Transfixed by Catalonia

Spain’s Moorish architecture and Gaudi’s ensnaring marvels find a place in Rimple and Harpreet’s SS 15 line

By Asmita Aggarwal

You may get a bit thrown off by Harpreet Narula’s shyness, but there is quite an artist hidden somewhere beneath those silent musings. Participating for the first time at WIFW SS 15, Rimple and Harpreet, who have been doing prêt for almost five years now, will tell you that even though they market couture more aggressively they have always loved the functionality that ready-to-wear offers.

Ludhiana-raised Harpreet before turning his lens on to fashion was an ace shutterbug and his collections encapsulate his myriad travels all over the globe. SS 15 is a tribute to Catalonia, Spain where Moorish architecture reverberates in a city of castles. “I have taken many walks around Alhambra’s Islamic palaces in Granada, Andalusia admiring it for its geometric patterns and empowering beauty,” says Harpreet.

Some of the pictures taken by him have been converted into digital prints to be placed on his easy-breezy silhouettes—kaftans and maxis, cut away from the body fastened with braided and embellished belts.

Harpreet has also been inspired by Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi’s mosaics, stained glass, wrought iron (some of the gates and grills will find a place in the graphic prints), organic styles which used stone and brick. Close to the Mediterranean, Harpreet was mesmerised by the city of Leon, and the Casa Botines Home, or the Gaudi Palace where you can see the potent medieval inspirations. And to translate these images onto garments required deft vision and subtle metamorphosis.

Harpreet’s line aptly titled ‘Love in Catalonia’ captures the sights of the architectural masterpieces, as he revs it up with laser cut sequins, rivets, metallic asymmetrical beads used as placements or to exaggerate a collar or shoulder.

“It is hard to tell the colours as we have intermixed many hues, and also developed a mud print, which is in tune with a line, which is priced appropriately, within the parameters of prêt. I get so immersed in the design process that sometimes I lose that fine balance of commercialism versus art. That’s where my wife Rimple comes in. She tells me what to edit, what will be wearable and what will certainly not work,” he concludes.