Priya Ahluwalia’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection is an emotional celebration of culture and identity. Inspired by recent travels and her grandmother’s enduring pull to India after fifty years in England, the collection reflects a deeply soulful connection to home and heritage. As Ahluwalia continues to weave the thread of her own Indian-Nigerian roots and London upbringing into each collection, this new season brings the stories of those who have travelled across the seas with an indelible tie to their past and a profound understanding of the desire to invoke and honour ancestral homes from another land.
Titled ‘Home Sweet Home’, the collection utilises a warm colour palette to evoke comforting feelings of nostalgia. Soft tones of ecru and deep shades of brown and red provide a base for bursts of colour in bright and sky blues, forest green, dusty pink, teal and saffron which offer balance and tranquillity as Ahluwalia navigates the journey between past and present. Rich storytelling is matched with rich embellishment and an abundance of prints as Ahluwalia recalls images of her grandparents’ home.
In places, garments are blanketed by geometric and modern patterns, while a fitted knit dress is engulfed by a swirling pink, blue and white design reminiscent of a distant sky. The collection is decorated with freshwater pearls by Pandora throughout and loose hanging beading on knitwear, tailoring and wigs that, as the brand tells us, evoke the traditional wooden curtains found in Nigerian doorways. Ahluwalia cited Peruvian artist and writer Jorge Eielson as a key influence behind ‘Home Sweet Home’.
Nods to his ‘Quipus’ paintings which pulled knotted fabrics across canvas (in honour of the pre-Columbian Incan storytelling technique known as “talking knots”) can be found throughout the collection as fabrics are knotted, pleated and pulled across the body, for Ahluwalia signalling the emotional and physical pull of home. Sustainable action remains a steadfast principle at the brand with deadstock Chloe fabric repurposed into tailored suiting and vintage doilies transformed into one-shoulder tops. The collection is built from classic silhouettes which transcend time and place, while a mix of richly textured fabrics are panelled together to provide depth and resonance in this story.
An immersive runway blanketed by Indian and Persian rugs was soundtracked by Amsterdam collective MassiveMusic, whose live performance blended classical and modern Arabic music with Afrobeats, Bollywood and garage samples. Nigerian artist Adekunle Gold crafted a lush, rhythmic soundscape that intertwined the sounds of Indian traffic with the roaring trains of the London underground, sizzling frying pans and smooth Afrobeats vocals. Adekunle Gold commented: “I’ve loved Ahluwalia’s work for some time now so I was excited to collaborate with Priya on this project, bringing together two of my biggest passions, music and fashion.
You’ll hear influences from Nigeria with the talking drums, combined with influences from Priya’s Indian heritage and British upbringing to create a whole new rhythm. It’s such a special soundscape both sonically and creatively and I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.” Visit ahluwalia.
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