India Couture Week 2019: Rahul Mishra's Show Is Proof That He Is A Fashion Poet

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What is the similarity between a small dusty and humble village of Uttar Pradesh and the historical and luxurious casino-dominated city of Europe? For us it would be easier to spot the differences but designer Rahul Mishra can see a connect between the bucolic village and bustling city - Malhausi and Monaco, respectively. Rahul Mishra showed the intricate similarities between the two otherwise diverse places in his collection, 'Malhausie To Monaco'. The sound of it only intrigued us and when the designer presented his collection at the FDCI India Couture Week 2019, we were able to see how articulately he brought out the theme in his heterogeneous mix of outfits.

Well, there is a reason veteran fashion critic and journalist, Suzy Menkes took to her Instagram once and posted a picture of her with Rahul Mishra and captioned it 'Rahul Mishra: a fashion poet from India in Paris'.

This collection was a continuation of his Autumn/Winter 2019 couture collection, which Rahul Mishra showed at Paris Fashion Week. However, this time, the audience was from his homeland, which gave him an opportunity to showcase the traditional outfits as well. Subsequently, apart from the short dresses, we saw lehengas, saris, and sherwanis on the ramp. But it wasn't as if the designer deliberately included Indian wears - in fact, there was a composition, a perspective, and a journey, which we felt he tried to bring out through his variety of ensembles.

Malhausie - a small village in Uttar Pradesh was where Rahul Mishra was born and he recently visited Monaco. So, how did he highlight his 'Malhausie to Monaco' story in his outits at India Couture Week 2019?

Now, if you happen to see Rahul Mishra's Instagram feed, you will come across a post, which shows a painting of a small home. A small portion of the facade of that home is festooned with bougainvillea flowers and there are marigold flowers in the backdrop, too. The caption also reads, 'Cool breeze flowing through a line of marigolds....' Well, according to us, flowers and light breeze should have been a connect between Monaco and Malhausie. And so, Rahul Mishra incorporated this floral effect in his traditional as well as western outfits. And a few flowy silhouettes also seemed to bring out that calm breeze effect.

A number of his ensembles particularly those dipped in black hue elaborated the lush greenery of forests around Monaco. And these black-coloured ensembles also came alive with vibrant floral accents, which seemed like an intricate similarity. There was a moment in the show, where a model rode a bicycle wearing an ivory floral sherwani and the front basket of the bicycle had two meticulously done stoles. He accessorised his look with dark shades. He looked very European with black sunglasses and a white-hued bicycle (if we have to stereotype a bit) but the sherwani was evidently Indian. So, yes, we are impressed that the designer also used props to highlight the similarity and gave us an instance of the global synthesis so interestingly.

Well, ivories, pistachio green, and black were not the only hues that dominated Rahul Mishra's collection. We also saw traditional red bridal outfits but we felt the colour red also represented the luxury and richness that Monaco offers. The red ensembles were painstakingly embellished and otherwise his collection, on the whole, was marked by three-dimensional embroidery. We found Rahul Mishra's collection at the FDCI India Couture Week 2019, absolutely poetic. Take a look!