Come Dine With Me… Aaron Esh

“I want to take the ideas of luxury, sophistication, elegance and chicness, and dress that boy walking down Kingsland High Street,” Aaron Esh tells us over plum negronis. We love this emerging designer’s irreverent and off-kilter style; each of his collections a sartorial love letter to his home city, London. Since graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2022, his eponymous label started snowballing and the rest is history…

After a “bit of a rollercoaster of a year”, his third season just landed and, to celebrate his Browns debut, we met up with the rising star at one of his favourite local spots in the capital. Read on to discover more about his tastes in both fashion and food, and whet your appetite for your next sartorial update.

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Where are you and what are you eating / drinking?
I’m in Tehran Berlin (aka The Drunken Butler), eating tahdig and drinking a plum negroni.

Why did you choose this spot?
I came here on a date with my partner and wanted to come back for the good vibes. It’s close to where I grew up, and I love the food and intimate atmosphere. It’s very chic!

What’s your favourite thing on the menu?
The tahdig, their signature dish made from pan-fried rice with a crispy potato top.

Let’s talk about the ingredients that make up your career. What are they? How did you get started?
Any startup is hard, but fashion is so fast moving and has so many factors. You need to be the designer, production manager, PR agent and, above all, an entrepreneur. All whilst managing finance, the studio and interns. Doing all of this on a startup business budget takes real focus, conviction and belief in yourself and your vision.

Your work is a mixture of deftly sexy, refined and methodically dishevelled. How do you find the balance between the flavours?
The clothes my friends wear and how they wear them really inspires me. I’m from London, and the visual codes and identity of the city really comes through the fashions. We juxtapose that inspiration against fashion references, whether that’s old couture, art direction, mood and colour. A big part of my work is the city and where I grew up, so taking those very real references and using them within our fashion references feels very Aaron Esh. The brand has all the hallmarks of luxury, amazing fabric, amazing finish, beautiful tailoring - but rooted within reality.

How do you cook up an idea? Talk us through your creative process.
Design is born out of research. We spend a lot of time researching within the team, from the start of a season all the way to the end. We go to vintage stores, old military warehouses and scour through eBay, Vestiaire and Depop. And it’s not only purely clothes - it’s about the details, finishes, moods, art, films, objects and music. Once we build that database, it’s essentially collaging the ideas together in our handwriting to form the direction.

In your opinion, who has excellent taste?
Fabio Piras - he was my MA course director at Central Saint Martins. A terrifying man who scared us all, but who has incredible taste. The best taste of anyone I’ve ever met.

Now for the fun questions…. Favourite thing to eat?
Any Polish food. Pierogi makes me feel very nostalgic because I’m half Polish and reminds me of my mum at Christmas.

Least favourite thing to eat?
Oysters (ew!).

What one food / drink can’t you live without?
Coffee! Being a young business owner and fashion designer, it’s lots of hours, and my life is consumed by caffeine.

What would your last meal be?
Veal schnitzel and pierogi because it gives me the feeling of my mum.

If you could only eat one cuisine for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I’m half Cypriot and I live on Kingsland Road, so it’s got to be anything Mediterranean.

What's your favourite restaurant in the whole world?
Ichiran in Shibuya, Tokyo. They serve the ramen out of a shutter. I could have eaten there every day, it was all so incredible.

What three people (living or dead) are at your dream dinner table?
From a fashion perspective... Raf Simons, Jonathan Anderson and Lee McQueen.

In life, what’s the best recipe for success?
Authenticity, drive and a very clear point of view. You have to be blinker focussed on what you want to do and believe in your vision.

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Photography: Jonathan Middleton
Video: Steve Turvey
Words: Sophy Davis Russell