Sandbags, sirens and sadness: Rajesh Pratap’s eerily haunting answer to ‘Why don’t you wear a suit?’

There’s only so much you can say without using words, but when Rajesh Pratap Singh presented his collection, The Thin Red Line at the FDCI India Men's Weekend 2026 at Diggi Palace in Jaipur last week, the designer managed to capture the strange times we live in through a captivating and thought-inducing combination of music, performing artistes, and his models. With gunshots and sirens echoing in the background and the ramp fortified with sandbags, performing artistes set the unexpectedly sombre and reflective mood for the evening, moving to the protest song Zombie.

Experimenting with textiles and shapes, the models did not adhere to the typical ramp walk; instead, they appeared dejected, their eyes downcast, faces covered, the stride hesitant rather than purposeful. Before completing a round of the ramp, most of them paused and sat down midway, conveying a vibe of individuals shattered, despondent and seemingly devoid of hope.

Rajesh’s selection of outfits were largely militaristic. One was reminiscent of naval uniforms with large brass buttons. Another was similar to a pilot’s combat outfit, with aircraft-shaped pins lined up as if they were medals. Bomber jackets, of course, are in any case a military concept much before a fashion one - what bomber crews originally wore on missions to combat the bitter cold in the era where flying was harder on the body. A jacket had maps and what seemed to be a reference to Alaska. The collection featured more examples of minute detailing, such as the whistles worn by wardens during air raids; quiet yet unsettling reminders of how war and violence have seeped into everyday life.

The note accompanying the collection read, “An ode to the strange times we live in, an ode to the strange people who rule our world, an ode to the children we orphan, an ode to the greed we can’t satisfy, an ode to the lords of war, an ode to hunger and pain, and by the way, ‘why don’t you wear a suit?’” - a reference to a reporter asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this question at the Oval Office, when he met US President Donald Trump in March 2025. Those words – why don’t you wear a suit? – echoed repeatedly through the show in a haunting, metallic tone, standing out for their tone-deaf character in a situation where conflict and loss rage unchecked.

When we spoke to Rajesh Pratap, after the show, he asked, in his trademark succinct style: “Isn’t this the world we live in?”Get the latest entertainment updates from the Times of India, along with the latest Hindi movies, upcoming Hindi movies in 2026 , and Telugu movies.”