Rahul Mishra Couture Spring 2022
While confined at home in India early in the coronavirus pandemic, Rahul Mishra began thinking of finding a creative space in the Himalaya region, where he could be surrounded by nature. That dream — festooned with flowers and alight with butterflies — started becoming reality when he purchased a small tract of land there and worked up a 3D house rendering.
A mood board bloomed with flowers from his fantasy wild garden. The natural setting of this “is where you can create and the world becomes a canvas,” Mishra explained. “I got enchanted with this idea.”
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Thus, The Enchanted became the name of his spring collection, which is a case study of flowers — individual, combined or in landscapes — from various perspectives and in different weather conditions or times of day. “I want to create moving canvas,” he said.
And Mishra did just that. One embroidered dress with voluminous sleeves has, from top down, a skyscape with swirling clouds, trees, multicolor hills and flowers. Another, with a plunging V-neck, looks to be made of large red, pink and white embroidered petals. Giant petals, in pink, white and green, make up the sleeves of a fringed pink dress.
Mishra played extensively with volumes, saying he wanted to express the silhouette of round flowers in some garments, and the wide expanse of wind and sky in others.
There’s a joyous, transporting feeling to this collection, which was captured in a film lensed in the studio next door to Mishra’s new office in Delhi. He filled it with flowers and plants, wanting to create a futuristic, “Avatar”-like feeling. Models appear almost camouflaged in this otherworldly space.
“For us, this was all about creating a bit of fantasy, those mythical creatures,” Mishra said.
Launch Gallery: Rahul Mishra Couture Spring 2022
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