Rahul Mishra’s spring-summer 2015 showing at Paris Fashion Week in October, that combined wool and embroidery

The International Woolmark Prize this year has completely changed Rahul Mishra’s “life and idea of fashion”. And not just because he’s the first non-European to win the trophy. In town recently to launch his award-winning line at Bombaim (218 AJC Bose Road), the Delhi-based designer looked visibly overwhelmed with the global recognition coming his way. A t2 chat with Rahul who’s now looking for fresh inspiration...

How has life changed after your International Woolmark Prize win?

Life has become very busy. Quite a lot of expectations from around the globe. The launches started at Harvey Nichols, London; then we went to Colette, Paris’s fashion Mecca. Seeing your clothes displayed at Colette next to a Chanel or a Karl Lagerfeld, it is almost like scoring 400 runs in Tests throughout the year. We also got amazing support in Sydney. The wool industry in Australia is what agriculture is to India. So, we went to see the source. The media there told me that I was the biggest hope for the wool industry, which puts even more pressure on me! This has become larger than life. If you can consistently showcase and retail from Paris, New York, London and Milan… is your product fit enough to retail across the globe? That’s important. I am sitting here talking to you not as someone who won the Woolmark Prize, but as someone whose collection got sold out. I am feeling far more confident. This is the biggest validation I could have ever got from anywhere.

You are overwhelmed…

Very much! We have now become a permanent part of the Paris Fashion Week. I also did a show in Paris and am gearing up for a second showcasing there. I am also a mentor at the International Woolmark Prize this year. I will be in China for this year’s finals in March. So, suddenly a change of perspective. We got invites from all the fashion weeks across the world. We chose the best, which is Paris Fashion Week to showcase. Life has definitely changed. Vanessa Friedman of The New York Times tweeted will Rahul Mishra be the next Karl Lagerfeld! Are we actually ready for what people expect of us?

How are you handling this pressure?

Now it’s just about sustaining it and doing a better collection season after season. It is a challenging task but we are up for the challenge. There is pressure. Right now I am trying to take a little time off and sketch on flights. I am showing in Paris in February, showing autumn-winter again. I don’t think I am really the best when I am doing autumn-winter, but I got the prize for my autumn-winter collection, which looked very summery for sure!

Fashion is becoming trans-seasonal. You have beautiful transparency happening in autumn-winter, you have whites happening in autumn-winter. So, I am happy for this era where this ease is there... where I can choose my own textiles and showcase what I want to.

He picked up this lotus from the village — two hours drive from Calcutta — where he had gone to visit his embroiderers who worked with him on his Woolmark and Paris Fashion Week lines. Lotus and Merino wool were at the core of his Woolmark collection. Picture: Pabitra Das

Putting up a collection as good as Woolmark is really a challenge…

It is and doing something different. I am trying to discover something new. I am watching films, videos, graphic designers, artwork…. I am trying to unlearn and leave that high behind which came with Woolmark or my recent Paris Fashion Week outing. Suzy Menkes’s review gave me a lot of confidence. At the same time, I know that I cannot slip up. There is too much at stake, not just for your own brand but for someone young from India who is trying to change how Indian fashion is being perceived… sometimes through his colourless palette, sometimes through his craftsmanship which is layered….

It is also about managing supply and delivering a good-quality product. This prize has given a lot of confidence in the brand. Earlier people would reject handloom based on the lines that appear or the blackishness of the thread. Also, doing handloom in pure off-white and keeping it subtle, yet convincing people to buy at a healthy price point… 1,000 pounds per piece which is close to a lakh. So, when people are buying handloom from India at that price, it is a very different ball game altogether. When you are competing with the ultra-finished products of Dolce & Gabbana, Balenciaga, Stella McCartney or Alexander Mcqueen, it is the imperfectness of hand embroidery that makes it beautiful.

That makes them stand out?

Look around yourself. Anything with life needs to have imperfection. Why the clothes sold well was because they had that much more life. Clothes with life is also creating livelihood in small villages of India. We are trying to initiate reverse migration. The craftsmen were living in a slum in Mumbai… 20 people in a small room and they would be doing embroidery for the biggest of labels like Chanel and Prada. I am trying to bring them back to the villages where they belong. The whole Woolmark collection was done with that kind of an initiative in different parts of India. For me design is far more powerful if it is participatory.

Do you treat your designs like a canvas?

I do quite a lot. There is a lot of art. When I sketch I go into a completely different zone. I shut my door and put my music on, which I invariably use in my fashion show. I watch a lot of art. Right now I am looking at William Heath Robinson’s art… this is what I am looking at as an inspiration for my next collection. I don’t know how I am going to portray it, but I am loving the graphic feel. Stories are crucial for me. I don’t get inspired from fashion. I am also trying to derive inspiration from Dekho Kahi Chhut Na Jaye (folk tales) published by NGO Nirantar, for my next collection.

A jacket dress from the Woolmark line. “The lotus motif is derived from the Buddha’s belief that the eight-petal white lotus is the embryo of the universe. The lotus morphs into different structures,” he explained. Picture: Sandip Das

You said that you want to unlearn. Can you do that?

To create something new you have to start from scratch. You have to start with a clean slate. The Woolmark collection is a big monkey on my back. I have to make an effort. I watch a lot of visuals. Lines like, ‘We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for’ from Dead Poets Society inspire me. Sometimes even Kung Fu Panda inspires me. I have looked at the Woolmark collection for so long that I am losing interest, which is a good thing. It is a divine discontent from your own work.

Don’t you want to open a retail outlet of your own?

I don’t. That will put me in direct contact with the customer and I would become too commercial. We have expanded our unit though… becoming four times bigger by the end of next month. If I have to start from anywhere, it would be Paris.

Any collaborations coming up?

Rahul Mishra’s ready-to-wear line for the Indian market with Myntra next year.

What’s your dream?

I have given myself 10 years to make it to the list of most respected designers, like what Dries Van Noten is right now. I don’t know how it is going to happen!

Some of the international fashion hubs Rahul is present at:

•Saks Fifth Avenue

•Harvey Nichols

•Collete

•10 Corso Como

•Joyce

•David Jones

A day in the life of Rahul

•Gets up at 7am

•Goes for a jog

•Puja time, which might take as long as 45 minutes

•In office till 8pm-9pm