Charlotte Chowdhury founded Rescha Paris in 2022, motivated by a desire to navigate and pay homage to her mixed Indian and French heritage through design. As such, her pieces are infused with a vitality that feels dynamic and fresh, whether in Madrid or Mumbai.

Chowdhury describes her upbringing as straddling “two very distinct visual worlds: the richness of Indian fabrics [and] the clarity of form and restraint in silhouettes” of the concrete jungles of Paris and London, where she was raised and later educated. This interplay between “Orient and Occident” provides a rich base replete with both historical and contemporary significance. At the same time, her spectrum of heritage promotes freedom: “It allows me to play, to blur boundaries.”

Here we see Rescha at ease in Mumbai, where the sunlight bears down on each piece, elevating colour and texture to their most resplendent form. For Chowdhury, India is where her pieces mesh most organically: “blending with the vibrancy of the streets, the movement, the density”. In contrast, the Parisian environment brings them into sharp relief, the greyscale architecture and overcast skies teasing a certain restraint against which the sloping silhouettes and glassy details of each piece hold their own. This is not to say which is better; for Chowdhury “both reveal something essential, but in entirely different ways”.

Rescha’s A/W26 collection is inspired by Krishna Riboud, the 20th-century art historian who, like Chowdhury, shaped her taste from Indian and French inheritances. For the designer, Riboud’s biography as an intelligent, fashionable woman born in India and raised in Paris struck a certain chord: “I imagined her wardrobe as a living, evolving space – buying a fabric in Kolkata, then bringing it to a tailor in Paris to transform it into a dress. That movement between places, between traditions, between identities, became the emotional core of the collection.”

Friction is as essential to the development of each Rescha garment as it is to the creation of a fire. Working closely with Indian makers is central to the brand’s vision, demands long-term focus and cultivation rather than a fleeting interest. “Artisanal has become a buzzword,” says Chowdhury, but “authenticity is something you can feel immediately.” In turn, each piece is buoyant with depth and intention, true enough to its vision to withstand the churns of the trend cycle with still enough room to evolve. .

All clothes by Rescha.

Hair: Hauke Krause / Make-up: Eleni Chatzinikolidou / Production: Leena Verma at CutLoose Productions / Line production: Ankit Patil / Photography assistant: Chetan Sanap / Fashion assistants: Zoha Castelino and Roshni Sukhlecha / Models: Tanushree Shetty and Sakshi Khedekar at Estéem India and Angad Purarkar at ParaScoutt Model Management