It is a day before his show and Rahul Mishra is reflecting on the

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past two days of frantic preparation for Wills International Lifestyle Fashion week he has just undertaken since landing in Delhi from Mumbai. Of especial difficulty he says, was the issue of the transparency of the structured trench coats that form part of his show.

I had seen some of them in his Mumbai studio a few weeks ago, luminous silver lotus flower motifs woven into the fabric of the finest white chanderi. He explains that under the strong catwalk lighting and flashes of camera bulbs, the chanderi will become transparent — something which the show organisers are keen to address. A wardrobe malfunction kind of a moment is not what anyone wants to risk.

This means that Mishra has had to provide the models with heavier slips to wear underneath. It interferes with his vision of perfection; it could look ten times better than the show you will see he says. What Mishra would really prefer is to hang the chanderi coats and dresses in a white backlit space where their construction could be really appreciated but he is also mindful of the need to balance artistic expression with the practical demands of fashion show organisers and the needs of the buyers who will come to watch for beautiful, wearable clothes.

At the show itself, chanderi trench coats fitted to the body within a hairs breadth of precision, an exercise in the perfection of cut, structure and stitching from which the luminosity of the fabric and its lotus motifs emanates. It is a complete contradiction to use fine, fluid chanderi in this rigorously structured way. The effect is like delicate power dressing. As each new design is revealed on the catwalk the feeling is much like opening a box of brightly coloured jewels, hot pink, cerulean blue, yellow.

The chanderi trench coats are actually very wearable, perfect with the matching dresses or over a simple shirt and elegant pants for formal wear. For the second part of the 15 minute show, the handcrafted theme turns towards bandhani, bringing an unstructured more resort wear feel to the show. The bandhani is used to form controlled and delicate motifs such as leaves or peacocks across, for example, a dress with an asymmetrical drape flowing gracefully across and around the model as she walks to the rhythm of the music.

After the show I ask Sunil Sethi, president of the Fashion Design Council of India to reflect on what makes Rahul’s reworking of Indian handloom and crafts distinctive. Sethi explains, “The moment I see his creation on the ramp… you’re familiar with the fabric, but you’re not familiar with the whole silhouette… there is a simplicity… and yet anybody who understands textiles will see the complexity whether it is in the weave or in the construction or the detailing”.

Later in a conversation with Rahul, the theme of transparency comes up again when he is describing some of the difficulties he experienced with the chanderi weaving process. Again cloth placed underneath has been the solution, although unlike the catwalk show, this time it was a desirable addition. White cloth was placed underneath to help the weavers undertake the task of weaving black chanderi, much more difficult he explains, where pit looms cast shadows over the black fabric.

For this reason he says, weavers prefer to weave white fabric, hence most of his collection evolved into whites left pure or dyed. These anecdotes connect much of the complex way in which this young designer approaches each collection. He graduated from the National Institute of Design (NID) winning the best student designer of the year award in 2005. He went on to become the first non-European designer to win the highly competitive full scholarship at the Milan based Istituto Marangoni for a Masters in Fashion Design. Afterwards, in 2008, he decided to return to India. He insists that he is, first and foremost, a designer mandated with finding solutions for handloom crafts. His conversations around the design process become passionate explanations of the conceptual and practical ways in which this is achieved.

Mishra reflects upon the current status of India within the international fashion industry. He sees no reason why India shouldn’t become a key player with its own distinct identity. This springs from a strong feeling that whilst the traditions of European luxury, art, craft and culture grew from the wealth garnered in the era of colonial expansion and in more recent times American culture has dominated through globalisation, the time has come for this to be “India’s century”. For his designs it means they have to have international appeal but based on Indian identity. Hence classic trench coats made from fine chanderi fabric. “I know this is something no one else could do.”

As Sethi notes, “…we have to be Indian, but we have to reinvent ourselves and Rahul does that very well. It’s all about India. Wearing your Indianness on your sleeve is being proud of who you are.”

Indeed a very distinct vision of Indian luxury undergirds what Mishra does. He explains to me, “India is shining, but not on everyone.” This drives him to ask of his design, “How do I include deprived weavers, make them stakeholders?” He continues, “So with chanderi that I will show tomorrow, I will then make an order of 5,000 metres… that is a year’s work for the weavers I work with.” He is also emphatic about what weavers are paid noting that he can absorb paying them a premium through the higher margins for handloom that is crafted for high-end markets.

Key is reinventing traditional handloom textiles and crafts in ways which connect them to these markets; but this also means finding ways to overcome the trend-led seasonal nature of the fashion industry by finding new interpretations for the fabrics each year.

To this end, the latest venture Mishra is undertaking is for the lucrative market in Saudi Arabia. Large luxury brands are keen to cater to the Saudi market and designer abayas are big business with luxury brands including Gucci and Hermès designing matching accessories such as scarves and bags specifically for this market. In a venture with a Saudi company he is making designer abayas from hand spun, hand woven khadi, first used in his collections almost two years ago, continuing to connect the livelihoods of weavers to prime luxury clothing markets.

He also has a strong presence in the domestic Indian market, retailing through stores such as Ogaan, Bombay Electric, White, Ensemble, Aza and Taj Khazana outlets. The chanderi trench coats from the SS/ 11 collection will enter these stores around the first week of March 2011 costing between Rs 7,000 and Rs 14,000 for pieces from the chanderi or bandhani collections.

Mishra is emphatic when he says, “I am lucky to be born at this time, to be a young Indian at a time when India is growing. In Milan they said to me, yes you could stay here, be successful driving a Ferrari, but India is the next big thing, you can do a lot there. There is enough inspiration in India to keep me going for many lives.”

(The author is an anthropologist specialising in sustainable fashion and is currently writing her doctoral thesis on sustainable and ethical consumption within India. She also researches how luxury brands can innovate on their excellence in creativity, design and materials to address 21st century challenges of climate change and loss of biodiversity as well as labour rights in global supply chains. Phyllida is luxury editor at Financial Chronicle.)