The process of making a garment takes centre stage in Aitor Throup’s new London exhibition. Ultra Veil opened at Ambika P3 on October 30 and runs until November 8. According to the Westminster Menswear Archive, more than a hundred unique objects guide visitors from drawing to prototype. Sculptures and clothing experiments together make visible the thinking behind the designer’s AITOR ULTRA venture.
The organiser describes the work as his first new conceptual body of work in ten years. That description does not mean the designer stopped working in the intervening period. The emphasis is on assembling a new system: objects appear alongside one another that can also be read as precursors to a future product world. Developed in partnership with Fred Perry, the exhibition features a soundscape by Thundercat; the brand’s announcement also points towards a collaboration planned for 2027.
A military appearance conceals a different material
Vogue’s October 27 conversation with the designer identifies a particularly revealing material contrast. Among pieces that suggest functional and sometimes military clothing are garments made from lingerie mesh, with surfaces treated with liquid glitter and rubber paint. Appearance alone therefore cannot tell us the weight or original purpose of the underlying material.
Masks, veils, gloves and forms that extend over the feet turn the boundary of the body into a design question. These details are interesting beyond their role as accessories selected to accompany an outfit. Look at where the garment itself continues, how it connects with the head or hand, and where the wearer’s experience of movement might change. This is an editorial way of reading the work, not a wear test establishing the comfort of the exhibited prototypes.
A prototype can tell us something about a garment even before it offers a finished answer to how it should be worn.
In Hypebeast’s own interview in May, Throup discussed building AITOR ULTRA after New Object Research and Anatomyland. The relationship between garment structure, adaptability and turning ideas into forms that can be produced in series is therefore particularly useful context. Objects in the exhibition should not automatically be treated as a collection available to buy: experimentation and commercial product are different stages.
What should visitors look for, and when can they go?
For Hungarian design students and readers interested in cutting, the exhibition offers above all an opportunity to compare stages of a process. If the same form appears as a drawing, a spatial model and a clothing experiment, it is worth observing the proportions that change between them. Where does an emphasis move from shoulder to head? What change of material enables a surface that previously appeared rigid? Such questions can also be useful at home when documenting one’s own design assignment.
According to the practical information, the exhibition is open daily from 11am to 7pm, with free admission, at London’s Ambika P3, at the University of Westminster’s 35 Marylebone Road site. From November 2 to 6, university fashion course groups can attend free, sixty-minute Reading the Object workshops. Places are limited and advance booking is required; details are published on the organiser’s website.
The exhibition’s value now lies precisely in making intermediate stages visible. A finished campaign image usually conceals a sequence of decisions; here, comparing different kinds of objects can become the task of looking. The next development to watch will be how these formal ideas reach wearable pieces in the Fred Perry collaboration announced for 2027.
Related reading: Form and material at METU’s graduate show
