PERSONALLY SPEAKING

Designers are increasingly turning to nostalgia to shape the contours of their collections

- NIDA NAEEM

Growing up in India, we witness numerous instances of worshipping trees.

This inherent part of our culture manifests in different ways during the harvest festivals spread in regions across our subcontinent.

My grandmother would tie a hand-spun cotton thread around a banyan tree, not far from our house.

The memory of this routine, of the ladies of the house worshipping the tree to bless their families is a precious one.

This excerpt from the collection note for "The Tree Of Life', Rahul Mishra's Couture Fall 2022 collection, showcased both at Paris Haute Couture Week and FDCI India Couture Week 2022, gives away something fundamental about creative inspiration. And it is this: Deep in the trenches of memory live some images so powerful that they hold the potential to metamorphose into stunning manifestations of love and labour.

 FROM TRADITION TO COLLECTION

For Mishra, this core memory, profoundly tied to the bounty of nature and the celebration of life itself, took the form of intricately embellished surfaces articulating scenes from dense forests with ancient architectural remains and vegetation in modern-day silhouettes. Dramatic dresses with leg-of-mutton sleeves and leaner, structured layers all branched out into poppies, gilded leaves, and a myriad of flora rendered in lush two and three-dimensional embroidery.

The final collection was, at least aesthetically, a long way from the initial inspiration – and was arguably Mishra's most refined take yet on his signature, life-affirming maximalism.