity in the leafy conservatory-style atrium of the NoMad Hotel in Covent Garden. “It felt like a slight breath of fresh air to have it here,” she said. Influences from Ahluwalia’s dual heritages were at play, this time around the euphoria and the tensions that come wrapped up in love relationships. “I was researching a lot of depictions of love across Bollywood films, Motown, Indian miniature paintings, and stories of Nigerian deities like Oshun, the goddess of love and fertility,” she said.
True to the core energies of her brand, Ahluwalia assembled a lineup of tailoring, denim, knitwear, and party dressing for women and men for spring. Her symbolism played subtly through references to the switchback of emotions that come with being romantically involved with someone. “It can be the best feeling ever, and it makes you feel light and big and wide—or sometimes it can make you feel tight and constricted and like you’re being squeezed,” she said.
Draping and flyaway silk fringing represented “tension and release”—ideas Ahluwalia arrived at in part by looking at the twisting forms of Naum Gabo sculptures. A denim dress was sliced to one side, perhaps revealing vulnerability. Asymmetrically poufed skirts hinted at the bubbling sensations of new romance; a print of Black cherubs, handwritten love letters, and marigolds—symbols of Indian weddings—was scattered over men’s summery shirts.
In effect, it was a continuation of all her signatures: going-out clothes and practical utilitarian parkas and casual zipped jackets, delivered with the ethical and sustainable practices Ahluwalia has embedded as the basis of her brand since she started it five years ago.
