Credits: Karla Otto/ Iulia Matei
Backstage at Ashi Studio’s Fall 2025 Haute Couture show, nestled within the quiet dignity of 1, Rue de Longchamp, time seemed to move differently. There was no frenzy—only breath, stillness, and the sound of fabric brushing against fabric.
Credits: Karla Otto/ Iulia Matei
In the pale morning light filtering through the grand windows of the hôtel particulier, the space felt almost like a private atelier. Dresses stood poised on mannequins like silent witnesses, awaiting the moment they would transform into living sculpture. Garment bags were gently unzipped, not with haste, but with reverence. Assistants moved with quiet precision, their hands trained not only in skill, but in care.
Credits: Karla Otto/ Iulia Matei
Ashi’s team worked in near silence adjusting pleats by millimeter, aligning sculptural folds that curved like modern armor and softened into weightless halos. The textures were celestial: structured silks that held their breath, tulle like frozen smoke, satin molded into impossible geometry. Embroidery shimmered like constellations, stitched not merely for ornament but as language.
Credits: Karla Otto/ Iulia Matei
Models, half-dressed, stood still like muses caught mid-thought. Hair was drawn back with architectural elegance; skin gleamed as if lit from within. No loud commands, no panic—just the low murmur of pins being placed, the faint sound of shoes against parquet, the occasional whisper of a final check.
Credits: Karla Otto/ Iulia Matei
And when the time came, when each look was complete and the air thickened with anticipation, a soft nod passed from dresser to model. One by one, they stepped out into the mirrored silence of the mansion’s halls—becoming not performers, but apparitions.
Backstage remained hushed after their departure. An untouched coffee cooled slowly on a corner table. A thread lay forgotten on the floor. But the room still held the presence of something quietly transcendent of couture not merely worn, but breathed into being.
Credits: Karla Otto/ Iulia Matei
