Ace Indian Fashion Designer Rahul Mishra Couture Spring 2023

We as humans, lie at a fascinating junction between two infinite worlds. Looking outwards, we face the
boundless, ever-expanding interstellar space and inwards, we preserve the illimitable, all-containing human mind. Like a thin membrane between two identical planes—not separating but not combined either—our physical bodies are embraced by realities that are vast and bewildering.

Rahul Mishra’s Cosmos is a vision of physical reality founded in the utmost truth of our being—originating from the Sanskrit statement ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ which informs, ‘I am the cosmos’. It tries to understand if the world that surrounds us may be a construction of stimulations interpreted by the human brain, and if the universe within us may be a replication of the physical reality we are a minuscule part of. With this collection, we break the linearity of comprehension with inclusion of fantasy.
Light years apart yet set on the same horizon, there are galaxies in the vacuum constantly originating and fading. Who is to say that they aren’t contained in a single water droplet, and who will deny that the droplet lies in an ocean. The piercing gaze of an eagle comprehends the world below it, in a manner that a small ladybug cannot fathom. And this season, our ‘Cosmos’ expands from human landscape into the beyond —the sunken city of Atlantis, gleaming in gold over a vivid coral reef as streams of salt water flow above the atmosphere curtailing celestial bodies, planets and planetoids. The collection is explained by the beauty that surrounds us through nature and how humans may wish to interact with it

Some pieces observe the gaze on human dwellings as behemothic ecosystems burgeoning towards the sky akin to weed, while others look to our fellow species experiencing life in imaginative habitats. While one person’s cosmos may be within the members of their family, another’s may be in the mirror. Like a million atoms enclosed in a water droplet, we observe several stories through this collection but most of all, our ‘Cosmos’ speaks of yearning. A yearning for a beautiful world, full of magic.

Realised in two and three dimensional hand embroidery complemented by elements made in hand casted recycled brass that are gold plated and encrusted with Swarovski crystals, this collection becomes our most exuberant effort at surface development. Hand crafted across villages of India, each separate generates employment for over three thousand human hours on an average. Articulated from age-old traditional Indian craft techniques, the application speaks to a global couture consumer of today. Striving to be ‘art’, while remaining ‘fashion’ the collection remains independent of trends and aspires to retain the whimsy of ‘classic’.

Each element from our ‘Cosmos’ is proudly made in India, with love, for the world.