After two long years, New Delhi saw its first physical fashion show. On a breezy March evening, couturier Rahul Mishra opened the FDCI x Lakmé Fashion Week at the Italian embassy’s lawns. Dotted with olive trees, it was the perfect setting for his latest collection, The Enchanted Garden. The mood board — which he describes as “a stroll through the garden of my nostalgic experiences and personal aspirations of building a studio home in the Himalayas” — was inspired by the time he spent in Italy as a student and his travels over the years.
“The collection is a continuation of our Paris couture line, The Enchanted. Often, a new idea is like a work-in-progress, and so this gave us an opportunity to explore it more and [bring into it] my thoughts of building a beautiful studio in the Himalayas,” says Mishra, explaining how the clothes echo the natural beauty of the mountains, the colour of the flowers, and the fields you find there. “My memories of Tuscany, of south of Italy, went into creating the set [at the Italian embassy] — of entering small, intimate kitchen gardens and having lunch under the sun,” he adds.
