Out of the many binge-worthy shows needing your attention right now, Netflix’s Next in Fashion should be high on your list. Featuring Tan France and Alexa Cheung as presenters, it also has guest judges like Tommy Hilfiger, Christopher Kane and Prabal Gurung, plus some of the contestants already regularly dress the likes of Beyonce, Lady Gaga & Xtina….in fact, that’s just one of the contestants and that would be Ashton Hirota.
Ashton started his company, Ashton Michael, in 2005 with a sharp mix of streetwear meets fetish meets punk. His client list is essentially our Spotify most played artists, having dressed Lady Gaga and Beyonce for both of their Superbowl half-time shows. *insert mic drop gif*
But in this time of Corona, Ashton has been looking to help and has spent his “downtime” creating masks initially for the elderly Los Angeles LGBT community but since then sending out the pattern for others to make their own and even going as far to send out fabrics for those who don’t have any, enabling them to make their own.
We catch up with Ashton to untuck after Next in Fashion and to hear how it was in fact American Idol that gave him his first big break…..
So, Ashton, how are you?
I would say I’m doing ok. I feel in good spirits, this is a monumental transitional moment for the world energetically. We’re having these full moons…
Tell me about these moons!
There was a pink one that happened two days ago for us. It was really heavy. It’s really shining a light into areas like if you’re thinking, ‘Maybe I could have feelings for this person….I’m not sure. Do I?’ But the full moon brings it to you and is like, ‘No! This is the end of it!’ It makes people more reactionary to what they actually feel.
Congratulations on Next in Fashion. How have things been since the launch of the show?
Coming off that show, I really didn’t know what to expect, I mean I didn’t win and felt the judges didn’t really understand my brand’s point of view, which is totally fine! You never really know what will happen in the edit bay. It’s reality TV so we all knew what we were signing up for, although I didn’t remember talking about buttholes so much! I sort of sounded like a filthy pig bottom.
But going on that show showed people my sensibility, and no matter how filthy my mouth was, my heart was equally as large. It allowed me an opportunity to shed light on a sense of humanity that I think can often be overlooked in fashion and the entertainment side of fashion especially. In the end it’s been wonderful because I get letters from people saying, ‘You inspired me so much.’ So hearing those messages has been the most powerful thing because I know I’m inspiring the next generation of artists.
One of your best friends, Jonny Cota is on Amazon Prime’s equivalent Making The Cut. Have you compared notes?
We speak every day and are very open about it. My platform, Netflix, is more of a household name and more accessible. People say Netflix and Chill, not Prime and Chill for a reason. So having Netflix as my platform was amazing to me. I particularly liked how Next in Fashion showed the hustle of all the designers trying to sew the garments and not necessarily handing it off to a seamstress – which for my brand is the daily frantic dash to hit the FedEx cut-off.
When it came to the creative process Making the Cut were allowed to select/purchase their own fabrics where we were given pre-selected fabrics to work with. Sort of hard to show the judges why you should be Next in Fashion when it’s already being regulated. But hey, that’s all part of the game. I will say as far as engagement goes, the fact that their show travelled to fashion capitals and brought in local, respectable industry judges was a massive plus in my opinion. We had Tan France who thinks that a French tuck is the answer to every fashion crisis, whereas Jonny got Naomi Campbell and Carine Roitfeld. There’s really no comparing the three.
Elizabeth Stewart was the worst too.
I am so glad you picked up on that! If you were doing a pedestrian, safe, Julia Roberts red carpet look challenge, bring her in, she will deliver the most valid critique. But if you are doing a streetwear challenge please tell her to stay in the green room. She’s not going to know what the hell she’s talking about. She has no validity in that subculture, so it’s hard to take a critique from someone who’s never been in it.
I’ve been in this industry for sixteen years, I’ve never once worked with her, and there is a reason. Our style aesthetics are not the same. She would never pull my clothes for any of her clients because we are in different spectrums. I get it. We don’t even have to acknowledge that. It’s not even a like or dislike. It’s just different fields and that’s fine. But her critiques were so off-kilter when they would come round to me and Marco.
The Active wear critique in particular was so harsh.
Oh my God. I was honestly like, ‘Are we on the same set? What are you actually seeing?’ Then we were doing a challenge that was specifically called Prints & Patterns, and her critique to us was, ‘I wish you would get off Melrose Avenue and think more couture.’ I was thinking, ‘Girl, this isn’t a couture challenge! This is a prints & patterns challenge!’ Everything she said made no sense, so I thought ‘Oh you just don’t like me and apparently the city YOU are from. I get it.’
Our judges were….”interesting”, but with Making the Cut, if Naomi says something is not fierce then guess what, I’m going to believe her. This bitch is legendary, you can not tell her anything.
Also Making the Cut judges wanted the contestants to express their brand’s point of view, not change it. Our critiques were based on more if our judges approved of the garment, regardless of whether or not it was part of our brand identity. Making the Cut judges wanted to hear the designer’s voice whereas ours felt more like if it was just something they would wear personally.
They used the word ‘costumey’ for your work a lot.
I am not a costume-designer and I say that for two reasons. When I see costume designers’ work in the cinema, it is astonishing. I could never do that. Also my aesthetic is on the stage but it is street-wear. It’s bondage. It’s goth. But if you took them off the stage and put them on the street, or in the bedroom(!), or anywhere, they are wearable. They are not a costume.
