“I want to paint the air in which the bridge, the house and the boat are to be found – the beauty of the air around them, and that is nothing less than impossible”
-Claude Monet
World renowned designer RAHUL MISHRA presented his latest couture collection ‘Malhausi Monaco’ recently at India Couture Week 2019. The collection was as beautiful as a poem; every design walking through the ramp seemed like beautiful verses. The show was in association with ‘Visit Monaco’ theme, hence the ramp was designed as a serene lane of Monaco, with flowers hanging from lamp-posts, a cosy coffee shop in the corner, and so much emphasis on natural surroundings. Have a look:
The couture as I mentioned earlier, was like a beautiful poem which seeps though your eyes and makes special place in your heart. The collection didn’t need any Bollywood celebrity as showstopper as every design was a showstopper in itself. While addressing the media RAHUL MISHRA said, “Artists, I think, are like stars – an unending source of light and we are like planets – taking light from them to fuel our imagination. There is a strong connection between humans and nature enveloped delicately between the colorful flowers and the fragrant air around them. And this bond prolongs through time and distance.” These words reemphasize that nature and its beauty has played very vital role while creating ‘Malhausi Manoca’ couture for Rahul, and in his collection, two- and three- dimensional hand embroidered surfaces have been created with dainty crystals and silken threads to imitate lush foliage and youthful nature.
RAHUL MISHRA drew inspiration from the work and words of Claude Monet, a famous French painter whose work gave a name to the art movement Impressionism; an art form capturing light and natural forms. Rahul said,” I find myself moved by the magnitude of emotion behind his art. It rises to a degree where all that is important in the end is how we feel while creating and not the creation itself. ” We all witnessed the same while watching the show, every design was unique and it was visible that every ensemble was a masterpiece! Malhausi Monaco celebrates the emotion associated with a joyous human interaction with nature and an inherent walk along the memories of the same picturesque dwellings. Have a look:
Some excerpts from RAHUL MISHRA’s media address:
“Fleeting through time, piling memories from different phases of life, some memories bury themselves deep in our hearts and sprout like seeds to resurface later.I still slip into a memory of a February morning vividly imprinted on my mind as with the soft rays of sun breaking through the departing cold, falling diagonally on bright marigolds planted in hundreds along the brick walls of my childhood home in the village of Malhausi; the vision of paper-like Bougainvillea hugging the wall in its full bloom. We embraced nature and its beauty like we embraced our kin.”
“Strolling on the streets on Monaco, under a familiar blue sky, touched by the light breeze of fresh air – the scant feeling of the same home enclosed my conscience. There was no similarity in what I saw with what I had come to achingly reminisce, but to my bewilderment, what I felt was identical – a quaint celebration of nature and a co-dwelling of elements innate and otherwise.”
“This collection is an attempt to paint the emotion that riles up your normal and takes you into a euphoric bliss. The surfaces are a work of artistic memory and emotions triggered by a startling flashback of the picturesque nature dwellings. It is an inquisitive articulation of feelings, independent of any direct physical sources of inspiration. Like a painting, we have filled our canvas with visuals that fell into our vivid stream of our thoughts; two- and three- dimensional hand embroidered surfaces have been created with dainty crystals and silken threads to imitate lush foliage and youthful nature. Besides the layers of silk organza being hand embroidered, cut and individually tacked on to light tulle, this collection entails a mix of authentic Indian embroidery techniques such as, aari, zardozi and murri stitches. With silhouettes this time, the focus is on the versatility of the individual pieces with more emphasis on the craftsmanship and detail. Many silhouettes are also formed with the three dimensional embroidery itself lending an organic shape to the garments.”
