Welcome to The Close-Up, where the biggest names in entertainment explain the story behind their latest personal style statement.
It's been a Hot Firsts Summer for singer Ashe. After years of performing solo, she teamed up with her longtime collaborator and friend, Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Finneas, to form their official first band, The Favors. The day after their latest single, "The Hudson," dropped, she jetted from New York City to the Hamptons for her first visit to the East End summer destination.
This wasn't your typical Summer House-lite weekend. Ashe traveled east to toast another first for Chanel: The Hamptons Summer Salon, a private, by-appointment-only boutique held at The Hedges Inn. She officially launched the luxury fashion destination with an intimate performance for tastemakers, featuring her biggest singles (like the situationalship anthem "Another Man's Jeans") and crowd-pleasing covers. ("I did 'Unwritten,' a Natasha Bedingfield cover, because I was like, Give the people what they want, you know?")
"It was such an intimate setting," Ashe tells me the morning after as she takes a serene walk around town. "I haven't played in a scenario like that in a long time, where people are so close to me, and they were so lovely. I mean, everywhere I turned, as I was singing, they were all smiling up at me."
A beachy crochet dress or jeans with a tank top might work for daytime in the vacation enclave, but she wanted to get onstage in an outfit that felt more elegant. The brand sent over several Chanel signature pieces to choose from, she says: "lots of black and cream," runway-ified denim. As much as she appreciated the classics, she was looking for something bolder. "I'm performing for the first time in the Hamptons with this iconic brand. I want to make an impression!"
Her eye was drawn to the lone splash of color on the rack. "Then there was this one dress that was like a sorbet," she says. It was a 2019/20 Métiers d'Art silk and muslin dress in sunset tones of orange and pink, flowing from a high neckline into knife pleats that kissed the floor.
Lately, Grace Kelly, actress and Princess of Monaco, has been Ashe's biggest style inspiration. (See her recent vintage hair scarf stylings on the press circuit for proof.) She sensed the late royal's timeless and elegant style in the gown's flowing silhouette and splashes of nostalgic color. Add the coordinating bodysuit underneath, and she was sold. "I put the dress on and then I was like, Oh gosh, that feels very me."
A dress that screams "Ashe" hasn't always referenced a style icon of the 1950s. "My performance styles have taken on so many different lives," the singer says. "I went through a very Diane Keaton, turtlenecks-and-ties phase in the beginning of my career, and it's morphed over the years. Now, I think I've been looking for a very unfussy and nostalgic feeling."
Retro scarves, Old Hollywood curls, and sorbet Chanel dresses might be her style now, but Ashe is open to her aesthetic evolving with her sound. "I think it's taken years to find my specific groove and what makes me feel so authentically me. So I feel like I'm just starting to get there—but I'm still experimenting."
Her music is also reaching an important point now that she's officially teaming up with her longtime friend. "Obviously, as Billie [Eilish]'s brother, he has so much experience and wisdom in supporting somebody else," Ashe says of her bandmate. "He's really stepped into that role with me as well. I think there might have been a nervousness initially, too, like, oh gosh, I don't wanna feel small or in the shadow? And it hasn't, not once has it felt like that."
With the annual Wimbledon tournament wrapping up in the background of our call, she offers a timely metaphor to explain their dynamic: "In tennis, they call it playing up. When you're getting matched with like a pro player, and if you can play up to them, it kind of shows you, oh, you're that good, too. "
Working with Finneas, "I feel like I've been playing up, and I'm just having the time of my life."
Between the release of her latest song via The Favors and her first Hamptons getaway, "It really felt like a glitch in the simulation," Ashe laughs. "I kind of am shaking my head like, This definitely can't be real. But at the same time, I'm feeling so confident and grateful."
Before she hangs up to enjoy the rest of her peaceful morning walk, Ashe tells me her goal all along with her Hamptons styling. "If [people] don't know me, I want them to go, why don't I know her? Who is that?"
I tapped through some Instagram Stories posted by editors and general fashion people in attendance shortly after our call. They'd captured Ashe's soulful Natasha Bedingfield cover and her original tracks with heart-eye emoji approval. The audience applauded her performance, shouting her name—dress mission accomplished.
