Wedding fashion trends from India couture week
It’s been a season of decidedly-high drama aesthetic, with couturiers at the recent India couture week going all out to propose a maximalist closet for today’s brides and grooms who prefer to experiment.
Suneet Varma’s Sehr collection, for instance, showcased his core design vocabulary, reimagining drama with softness using flowing chiffons, silks and shine on embroideries. Falguni Shane Peacock, too, stuck to the house codes, using feathers, sequins, crystals and come-hither silhouettes that reveal and conceal in equal measure in its Raj Mahal Bijoux collection. What’s more, the Ritu Kumar collection, Threads Of Time: Reimagined, reimagined traditional crafts with a contemporary edge, offering layered sheer kurtas, ornate bodysuits and printed silk saris.
Rahul Mishra’s Becoming Love, meanwhile, was a romantic nod to Sufism and a section of his showcase recontextualised the artistic language of Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. Some of Klimt’s artworks were beautifully translated into embroidery on dresses and coats.
Here are some of the key trends that emerged at the couture week:
Dramatic silhouettes
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Amit Aggarwal continued to push the envelope with his couture collection Arcanum that reimagined DNA as a design style. Each silhouette was presented in a sculptural form, combining architecture and biology.
No stranger to theatricality, Falguni Shane Peacock extrapolated their signature feathers again to present full feathered dresses accented with metallic corset details. The FSP grooms wore beaded veils while some of the bridesmaids completed their lehnga looks with bloom knotted hair pieces. Rimzim Dadu offered a more punk take on wedding wear with her embellished stockings and veils.
Corset is the new blouse
Almost every show this season showcased a few dramatic corsets styled with lehnga skirts. At Suneet Verma, corsets came in a palette of rose tints, ice lilacs, greys and obsidian black, combined with fitted jackets and shararas. In Tarun Tahiliani’s collection, it was clubbed with a sari. Rahul Mishra, on the other hand, offered heavily embroidered corset dresses.
Ritu Kumar’s showcase, too, utilised fine microprints, vintage florals, jewelled motifs on corseted silhouettes.
Maximalist designs
From the marble peacock at Vadodara’s Laxmi Vilas Palace to the fresco-adorned walls of Jaipur’s City Palace, the Falguni Shane Peacock collection was layered with references to royal architecture, ornate embellishments and the artistry of heritage design. Elaborate veils, cape-like drapes, and sari-inspired silhouettes formed the core of the collection.
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Shantnu and Nikhil’s menswear-focused collection derived inspiration from military archives and the regalia of India’s opulent past. The design house proposed a statement-making closet comprising cropped jackets and ruffled tops peppered with sequins. The shine-on trousers added to a glam finish. So did their updated version of the signature draped kurta.
Manish Malhotra’s Inaya collection presented a sharper take on eveningwear, with sleek sculpted tuxedos, cropped bandhgalas, and tailored suits that redefined formal dressing for today. The looks were complemented by the designer’s high jewellery pieces, including cascading necklaces, sculptural brooches, signature collar pins and statement earrings.
Archival redux
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Designer Jayanti Reddy upcycled leftover scraps of textiles and embroidery patches from her previous collection to present a collection of saris, corsets, lehngas and sherwanis, all embellished with techniques like zardozi, sequin work and dori work. Her colour palette included powdery blushes, mint greens, festive reds, bottle greens, metallics, and her signature purples.
An exhibit of archival pieces was part of Malhotra’s “couture party”. The presentation included ensembles worn by Natasha Poonawalla and Malhotra himself at the 2025 Met Gala, and lehnga worn by Kajol in the film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995).
