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For Delhi-based designer Wajahat Rather, creating clothes is akin to making art. Each garment he makes carries with it the story of where it has come from and what the designer is saying. Raffughar, the clothing brand he launched in 2013, is part of a long and proud heritage of Kashmiri crafts. He began by selling pashminas and Namda rugs, but the diversified into luxury apparel for men and women in 2018. He named his first collection Dastawaiz, which means document in Urdu. It was his way of acknowledging the uncertainty of everyday life of Kashmir.
The idea behind the brand is to appreciate the sophistication of traditional handicrafts and channel them in the right direction to create contemporary pieces that will appeal to today’s modern sensibilities. Raffughar is Rather’s way of celebrating the simplicity and precision of such crafts and works to revive these techniques in the global market.
Unabashedly political and contemporary, Rather’s work stems from his Kashmiri identity. The art of Raffu, or the healing of fabric, is melded through Raffughar’s alchemy to speak of the travails of an uncertain life in the valley.
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