The Forgotten ​​​​​​​Craft

An artist and storyteller in both the couture and bridal spaces, designer Rahul Mishra gives us a new moodboard of dreamy, lightweight weaves and intricate botanical flourishes.

- Sanhati Banerjee

It is not the product but the process that goes into its making that interests me,” said Rahul Mishra nonchalantly as he walked along the cobbled pathway, serenaded by unmanicured rows of greens and blooms, in the Garden of Five Senses. It was his first time at this mystical garden overlooking the Qutab Minar, right in the heart of the erstwhile Delhi Sultanate, he informed us. As the unassuming designer walked along the curved lanes and marvelled at the untamed blooms, one couldn’t help but observe his fastidious love for nature, almost in the manner of a botanist dedicated to unravel the hidden layers of living stories embedded underneath the ornamental flowering trees and shapely foliage. And one would hardly expect that learner-like gaze from a designer whose collections have garnered attention from both critics and consumers alike at the Parisian haute couture runways. But then Mishra is not as much into the vocabulary of fashion as he is into its grammar and narrative.

It was a sultry, late summer day in August, with the clouds casting a grey haze over the inviting greens. We were happily resigned to a makeshift sitting space, a bare-minimum room in pale white, furnished with rudimentary chairs, a table, and a tall stand fan towering over us for the interview. The threadbare room was temporarily given a character of its own as the models got their final touch-ups done by the on-duty makeup artist in one corner, while a rack displayed a line-up of Mishra’s couture costumes from his latest collection showcased at the India Couture Week 2018.