Why Rahul Mishra is betting on ready-to-wear

Darshan Mehta, MD at Reliance Brands Limited (RBL) with Rahul Mishra

Rahul Mishra and Reliance Brands Limited will embark on a collaborative journey to create and own a new ready-to-wear (RTW) brand through a 60:40 joint venture, it was announced on Monday. While the name of the brand is not decided yet, Mishra will take on the role of its creative director. "The journey of the to-be-launched, ready-to-wear line of clothing and accessories, ‘by Rahul Mishra', promises to be both exciting and unconventional," says Darshan Mehta, managing director at Reliance Brands Limited. The launch of the first capsule collection is planned for September at one of the international fashion weeks. "The intent from the start is to target the global consumer. The first store both online and physical would, in all probability, be either in London, New York or Dubai," Mehta adds.

The Rahul Mishra brand today is a synonym for all the totems of high-craft quotient couture. In January 2020, he became the first Indian designer to showcase at Paris Haute Couture Week and continues to participate every season. But his remarkable career began with RTW. His debut collection in 2006 focused singularly on the off-the-rack reversible jackets made from Kerala's mundu fabric, and so did his Woolmark Prize winning collection in 2014. "It (RTW) has been the biggest DNA of the brand. We have showcased at Paris Fashion Week for 13 seasons, housed it at retail outlets like Colette, 10 Corso Como, and online platforms Moda Operandi and Farfetch," says Mishra on phone from Delhi. "So I can't say we are reviving it but with the partnership we want to give RTW its due, and all the extra love and care and a solo showcase [at a global fashion week] it deserves," explains Mishra.

Dune and Euphoria actor Zendaya was snapped wearing a Rahul Mishra outfit that costs $5,000 from his Paris Haute Couture Week Spring 2020 collection at a red carpet event in New York. "She [Zendaya] is an epitome of youth and it was a big milestone that she chose to wear my piece," Mishra had told mid-day in February 2020

With couture, Mishra says, it's a larger canvas - "a lot of costume and theatre" - which satiates his artistic side. "[But] Not everything I make in couture is wearable. I know it," Mishra admits with a laugh. "If I'm exercising my artistic freedom in couture then with RTW I want it to imbue our crafts, and be inclusive of not only people who create the artisanal separates but of the customers who will buy and wear it. It's a mutual joy shared through one outfit." In terms of classifying the collections in what feels now like superfluous binary slots, Mishra says: "[Like my couture pieces], it's just clothes and whoever is comfortable wearing them - as per your size and shape - can have them."

What's more? Mishra explains that the RTW products will employ far more people than his couture brand can even dream of. "A couture garment can take 1,000 human hours to make which becomes expensive and perhaps less accessible. In contrast, a RTW garment could take up to 100 hours to make, and it's far more accessible."

Mishra's mantra in life and design is fairly easy and mostly relatable. " I have no secret recipe. I don't dream small but big and then I obsessively share it with my design team, my embroiderers and tailors and include them in it, making it our common dream."