The story behind Atelier Rani

Rani Kapoor’s first collection was twelve coats and a courtyard. Forty people came. Three of those coats are still in production because they were the ones that did not need explaining.

She had spent six years in a high-street design team, making clothes that were photographed in Lisbon and returned from Manchester. Atelier Rani is the opposite: fewer pieces, longer fittings, cloth she can name.

The studio sits above a fabric shop on Brick Lane. Clients climb the stairs with a photograph of an auntie’s wedding, or a job interview, or a coat they cannot find because it does not exist yet.

“I am not making costume,” she says. “I am making clothes for people who live here and still have somewhere to be on a Saturday in Southall.”