Story by Editor-at-Large CAROLINA OGLIARO
“We don’t simply fall in love, we become it.” With this quietly profound statement, Rahul Mishra opens the door to his latest collection, a sartorial journey that transcends the conventional boundaries of fashion to explore love as an evolving, living force. “Becoming Love” is not simply a couture collection but an immersive meditation on the transformative power of love, articulated through fabric, embroidery, and artisanal mastery.
Informed by the mysticism of Sufism, Mishra’s collection traces love’s spiritual journey through seven stages: attraction, infatuation, surrender, reverence, devotion, obsession, and death.
The seven stages of love in Sufism chart a profound spiritual and emotional evolution. It begins with attraction, a gentle awareness and initial draw toward the beloved. This is followed by infatuation, where desire intensifies and the heart becomes restless. The third stage, surrender, marks the relinquishing of ego and control, opening fully to love’s power. Reverence comes next, embodying deep respect and awe for the beloved’s presence. This deepens into devotion, a steadfast commitment and longing that defines one’s purpose. The penultimate stage, obsession, reflects a consuming, all-encompassing passion where boundaries between self and other blur. Finally, the journey culminates in death, not literal, but symbolic of the self’s dissolution into oneness with the beloved, a quiet and transformative unity beyond individuality. This framework offers a poetic lens to understand love not just as a feeling, but as a transformative process of becoming.
These stages symbolize a passage not just of the heart but of the self, culminating in the poetic “death” where individuality dissolves into unity. The collection captures this progression through silhouettes that flow like verses in a timeless poem, each garment a stanza, each detail a whispered confession.
A remarkable facet of this collection is its dialogue with the aesthetic language of Gustav Klimt, whose gilded, intricate surfaces have long symbolized passion and transcendence. Mishra channels Klimt’s ornamental brilliance into the hands of India’s village artisans, bridging heritage and haute couture with remarkable finesse. Ancient techniques such as aari threadwork, zardozi, naqshi, dabka, and fareesha embroidery are revived and reinterpreted with contemporary sensibility. The results are lavish tapestries of silk organza, tulle, velvet, and satin, where resham threads entwine with freshwater pearls, kundan, beads, salli, and sequins—each element painstakingly crafted to form sculptural garments with a distinct sense of structure and flow.
Beyond aesthetic splendor, “Becoming Love” is a manifesto of mindful creation. Mishra’s atelier nurtures the skills of nearly 2,000 fashion workers, affirming their essential role in the haute couture ecosystem. This slow, deliberate process champions sustainability by honoring artisanal expertise and reducing the environmental footprint. In an era of rampant consumption, Mishra’s commitment to purposeful design feels urgent and necessary, a true celebration of craftsmanship as a form of love extended to people, culture, and planet alike.
Elevating this vision further are the exquisite headpieces and veils by the legendary Stephen Jones. His collaboration with Mishra is more than an accessory partnership; it is a poetic exchange. Jones’s instinctive artistry and couture mastery create ethereal crowns that converse intimately with the garments, transforming the runway into a dreamlike tableau. These veils and headpieces do not merely adorn; they amplify the collection’s narrative of surrender and transformation, weaving an invisible thread of magic through every look.
“Becoming Love” is a global love letter from India, an invitation to experience love not just as an emotion but as a state of being, a craft, and a legacy. Rahul Mishra’s collection serves as a manifesto that true beauty emerges from devotion: to one’s art, to one’s community, and ultimately, to the intangible force that connects us all. Through sumptuous fabrics, timeless embroidery, and thoughtful design, Mishra invites us to breathe in love’s essence and to, quite literally, become it.
