"At the birth of this collection, there is the idea of a world in chaos. That’s where it all begins, the sounds echoing on the cobblestones, voices rising, a world in motion, hard and cold. Fragments of this story had to be found. It all started with pieces of old veils, tapestries, and illustrations, discovered while wandering through paris flea markets. It’s more a matter of feeling, of sensation, like a trace of elegance and subtlety. This woman, a statue with a marbled, painted face, draped in heavy ancient fabrics, surrounded by all kinds of preciousness, walks through. The silhouettes in this collection reflect a range of obsessions and tributes to the past century, an old paris, the richness of ancient cultures, a sense of decay, or the work of great photographers; yet always touched by contemporaneity. In that sense, our familiar techniques were left behind, nothing here is what it seems. It meant introducing new materials, mixing forms of craft, always within the lines of couture. Concepts emerge through different layers of story: the fabric works of louise bourgeois, inspired by her mended, distressed bodies. A conversation around
skin, transparency, animosity and variedinterpretations. Also the intricate work of a cabinet of curiosities, between exoticism and classicism. A layered approach that oscillates between decay and splendor, later translated through the fall of a dress, the way a corset shapes the body, each clutch, every element of wood, precious stone, metal, mother-of-pearl, feathers, lace; all meant to carry a larger narrative. That is the evolving universe of ashi studio, but also, in some way, a desire to mystify, and to keep reaching for something more. A pursuit of refinement, of a more exacting form of craft." - Ashi Studio
