Krésha Bajaj’s The Garden of Borrowed Light considers a moment just before it changes: a flower about to fall, shifting light, silk coming to rest. This October, three looks from the collection take on another temporary form at MiMi Mei Fair Dubai, where bar manager Jeet Verma has developed a cocktail and canapé pairing for each.
Running from 24 October to 1 November 2026, Borrowed Light: The Cocktail Collection connects Bajaj’s fashion vocabulary with the textures and small finishing gestures of the bar. The interest lies in the individual translations, from dark beading to a layered Negroni, and from draped detail to movement in a glass.
Handwork, translated
The collaboration’s release describes the label’s atelier as a place where third-generation artisans use zardozi, aari and micro-beading. Such techniques build a garment through accumulated detail. Verma’s three pairings approach that idea through combinations of colour, texture and garnish, giving the collection a different point of encounter beyond the runway.
Midnight Garden’s intricate dark beading informs Jeweled Noir. Its base brings together gin, pandan, Campari and vermouth, with matcha espuma and caviar adding contrasting textures. A daikon radish puff accompanies the drink; the pairing is listed at AED110.
Three looks at the table
Prism supplies the colour reference for Forty Shades, a vodka cocktail combining passion fruit, vanilla and cacao. A spicy prawn and scallop moneybag completes the AED125 pairing. It is the most vivid of the three visual propositions, carrying the fashion reference through a different palette.
Moonfall, meanwhile, becomes The Gilded Pearl. Champagne, tequila and elderflower form the drink, with golden pearls moving through the bubbles as a reference to the look’s delicate draped detail. It is accompanied by a rock oyster with capsicum, coriander cress and spring onion, and is listed at AED145.
For Bajaj, whose work places hand embroidery at the centre of contemporary silhouettes, the collaboration extends a design narrative into a new setting. The three pairings make that connection specific enough to follow, whether through a surface, a colour or a fleeting movement.
Borrowed Light: The Cocktail Collection is available at MiMi Mei Fair Dubai, Address Residences Dubai Opera, from 24 October to 1 November 2026. The quoted prices are for cocktails with their accompanying canapés.