One of India’s top fashion talent – Rahul Mishra showcased his Autumn/Winter 2015 collection on the last day at the Paris Fashion Week. His quiet statement (much in contrast to his compatriot Manish Arora’s loud ones) is heard loud and clear by the fashionistas of Paris. Foreign press caught onto Rahul Mishra’s statement – “For me, the best poetry happens when you are emotionally charged,” and agreed that Mishra is shaping into one of the fashion circuit’s poetic storytellers!
Rahul Mishra’s forte is textile and his intricate threadwork and that’s what he concentrated upon in his Fall 2015 collection. Colour palette was limited to ivory and flesh-pink and black and navy. Double-breast is trending for fall-winter 2015 and we saw Rahul sending some beautiful double-breast jackets paired over skirts. Some metal zipper detailing juxtaposed with his naive thread embroidery of birds, flowers and dotted star fields. Sheer panels provided a perfect view of Mishra’s naive embroidery of a village.
India’s two designers – Manish Arora, who has been showing in Paris for aeons now very easily cater to the western perception of kitschy and colorful India and is the master of pomp and show. Rahul Mishra comes with a look that breaks that typical perception of India and that shocks foreign press pleasantly and at times not so pleasantly – like one scribe wrote – “This collection didn’t feel like a departure from his earlier work, yet Mishra’s collection compels a look”. Rahul Mishra has to fight the stereotypical mindset and I am sure he will.