Rajesh Pratap Singh doesn’t do shocking, but surprise you, he might. He opened AIFW yesterday with a set that was almost too Instagram-able. Cold metal beds, IV drips, stark white sheets, first aid boxes on the seats; all indicative of the mood – hospital-chic.
The first model walked out (rather, twitched) to the angsty tunes of Grain, Karsh Kale and Ankur Tewari in a prim, checked ikat skirt set with a surgical mask and nurse’s hat to match. As she turned to go, you noticed the ode to Zaha Hadid’s architecture – a rounded heel with even ridges.
What followed were more prim skirt suits and sheath dresses; the checked ikats moved into glossy leather, pieced together with sutured seams, and then into drippy blotches of black and white; a hazy version of polka dots.
It was classic Rajesh Pratap Singh, in the way traditional crafts were made modern, minimal and extremely wearable. But how much of that simplicity and quietness of detail was noticed in the theatrical ambience, where the girls danced and sighed in cat-eye glasses? Unfortunately, not much.
This is where he really surprised – he put out a show where the point to prove was not that his craft is strong but that he too can be a showman.
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Photographs: Gulshan Sachdeva
