Architecture meets art in Rahul Mishra’s 2021 Paris Haute Couture Week showing

Arguably one of the finest voices in global fashion right now, Mishra has interpreted Santorini as an idea in the beautifully structured garments in this collection. The white houses, the blue dome-like roofs, the pink bougainvillea, the brilliant sky are appliquéd and abstractly embroidered on the garments.

“I took cues from Claude Monet’s art. In a conversation with journalist Herman Bang, Monet had said: ‘I am pursuing the impossible… I want to paint the air in which the bridge, the house, and the boat are to be found—the beauty of the air around them…’

The impressionist paintings of Monet define the collection and so do the five elements of earth, water, fire, air and space. “I wanted to make Santorini my own, much like how van Gogh made the sunflower his own,” he says.

The garments in the collection have a fluidity that mirrors the deep blue Aegean Sea, the blazing pink bougainvillea, the volcanic sky colour, and the peculiar white and blue architecture of the Greek coastal paradise.

Rahul explores the earth or prithvi element by referencing the buildings in Santorini, with their sense of lightness and their curved edges “that are shaped by the wind”. Embroidered in clusters on the swirling appliquéd garments are the unmistakable buildings and the unique cityscape.

“I have approached the design as a city planner would,” says Mishra, who has been studying a foundation course in architecture over the last year or so. The glistening blue sea (an element of water) is translated into shimmering sequins on a blue ombre fabric base.

Fire finds a fiery canvas in layered tulle, dyed in orange and coral pink, over highly structured and patterned silhouettes. “The element of air is represented by how the wind engulfs the bougainvillaea flowers and shapes Santorini.” There are dreamy clouds embroidered on tulle. “It is like an all-encompassing bubble or a cluster of waves.”

The embroidery is all French knot, a technique Mishra has perfected since he first used it as part of his International Woolmark winning 2013/14 collection. Most of his karigaars have been with him for years, even moving from Mumbai to Noida, and whom he credits as co-creators.

For The Shape of Air, Mishra has put both craftsmanship and patternmaking at the centre of his work. About that architectural structuring that permeates the collection, he says, “Architecture is translated here in the way the garment flows. One of the challenging parts of designing the collection was an attempt to capture the fluidity of water. I wanted to achieve a tactile quality that would ensure the garment gently flows around the woman when she walks.”

Mishra shot the visual extravaganza at Film City in Noida with an Indian crew, models, a home-grown beauty brand called asa, and artists Ruchi Bakshi and Sanjeev Sharma whose installation, Winds of Change, has been used in the fashion film.

This is Mishra’s seventh year of showcasing in Paris and the second year at the Paris Haute Couture Week, a mecca for designers to show collections that are high on breakthrough ideas and art. While he has a thriving business in India that particularly picks up during the festive and wedding seasons, Paris has offered him a global platform.

“Today the world of fashion is far more inclusive, as movements like Black Lives Matter and other such inspire fashion, just as it informs other arts. But Paris Fashion Week was inclusive years before inclusiveness became the buzzword. What you make out of that platform depends on your tenacity and ability to reinvent yourself, season after season," says Mishra. "It takes at least two to three years to create a brand recall, it requires deep pockets, and more importantly, you need to move on from your last success and reinvent.”

"To observe infinite details and be inspired by them… isn’t that what travel is about?”