Rahul Mishra Spring 2026 Couture: Elemental

Rahul Mishra turned to the five elements — earth, water, fire, air and ether — as starting points for this elegant collection full of sweeping volumes and detailed embroidery.

“We are stardust in a literal sense,” he said, adding there’s a similar philosophy in the Indian scripture called Rigveda, about the five elements making up each person and the universe. “We are moving at an enormous amount of speed in space and time.”

He faced a conundrum: How to depict water purely with couture techniques?

“It was challenging — like telling my team to try to create something impossible with embroideries,” he said. Mishra set out to study the anatomy of each element, some of which can only be felt, not seen, and had no reference point. Most elements are fierce, and that came through in the bold clothes.

Mishra captured the spirit of water splashing in a sculptural look with wavy dark- and light-blue lines blooming up from the waist of a model and reaching up over her shoulders. Clear crystals dripped around her legs.

Fire was captured in numerous ways, including in a long dress made of a black skirt (think charcoal simmering) and yellow, orange and red flame-like embroideries over a models’ arms and in a deep V on her torso.

A glittery sheath in silver, purple and blue swirled round another model’s upper half and behind her head to depict wind. A sparkly black-and-silver body-hugging dress came fronted with two 3D, wavy extrusions designed to be reminiscent of a black hole bending in space and time.

A strapless ankle-length dress with lines of gold, silver and brown paillettes — and matching Stephen Jones hat — nodded to the earth, home to precious stones and mountain formations.

“It’s almost like five collections in one,” Mishra said. But they fit together charmingly.