Were you worried about your edit on Next in Fashion?
I was petrified! I see Marco every day, our studios are next to each other and I remember after filming, we’d say in full panic, ‘Oh my God, do you remember we said THIS?!’ We were both terrified! I didn’t want to be portrayed as the bitchy witch from LA who is a cunty “celebrity person”! But the edit they actually gave us was gorgeous! They took out most of the things where I was myself – cunty and snarky! I’m sarcastic but in a very loving way. No bullshit.
Are you getting different types of customers now?
Yeah. A lot. It’s insane. It forced me to do a diffusion line which is something I’ve been saying I’d do for five years – to be more of an inclusive brand and not exclusive. The line is just ten pieces but I needed to do something where if someone wants this harness I made, I could make a little sweatshirt harness and sell it for a fraction of the price.
Fetish has been a big inspiration for you. How has your relationship with fetish changed?
I’ve toned it down a bit. I started off in a fetish world that wasn’t very fashion. It was more about a release and it translated into Ashton Michael. The older I get, the more comfortable I am within myself. I don’t need to put a ball-gag and a face mask on someone, I can take the silhouette and adapt it into something that’s more wearable, more household-friendly.
I think fetish was a way for me to escape, to become a different person. It’s that weird scenario where a Wall Street banker hires this woman to spank him and I sort of felt the same way! I have to be the boss every day and some days I just don’t want to be and that happens to be in the bedroom!
You said before aggressive sex was an inspiration…
It still is! Fashion has the ability to translate so much emotion and as an artist using that medium, it comes out unintentionally. I always want you to be either empowered or feel submissive or sexy. I want you to feel a different energy through the clothes.
One thing I know you have also been busy making in this time of Covid-19 is masks for those in need. That’s great!
Yes, I had sent my employees home, and sat there alone thinking how much worse this was going to get because our fucking leader is an idiot. So I started making masks for the elderly gay community in care homes – most of them don’t have offspring to help them and a lot of their peers are dead. Also making these masks, just doing the same pattern over and over again, it was therapeutic for me too! I had Stevie Nicks on and was twirling around my studio.
Then I put a simple mask pattern online, but some people wrote to me saying they didn’t have technology to print it, so my assistant and I started mailing hard copies. Other people wrote to me saying they didn’t have fabrics, so I shipped them the material. It went from something cute and donation-y to being like, ‘You opened up Pandora’s Box, bitch!’ But it was a no-brainer. I felt like this is what I was supposed to be doing. We even have the cops coming by now, asking for masks which is hilarious, so I made specific ones for them out of black fabric because I couldn’t have them walking down the street like a fucking rainbow!
Are you getting some trade walking in through your door then?!
Actually, yes! Some beardy, beefy hot ones. But only then to find out they were drifter drug addicts whose beards were for function, not fashion, and asking to use my bathroom!
Now, besides the police, you have worked with so many incredible artists. Who was the first to take that leap of faith with you?
American Idol. I know that sounds super-weird, but I was really young, I had just left my first brand and had started to work there with Marco actually. One of the contestants, Blake Lewis, who is still one of my dearest friends, asked me to dress him for the finale. That was monumental, American Idol was the show, especially in the days pre-social media.
That really opened up a tonne of doors to record labels and management and it showed that I was the face of something. I was so grateful to him. I had done things with Britney Spears and people but it was like a music video here and there. It didn’t feel as special because with Blake I felt someone else who believed in me. We were the same age and working on the same platform at that time. It was like, ‘This is so special, this is my tribe.’ You really build a community by bringing up the people around you.
With so many celebrities on your client list, do you feel pressure to keep the calibre as high as it is now?
Actually I feel more since the show. I’ve always been very much under the radar until Next in Fashion. I never once put a picture of myself on Instagram because I never wanted to be the face of it. I wanted my work to speak for itself.
Hmmm, I think I saw a photo of you in a jockstrap at Folsom Street Fair….
There was one! Haha…I think that picture was me and Jonny at Folsom actually!
But tell me about this pressure, do you feel it?
Yeah, there always has to be a level of reinvention. Just because you dressed someone one time, people don’t care about it five minutes later. You always have to be doing the next artist, the next video, the next tour and that is taxing. There’s a constant need to not only get bigger, consistent clients but also the new, up and coming artists who are going to take over.
The power of a good outfit is amazing because I have zero interest in Post Malone, but seeing the outfits you’ve put him in is making me reconsider.
You know what’s funny? When I first heard about him, I was like, ‘Oh my God, he looks like a scumbag. He looks like…me!’ Then I listened to his music and was like, ‘Oh you’re a real musician.’ He’s a singer/songwriter. He is smart. He’s not classically attractive by industry standards and he’s white and a rapper. That’s like the worst kind of movie you could ever imagine. But he’s comfortable in his body, he’s hilarious, so sweet and if you listen to his music, the lyrics are really good and he actually writes the music. I gained so much respect after working with him and getting to listen to him as an artist. He trusts his creative team and Cathy Hahn to steer him outside the box and onto the Number One best-dressed list. Mad respect for him!
Lastly we are named after the biggest selling single of 2001, so we ask everyone, what is your favourite Mariah Carey song?
Oh my God. Marco actually worked with her but ‘Shake It Off’ is my favourite because that’s how someone broke it off with me! They left that song on my voicemail. I just fell out laughing. To leave me that on a voicemail is epic!
