Ahluwalia SS25 Explores "Home" at London Fashion Week

What does "home" mean to you? Is it a smell? A sound? A person?

For Spring/Summer 2025 at London Fashion Week, Ahluwalia explored the concept of "home" and what it means to different people. Drawing from her Indian-Nigerian heritage, the designer revisited old family photographs and began to research her own response to the question -- what is home?

"The idea kickstarted when I was in Jamaica. I met this lady whose husband had built her house all by himself, and he'd recently passed away and she was telling me about it and I was crying my eyes out. I thought I'd just met this woman, and already, you could tell this was such an important home to her," Ahluwalia tells us.

 

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"It sounds a bit existential, but I was thinking about how everyone has somewhere or something that they feel like is home to them. Because of all the displacement going on in the world, I thought about how important home actually is to people, whether that is your physical home, somewhere you feel at home or a person you feel at home with," the designer continues.

After speaking to her family members, Ahluwalia realized that even after living in England for over four decades, her nana still felt an emotional pull to her home in India, leading her to explore the literal concept of pulling. Drawing inspiration from Peruvian artist Jorge Eduardo Eielson, the designer translated his signature pulling technique into developing her garments.

Rifling through old family photographs, Ahluwalia began picking out details like the beaded curtains she often saw in Nigerian homes, the wallpaper print from her grandpa's first house in the UK and the curves of his furniture. These details became the starting point for the collection, reflected in beaded headdresses, graphic designs and cozy color palettes.

One particular material that underpins the collection is a sheeny fabric used in several printed shirts. "It reminds me a bit of Christmas," she tells us. "When I think of home, for me, Christmas is a big thing. My family's not even Christian but it's a big thing," Ahluwalia adds. Elsewhere, the collection includes "warm and fuzzy" fabrics, hoping to emulate that cozy feeling of being at home.

Adding to the homely experience was a fusion soundtrack complete with live music by Syrian-Dutch Kanun instrumentalist Shaza Manla. Merging the sounds of Bollywood, Afrobeats and garage, the eclectic mix was created by Amsterdam-based collective MassiveMusic and Nigerian artist Adekunle Gold.

Take a look at Ahluwalia SS25 above.

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