The smaller the town, the bigger the dreams.
Take actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas or Chanel chief executive Leena Nair, both born in cities of less than 1 million inhabitants — tiny, compared to the 33 million living in Delhi and Mumbai’s nearly 22 million.
“They made it really big because in a small town, you have far more time to dream, to be yourself,” said their compatriot Rahul Mishra, who grew up in an even smaller village of 3,800 people. “Then you manifest the dream and that is where it takes you — to the next level.”
That dream-filled go-getter on the up-and-up is who he aimed to dress with the spring collection of his year-old ready-to-wear label AFEW Rahul Mishra.
Her wardrobe options included cropped t-shirts and crisp poplin shirt dresses scattered with embroidered flower patches; silk separates printed with the illustrations that serve as basis for Mishra’s couture embroideries; a tailored quilted jacket zhuzhed up with tone-on-tone embroideries, and denim decorated in long holographic sequins that looked like sci-fi feathers.
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“This girl always layers it up and makes it on her own. The idea is familiar silhouettes, global silhouettes with a few local techniques,” he said. “Whenever something is thrown her way, she likes to make things in her own way, developing her style from a culture.”
And taking appointments almost 10 years to the day since he made his runway debut in Paris, fresh off winning the 2014 International Woolmark Prize, Mishra was casting a critical eye on retail, intent on avoid the pitfall that await most new labels, particularly opening too many wholesale accounts with only a handful of pieces in each.
Instead, the company is taking the slow approach to retail. Its pieces have been present in Rahul Mishra’s boutiques and two dedicated stores are about to open in India. “Our average production per [reference] is around 60 to 70 pieces in the first year,” he said.
Internationally, AFEW Rahul Mishra is about to make its entrance at Saks in mid-October, with a shop-in-shop in several of the luxury department store’s doors, including New York’s Saks Fifth Avenue.
Meanwhile, Mishra’s couture label is making plans for a private salon in central Paris, with space for an atelier for embroiderers and tailors, a place he hopes will turn into an exchange center with French know-how.
