TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I'm DOING

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So I don’t think this hits anyone as a surprise, but seemingly the pace of our lives and the world around us is only getting faster. If all you pay attention to is the noise, it’s really hard to focus on the signal, and I have found myself asking this simple question over and over again - how can I slow down? It’s a question that pervades everything - our work, our play, our relationships. While it’s definitely quite relevant for the conversations we are having about our inward self narrative, it’s perhaps even more important to pause and reflect on how patience and a slowness can reflect excellence for our outward expressions. In the fashion industry, there is certainly a perception and maybe unfairly a misperception from the outside of singular glamour, fast-paced change, trendsetting consumption, and runway sparkle. And when I caught up with fashion designer, Rahul Mishra, it was apparent that his lens on fashion is squarely focused on modeling excellence through a slow, patient, and mindful luxury. Rahul is based in Delhi and studied at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad. He is the first Indian designer to showcase at the annual Paris Haute Couture Week, and has been a champion of slow fashion featuring traditional local artisan crafting and embroidery on a global stage. With his work showcased by everyone from Zendaya to Gigi Hadid to Bhumi Pednekar, Shahid Kapoor, and Priyanka Chopra, there is no shortage of celebrity, and through it all, his humility, affinity for the journey, and attention to community is inspiring and magnetic. Almost all of his creations are handmade and take several thousands of hours, with his total focus as creative director on the team of designers, tailors, crafters, embroiderers, and artisans. Rahul’s latest theme has been entitled “We the People”, which reimagines a fashion worker’s trance interlaced with their immediate reality. Along with his wife, Divya, who is his business partner, Rahul takes immense pride in celebrating and elevating and empowering each member of his team, aiming for everyone to look at mindful luxury with an eye on participation and not merely consumption.
We shared a conversation about everything from patience to sustainability to his persona as a leader and even as a parent, and when I was curious about how he knows when one of his pieces is complete, he reminded me of the importance of the group’s effort in every endeavor…