Ace & Tate x Ahluwalia

For two brands known for their exciting collaborations, it was perhaps only a matter of time before British fashion label Ahluwalia and Amsterdam eyewear brand Ace & Tate joined forces. And with shared sustainability goals and a similar emphasis on beautiful, quality products, it makes sense that such a partnership would take shape in a fairly organic way. “I don’t always have conversations that lead to a partnership,” says founder and creative director Priya Ahluwalia over Zoom as we discuss the collaboration, seemingly written in the stars. “But I did do this one.”

Their new eyewear line combines the progressive materials and functionality of Ace & Tate with Ahluwalia’s signature striking prints. Building on the label’s SS24 collection, Acknowledgments, which aimed to give overlooked artists their ‘flowers’, the collaboration features floral motifs on the new Niku and Mirko styles, experimenting with negative space, textured acetate and layered prints. We talked all about it with Priya Ahluwalia.

Read the interview…

How did you first come into contact with Ace and Tate?
That’s a very good question. How did it come about? You know what, I actually think it was through a friend named Dio Kurazawa. He does the bear scouts. I’ve known him for a long time, he does a lot of work with sustainable brands, and he spoke to Ace & Tate and said, “You guys should connect because if you get along, you’ll be doing similar things in different spaces.” And from then on it was quite a nice organic thing. I happened to be in Amsterdam around that time making something with my film, so I thought, “oh, I’m in Amsterdam. I would love to visit you.” And then I went, and it was just a lot of fun. Everyone was so nice. Everyone is so nice there. And they showed me everything, showed me all the different types of monsters. And it really excited me. And I think in that conversation we decided, “let’s do something.”

How did the design process differ, working in a new material?
I think the main difference for us was learning about the new material, what the possibilities were with acetate, like what we could change, what we couldn’t.

And so it was kind of a learning opportunity. And I really liked it. The team at Ace & Tate really streamlined the process and answered all our questions. I learned about hinge design in a way I hadn’t thought about before. Some of our glasses have an Ahluwalia “A” on the hinge, which I love. It is a very nice detail. So learning how that could work functionally.

Designing for glasses has an extra level of functionality than, for example, making ready-to-wear clothing. Because with clothing, as long as someone can put their head through it and their arms through it, there is room to make something much more experimental, with less attention to functionality. I mean, I always like my clothes to be functional and I like that people can wear them and live their daily lives in them.

What was it like building on your SS24 collection and translating those ideas into a new collection?
We have developed these different prints, inspired by the idea of ​​’giving someone their flowers’, as the SS24 collection is called Acknowledgments and it was all about my research into people who have been overlooked in history and people who deserve to get their flowers. So there were definitely those floral motifs, I was thinking about the color palette in the collection, we used our “joy print”, a kind of more evergreen Ahluwalia print, we’ve used it in different iterations since the beginning… so that’s just it about thinking about the main collection and what would complement it, what would enhance it, and then thinking about how those elements might work with the techniques.

Can you tell us something about the people you researched?
There are people like Baya Mahieddine, who was an Algerian artist and was Picasso’s assistant for many years and profoundly changed his work after her involvement – you can really see the difference in aesthetics – but she is someone who is never talked about. She is a woman and she is North African. There are people like Valaida Snow, a black female trumpeter who was overlooked during her lifetime and who I think I appreciate a little more now. And from that research I thought about looking at the different motifs within things related to their work – so it could be like looking at a photo of that person, or for example Marsha P. Johnson, who I think in recent years there’s been a lot more celebration, but she was really a pioneer in Stonewall and she was a black trans woman. She has a beautiful photo of her with flower crowns and that’s exactly what made me think about how all these people deserve to have their flowers – and then I started thinking about the floral designs.

Titus Kaphar used negative space to make you really look at things. He is a black painter from America and he paints black people in renaissance style paintings and then he uses negative space to make you refocus on the main subject and he is one of the most amazing artists and to be honest, in different ways, I continually love his work and he continually inspires me, but that’s kind of how I ended up thinking about the negative space of flowers. And then we started thinking about how they could be used on acetate for the glasses.

Everything I do, design or decide to do is truly intentional and although anyone not behind the scenes doesn’t know that. Because at the end of the day I make products, I just want it to look beautiful and for people to enjoy wearing it. In order to make those decisions, I really do a lot of deep research and a lot of research and analysis goes into my decisions.

Was working on the collaborative campaign different from the way you typically approach campaigns?
Not really. The great thing about Ace & Tate is that they trusted me to handle their campaign, so I sent them a big pile of ideas and presented them and we went through it and they were very happy with it. Because we shot the film in London, me and my team oversaw the production and obviously we went back and forth with Ace & Tate and I know they were very happy with it. I think it’s not that different, the only thing that was different is it was a really nice opportunity to get tight crops because we’re really focusing on someone’s face in a way that with ready-to-wear you don’t necessarily have to do all the time . So that was wonderful. And of course, I’ve researched and watched a lot of Ace & Tate content, and I want to make sure that what I create also exists in their world, but offers a new perspective. It’s something that I do with a lot of my collaborations and you know, I’m both a film director and a creative director in fashion, and creating shoots and assets is one of my favorite parts and I think if people trust me to do that do so, we will always achieve the best results.

Shop the collaboration here.