The official Paris Haute Couture calendar now includes designers from across the globe
From Paris to H&M
Being accepted as worthy to join the creative fashion elite is a rare rite of passage in Paris – especially if you come from outside Europe. But two designers have made that exceptional step forward. Significantly, neither of them – Rahul Mishra from India and Imane Ayissi, a Cameroonian in Paris – made a dramatic design statement. Instead, they each showed the skill and craftsmanship that had brought them to this exalted position.
© Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty
.The shows took place on the final day of the Paris Haute Couture season, and by sheer coincidence, just when H&M announced that its designer of the season is the fabled Sabyasachi, from India. From April 2020, his vivid colours and exceptional bridalwear will be on sale in the same high-street collaboration first launched with Karl Lagerfeld back in 2004.
© Thierry Chesnot/Getty
Rahul Mishra: Nature Lover
The Indian designer, who has been showing in Paris for more than five years, launched his collection with an intelligent statement: “One often needs to step away from home to look at it from a distant lens,” he stated. “The privilege of travel enables the genesis of fresh perspectives and fuels us to look deeper within ourselves.”
This “stepping away” turned out to be literal, taking his four-year-old daughter from the smoggy pollution of New Delhi to a “virginal, untamed” area in the foothills of the Himalayas and its “pristine presence of wilderness”.
Rahul Mishra’s words were poetic and introduced a collection that had more white than could be imagined by people who see India entirely as a country of vivid colour. The designer did produce bright shades – sunshine yellow, pretty pink or a flurry of flowers – but there was something pure and even innocent in the opening nine white dresses, with handworked fringed edging. That gave a three-dimensional feel to the airy lightness of organza.
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Where another creative Indian designer might have been obsessed with statement dresses to compete with the world of saris, Mishra’s strength is his subtlety, hiring over a thousand artisans from the Indian craft community. They have the nimble fingers to produce an entire flowerbed of leaves, blooms, butterflies and maybe a snake and a wild animal – all in just one dress.
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The designer was eager to explain how the collection was made. “A lot of hand sewing, but also a lot of machine garments,” Rahul said. “A bit of leaf textures we have cut by hand and then again with embroidery. So there’s a lot of involvement by hand but a bit of technology, making a great combination.”
© Kay-Paris Fernandes/Getty
Such sophistication and skill in creation – not to mention the thoughtful view of Planet Earth – make Mishra more than worthy of Paris Haute Couture’s official embrace.
Imane Ayissi: African Elegance
A man of many talents, Imane Ayissi – dancer, performance artist, model and now couturier – made history this Paris couture season. He is the first designer from Sub-Saharan Africa to be invited to show an Haute Couture collection.
© Photo: Estrop/Getty. Imane Ayissi Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2020
The 51-year-old Cameroonian designer has a storied past, with a father who was a champion boxer, a mother who was a former Miss Cameroon, and his own previous career as a professional dancer.
His performances as a high-end model for major houses introduced him to the concept of a career in clothing. Gradually, he realised that he had his own story to tell off the runway – but differently to the familiar African beat.
“Africa is a continent, not a country,” is Imane’s mantra, as he explains his belief in fashion diversity, mixing European style with African skills and excluding anything that he sees as a colonial, such as wax prints.
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Although for Spring/Summer 2020 the designer used raffia, threads from Burkina Faso, and indigo dye from Cameroon (not to mention fermented mud), the result was infinitely more luxurious than the list of materials sounds.
© Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP/Getty
Threads of green silk swaying over crab-pink satin trousers (see detail above) or a dress with interlocking stripes in shades of brown and white cloth, underscored the Parisian influence.
But Imane Ayissi had a sophisticated way of making Africa part of the collection’s heart, even using a highly sophisticated hand-woven material decorated with “obom” – the bark of a tropical tree.
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