Rahul Mishra’s collection had fabrics like wool, Banarasi tissues and metallic yarns apart from his favourite Chanderi. S Mallik finds out that his pieces were a perfect blend of traditional designs and modern thought
Black bomber jackets brightly yet intricately embroidered with punk, green, yellow and red, teamed with a flared black lehnga was one of the 34 couture pieces with which designer Rahul Mishra debuted at the Amazon India Couture Week ramp. He stole hearts with his collection of functional couture, titled Tree of life, which married the Indian traditional designs with modern thoughts. Most of the pieces were inspired by the Indian chintz tradition of floral motifs.
He let his designs do all the talking as the models sashayed down the ramp, which was devoid of any decorative set-up (signature of Mishra’s show). The designer’s love for Chanderi is knows, so it was no surprise to see some beautiful saree gowns in the fabric. What lent more beauty to those pieces were the trench coats that were paired with it. He told us that the collection used materials like wool, metallic yarns, silk, and cotton and Banarasi tissues. “This collection looks seamless but it has truckloads variety of all possible natural yarns,” said the designer.
Post show, he told us that most of the pieces has been made 90 per cent in the village of India. “A group of embroiders were working from Dharavi. So we used the process of reverse migration and sent almost 30-40 people back to their villages,” he said.
He does not believe in the philosophy that a woman has to drape from neck to toe in any designer wear. He lets his creations remain composite, so that the modern day woman can either team an ornamental ghagra with a fashionable or simple t-shirt and also has the liberty to pair an embroidered bomber jacket with denims. “In the West no one dresses up in a complete designer wear, except may be for a cocktail dress. They always mix and match designer labels with ordinary garments from their wardrobe,” he pointed out.
Speaking about the ‘functional couture’ he said that the thought and the inspiration came from his wife. These pieces are for the modern woman; he said and told us about his wife. “It’s the way she multitasks. She is like a boss in office and at home she is caring wife, taking care of each and everything. A woman is strong but at the same time loves her feminity. She does not shying away from her feminity, she is proud of it. She is soft but she is strong. This duality inspired me a lot,” he wrapped up.
photo Sanjeev Kumar