Lakshmi – लक्ष्मी – is the Hindu goddess of prosperity, beauty, grace, abundance, and of light. She is depicted in lotus flowers, in gold, in the gesture of giving. She is the goddess invoked at Diwali, the festival of lights, because light and grace, in the Indian tradition, are the same thing. ASHAALIA Lakshmi line honours the occasion it attends. Each garment is conceived as the most ceremonially significant thing a woman puts on – the dress for the moment she will remember, the piece her daughter might one day reach for.

The Lakshmi Dress is produced in linen silk or Japanese triacetate depending on colourway, with full-surface crystal and bead lattice work requiring approximately 22 hours of Karigari hand-beading. The motif references Mughal court jewellery: the cascading flower-and-leaf compositions that were applied to robes and sashes as marks of occasion and standing. Each appliqué flower is individually beaded, cut out and hand-stitched to the surface – a process within a process, the most labour-intensive construction method in the Signature Line