5 Things To Know About Ahluwalia’s Nollywood Vs. Bollywood AW22 Show
British Vogue’s fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen breaks down the five key takeaways from Ahluwalia autumn/winter 2022 collection at London Fashion Week.
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com1/5The show was a hot ticket
People were, quite literally, on the edge of their seats at Ahluwalia. With benches packed to the brim, Priya Ahluwalia demonstrated the hankering for the live runway experience many are feeling after the last two years. But it was more than that. Of Nigerian and Indian descent, the young designer embodies the progress fashion has undergone through the pandemic and its seismic events. People are there for it – old faces as well as new – and it signals an uplifting fashion future ahead.
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com2/5It was based on Nollywood and Bollywood
“I’m shaking! It was one of the best things ever! I can’t really believe it,” a visibly elated Ahluwalia said after the show. It was the designer’s first runway outing after two years of films, complete with a coloured sand and flower installation intended to evoke the sets of her cinematic reference: Nollywood and Bollywood, the film industries of Nigeria and India. Parts of her cultural tapestry, the designer had spent the lockdown periods watching her favourites as Bollywood’s Sholay and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and Nollywood’s Games Women Play and Abuja Ladies.
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com3/5Ahluwalia took inspiration from the film industries’ posters
“I’ve been watching so many films recently, and I wanted to bring that cinematic spirit to the runway. I thought, how better to do than to celebrate Bollywood and Nollywood, which are great film industries,” Ahluwahlia said. She paid homage through a warm cinematic palette rooted in the posters of the two industries and expressed through patterns and prints that evoked the graphic opulence of her source material. Movie characters were laser-printed onto viscose shirts in a move she defined as early-2000s clubwear, backed up by plenty of the denim characteristic of that era.
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com4/5It featured her first full women’s collection
Ahluwalia, who only debuted womenswear last season, showed a full women’s collection alongside her soulful menswear. It took inspiration from on-screen characters of both worlds, “like the strong female bosses in Nollywood or the doe-eyed, floaty-haired love interests in Bollywood”, and traversed glamorous cocktail dresses, mini-skirts, and glittery suits. Detecting a certain romanticism in the wardrobes of Bollywood and sexiness in their Nollywood counterparts, she fused the two in silhouettes that morphed the properties of little dresses and saris.
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com5/5It was testament to a season of change
“I do feel like there’s definitely a change,” Ahluwalia said of post-pandemic version of London Fashion Week. “When I was interning it was a very Euro-centric environment. Now, I feel safe talking to people about my culture.” Her show made for a defining moment in a season that will be remembered for its re-emergent energy and reconfigured landscape.