Architecture meets Fashion: Embroidering the patterns of Santorinian building

Embroidered buildings of Santorini, bougainvillea and water bodies grace new collection of designer Rahul Mishra at Paris Couture Week Fall 2021.

Painting and hand-embroidering the dwellings captured in his travel album from his past visit to Santorini, a greece island awash with blue, Delhi based designer came up with inviting designs presented at post pandemic this Paris Couture Week regular’s Fall collection.

Moved by the vivid colours of island, its buildings, the domes, alleys and stairs, he wished to paint the air in which the bridge, the house, and the boat and combine the elements like water, fire and earth defined the air in Santorini.

His team worked on mille feuille dresses and flirtatious organza gowns, with a truckload of tulle, layered, pinched and shaped into scallops, and the collection got its name.

The designer engaged many artisans & tailors to stich the delightful contrasts and takes pride in employing thousands of man & hours into the processes that go into each garment, Mishra wanted a departure from his recent fashion films. After January’s mushroom-themed collection — shot at a marble dump yard in Rajasthan, almost overwhelming in its stark whiteness — he opted for a black box. He gave credit to each person at the end of his six-minute film.

If one is to keenly observe the Couture, one will notice the embroidered buildings, bougainvillea and water bodies inside. The Shape of Air opened with a model striding towards the camera in a 3D hand-embroidered Hunchback cape set priced at ₹1,08,500.

Pattern-making, the construction of exaggerated sleeves and bubble outfits. Giving lightness to embroidery, architecture that is almost transparent,how to research city planning. And filmmaking: lighting, reflection and refraction.

He also intends to collaborate with Tata Steel lot of steel and recycled wood in the design.

Cover image by Grazia