Ahluwalia unveiled its Spring Summer 2027 collection, Revel, at Rosewood London during London Fashion Week. Creative Director Priya Ahluwalia built the season around ideas of joy, care and community, drawing on cultural references that connect personal life with political resistance.
SPRING SUMMER 2027
Early research focused on resistance movements, though the collection changed direction after Ahluwalia studied photographs of former Black Panther members in domestic settings. Images of private life, rest and informal moments opened a different route into the subject. From there, Ahluwalia considered self-care as a shared form of protection and looked at small acts of kindness as forces that can sustain a community.
FESTAC ’77 became another important point of reference. The pan-African festival, held in Lagos, brought together music and art on a large scale. Ahluwalia used the event as an example of collective gathering carrying political and cultural meaning. Music follows the same thread throughout the season, with references ranging from Fela Kuti’s polyrhythms to Mumbai’s underground rap scene.
The clothes translate these ideas through volume, texture and construction. Draping changes noticeably from previous seasons. Instead of drawing fabric inward, the new collection pushes silhouettes outward and gives garments greater volume. Works by Rob Emke and Sinni Villi informed several shapes, including low-back puffball forms and expanded dress silhouettes.
Material choices add another layer. Water-resistant fabrics and pronounced contrast topstitching suggest protection, while embossed, debossed and etched surfaces take cues from posters and archival documents. Mohair and jacquard knits use motifs taken from a tiled staircase seen in one of the off-duty photographs that informed the collection.
Outerwear, tailoring, denim and knitwear remain important throughout Spring Summer 2027. Leather jackets reference construction details and hardware associated with 1970s styles. Fringing also returns in several forms, appearing on a men’s tuxedo top and in knitted mini dresses. Lee Bontecou’s lithographs informed the flowing surface effects and the emphasis on physical expression.
Branding stays restrained through tonal embroidered badges designed to reveal themselves only at close range. The colour palette draws from Kerry James Marshall’s Pan-African palette and work by Nigerian modernists Ben Enwonwu and Tayo Adenaike. Creams and browns establish the base, joined by red, blue and green.
The ongoing Ahluwalia x PUMA partnership expands with new ready-to-wear pieces, including a reworked T7 track jacket, knitted football tops with tonal jacquard trims and long knitted dresses with engineered fringe. The collaboration also introduces two trainer designs: an Ahluwalia Speedcat in primary colourways and a new silhouette in black and black with silver.
Discover Full Collection on DSCENE
For the show setting, Ahluwalia partnered with Calico Wallpaper on Estuary, a bespoke mural based on the movement of water and the cultures it connects. The project marks the designer’s first work with wallcoverings and brings the collection’s visual language into the presentation space.
