Rahul Mishra’s Couture Spring 2025 mirrors our cities through skyscraper-inspired designs and poses an important question: what happens when built structures are no longer sustainable or habitable?

As cities continue to evolve, we’re faced with a crucial question: what happens when the urban environments we’ve created can no longer sustain us? How do today’s architectural marvels fare in a world marked by environmental decline? Are we designing spaces capable of adapting to tomorrow’s challenges, or are we shaping structures destined for obsolescence?

These questions are not just for architects and urban planners; they concern everyone who inhabits these spaces. As we confront the consequences of our urban footprints, one designer is using his craft to reflect on these very challenges, offering a vision for both humanity and the future of architecture.

In his latest collection, The Pale Blue Dot, Rahul Mishra, the celebrated Indian designer known for his sustainable approach to fashion, reflects on the future of cities and the built environment. Inspired by Carl Sagan’s iconic essay, Mishra contemplates the fragility of human existence and the unsustainable nature of urban life in an increasingly fragile world. While rooted in fashion, his work speaks to the larger issues of architecture, urban planning and our relationship with the spaces we create. What happens to our cities if they become uninhabitable? Can we redesign them to coexist sustainably with nature?

“This collection is born of loss and the slow process of healing. It envisions our foreseeable future through rearview mirrors and paints vivid images of wild animals reclaiming our homes as their own. The glorious geometry of human dwellings transforms into new life, emerging from the womb—an evocative metaphor for my hope that humans will indeed find the wisdom to enhance the meaning of our lives” says Rahul.

Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot concept—where Earth is seen as a tiny speck in the vastness of space—serves as a guiding metaphor for Mishra’s collection. Mishra, reflecting on the fragility of our planet in the wake of personal loss, urges us to consider not just our place in the universe but our place on Earth in relation to the structures we create. As cities like Delhi suffer from worsening air quality, Mishra asks, what does the future of architecture look like when our very spaces are no longer sustainable?

Mishra imagines a future where nature reclaims abandoned cities, with wild animals returning to human spaces. This vision, though rooted in fashion, serves as a metaphor for a harmonious future where architecture exists in balance with the environment. Can we rethink urban design in a way that integrates the natural world, rather than opposing it?

The question of sustainability lies at the heart of Mishra’s vision. As our cities face the consequences of climate change, overpopulation, and dwindling resources, we must ask: Are we designing for resilience, or for obsolescence? Mishra suggests that our built environments must be envisioned with the long-term in mind, ensuring they endure for generations to come.

Mishra’s collection challenges us to reconsider our approach to design. Sustainability is no longer a choice—it’s a necessity. The way we build and inhabit our cities will directly impact the future of life on Earth. How can architecture adapt to both the natural environment and human needs for shelter, health, and community?

In The Pale Blue Dot, Mishra offers a powerful vision of the intersection between sustainability, design, and the human condition. Through reflections on loss and healing, he urges us to think about not just how we live, but where and why we build. The future of architecture, Mishra suggests, lies in a balance between human innovation and respect for Earth’s delicate ecosystem.

Ultimately, The Pale Blue Dot is a reminder that as we look to the future of our cities, we must consider the impact of our creations and whether they will sustain future generations. Will we create environments that nurture life, or will they deteriorate, reclaimed by nature? The choice, Mishra suggests, is ours to make.

Photography by: Valerio Mezzanotti/ Nowfashion