We’re all watching fashion. Not the same way, though.
A show drops, a red carpet moment lands, a designer makes a move — and within minutes, it’s no longer just about what was seen. Instead, it’s about how it’s being understood. The conversation moves quickly, opening up into multiple perspectives at once. Suddenly, the same moment begins to feel more layered than it first appeared. That’s the pull. The “wait, I didn’t think of it like that” moment.
This is where commentary comes in — right at the centre of how we experience fashion, drawing attention to what might have been missed, adding context where it’s needed, and turning fleeting moments into something we stay with a little longer. Call it fashion’s second stage.
The stage that’s been building through voices who sit with fashion, question it, and reshape its meaning. From instinctive, real-time takes to slower, research-led explorations, this new generation of voices is building a space where fashion feels more accessible, more interesting, and far easier to connect with.
The formats have multiplied, yet what binds them is the craft beneath — the sharp angles commentators choose, the extensive research that fuels their voice, and the way they structure a thought to land with clarity — drawing us back in, asking us to look closer, and making fashion feel more personal — something we don’t just watch but experience in our own way.
The Storyteller’s Eye: The Art of Looking Again
Sometimes, all it takes is a second look for a collection to feel entirely different. Fashion commentator Rishija Mehrotra builds her work on this idea — what we see at first glance unfolds into something deeper. She approaches fashion with intimacy, never overwhelming it, always staying close. She lets it sit and unfold. “I approach fashion as a form of storytelling rather than just visual consumption,” she says. And that distinction begins to shape how we experience her work.
There’s a kind of curiosity that drives everything she does. “I’ve always had this… almost like a researcher’s reflex — to ask why and how before forming an opinion,” she explains. It’s a simple instinct, but it changes the texture of her commentary. In a digital space where opinions form at speed, she makes sure we’re not simply being told what to think but shown how to look.
This approach becomes especially visible in moments where the conversation feels crowded. Take her breakdown of Jonathan Anderson’s Dior Couture 2026 collection. While the world was swept up in the charisma of the ‘Dior Blooms’ — those extraordinary floral structures that felt, to most, like the whole story — Mehrotra paused. She looked a little closer, a little deeper and found something older living inside the collection: the ancient, earthy forms of artist Magdalene Odundo’s ceramic vessels, their curves echoing the human body in terracotta and carbon.
“I was interested in looking beyond what was immediately visible,” she says, “to understand the references and ideas shaping the collection.” This is the impulse that sits at the centre of her work. “I try to cultivate what I call intellectual curiosity on my page,” she adds. “Even if my audience doesn’t have the time to research every collection, I want them to know there’s always more beneath the surface.”
What shapes Mehrotra’s commentary just as much as her process is her understanding of how it will be received. “I see my audience as different kinds of viewers,” she says. “Some are discovering fashion through familiarity, while others are looking for a more analytical perspective.” That awareness guides the way she frames her ideas. “When I take something conceptual and break it down into something culturally familiar, it tends to reach a wider audience.” But that isn’t the only space she works within.
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“There’s also a segment of the audience that is drawn to more conceptual, layered storytelling,” she says. In her readings of global houses like Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Chanel, the engagement shifts. These are the breakdowns where interpretation deepens, where viewers stay with the idea. For Mehrotra, it is this balance that has come to define her work. “It allows me to stay true to both accessibility and depth,” she says.
What ultimately builds trust in a voice like Mehrotra’s is grounding commentary in research, context, and intent. “What makes my perspective feel trustworthy is the time I spend understanding what I’m looking at,” she says. It’s a process that remains largely unseen: pages of handwritten notes, arrows looping ideas back to references, observations on structure, textiles, and cultural cues gradually forming a point of view. It’s where her credibility takes shape — not in how quickly a thought is delivered, but in how carefully it is built.
And in the process, something shifts for us as viewers. We are no longer simply consuming fashion as it arrives. We begin to notice more. And slowly, almost without realising it, we begin to form our own perspective.
The Power of Delivery
“Commentary today feels like a form of performance,” says Mehrotra. Commentators no longer arrive with research alone; they arrive with a visual language as deliberate as the collections they decode, where delivery becomes part of the storytelling itself. “It’s not only about what is said, but also how it’s said — the tone, the humour, the language. That’s what makes something stay,” she adds.
Calm, controlled, and occasionally edged with a sophisticated irony, fashion commentator Rakshit Singh’s work is a masterclass in architectural composure. To scroll through his feed is to enter a world of visual and tonal consistency that feels instinctive, even if it has unfolded over time. But he insists it wasn’t calculated. “I never sat down and said, ‘ This is going to be my format, it just happened.” The delivery found its own rhythm, and over time, the rhythm became his identity.
What defines Singh’s reels is a sense of restraint. His tone shifts with intention — warm when a collection invites emotion, sharper when it calls for critique — and that precision is what gives his commentary weight. It’s a raw, genuine reaction channelled through a polished medium. In his breakdown of the Dior Couture 2026 collection, he understood that some collections require you to sit inside them before you begin to explain them.
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“Dior is alive again,” he had whispered, a line that settled gently over the audience like the beginning of a great novel. He moved through the collection with fixed subtopics — heritage, romance, and couture codes filtered through what he beautifully termed Jonathan Anderson’s ‘quiet intelligence.’ His words lingered, building a mood where the house felt unmistakably Dior. When he spoke of Dior ‘dreaming again,’ something in his tone deepened. There was no rush to analyse, no urgency to conclude. This was his way of commenting—giving his audience a moment to understand the depth of the topic. This is how he has built his persona, and over time, that consistency has made his cadence instantly recognisable — even before he speaks. When asked if it has built trust, he says, “Definitely, over time, people know what they’re coming for.”
A reel we save. A slow-burning video we stay with till the end. A sharply written critique we return to, almost instinctively. Different formats, different rhythms — each becoming part of how we take fashion in, and how we hold on to it. And that, perhaps, is the point. We’re not just watching fashion unfold — we’re learning how to engage with it in ways that feel more personal, more layered, and far more our own. So whether it’s the first reaction or the second look, the feeling or the meaning, what stays with us is more than just the image — it’s the experience of seeing it, understanding it, and letting it settle into something personal. And without realising it, commentary makes us fall in love with fashion all over again.
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