Fashion trends for wedding season: New-age bride trades traditional red for white

The runway also embraced diversity, featuring models of all ages and sizes, united by their cool quotient. Pink hues, once reserved for casual wear, took center stage, alongside a surprising shift towards white bridal wear, adorned with crystals and pearls. Feathers added a third dimension to gowns, while veils and belts were reinvented to add a touch of drama and modernity to the traditional bridal look. Here is a look at how the couture week redefined bridal fashion, celebrating the modern bride’s desire for both elegance and individuality. 

Swirls, twirls, cocoons: It was interesting to see the Couture Week abandoning traditional lehengas and cholis, making way for refreshing shapes for a new-age bride. She is the one who likes to reserve one wedding event where she can satiate her desire for a body-hugging gown. These are no ordinary gowns — Amit Aggarwal made a sculpted one from recycled Banarasis that he found in Kabootar Bazaar, the flea market in Old Delhi behind the legendary Chor Bazar in a line titled “Antevorta” (after the Roman goddess of the future). Rimzim Dadu’s metallic yarns and steel wires, using traditional zardozi for the first time, worked in her favour. The petal shapes wrapped the body and archival skirts courted leather sequins; capes were made from woven steel threads and a fringe crafted from metallic cords. 

Model diversity: Internationally, this is a given: Stella Tennant, 48, was ideal for Burberry, and Simone Rocha had 44-year-old Chloë Sevigny, proving that the older model is now cooler. Dries Van Noten, Issey Miyake and Prada feature models of all ages and sizes. Qin Huilan, the 70-year-old model and doctor-turned social media style influencer from Shanghai, China, walked for Miu Miu at Paris Fashion Week 2024. At the ICW 2024 show, Kunal Rawal had fellow designer Jay Jajal, of the label Jaywalking, on the runway, along with choreographer Aparna Bahl, and accessory designer Nitya Arora. Sumukhi Suresh, the standup comedian, had us in giggles at the Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla show where age and size were not factors in being ramp-worthy. 

I am a Barbie girl: Pink seems to have caught the fancy of the wedding season this year — you can call it the Schiaparelli or the Valentino Pink, each designer in the past has paid homage to this “pretty” hue in unique ways. Suneet Varma had art aficionado Shalini Passi, dressed in a ruffled sari, while Rahul Mishra did a gender colour transition by giving men this hue in a traditional kurta with an embroidered waistcoat. 

White weddings: There has been a huge psychological shift when it comes to wearing white. Earlier, maybe 20 years ago, this hue was considered inauspicious. Look how time and tide have altered everything — the runway saw almost all the ten couturiers deciding to dress the bride in white — of course, with an avalanche of crystals, diamantes, aari, dabka and, most importantly pearls, which emerged as a favourite. Falguni and Shane Peacock dressed Bollywood star Rashmika Mandanna in a white, chikankari lehenga, worn with a risqué choli, while Isha Jajodia got her nifty corsets to go with white full skirts. Baby John actress Wamiqa Gabbi, the showstopper for Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, too, courted white, with an armoured bustier. This seems to be the obvious choice, with the popularity of destination weddings where the bride can’t be seen wearing the heavy gota-patti crimson. 

Wrap it like a dhoti: Tarun Tahiliani decided to give us the dhoti with a sprinkling of sequins, and sheer, taking us back in time to the resurgence of this now-unisex drape, with a 3D cutwork blouse. Isha Jajodia’s signature ruby reds in pre-draped dhotis can be worn with a high neck cape or just a knotted white skirt for a day out. The versatility of the dhoti is such that it can transcend from a lunch to a dinner date; it is how you team it up effortlessly. 

Exaggerated shararas: From the city of Nizams, Hyderabad, Jayanti Reddy told us that like Bollywood dreamboat Aditi Rao Hydari, you too can wear your sharara — roomy, wide and embellished — with a long plunging neckline tunic. Tarun Tahiliani had pink and vibrant threadwork shararas. Jajodia came with three assets — tunic, blouse and grand capes in minty fresh greens. However, the couturier who stole the thunder was undoubtedly Gaurav Gupta as his hemlimes were so mammoth that they channelled the spirit of the adage ‘big is better’. GG added a unique element by combining it with a tailored men’s jacket with imposing stiff necks, giving a whole new meaning to a trouser-suit — certainly not meant for a boardroom. 

Birds of a (faux) feather: There are various embellishments couturiers employ to add glamour to their offerings for the bridal season. Zardozi is the most obvious choice, but now with ensembles getting lighter and frothier, faux feathers are gaining ground. Dolly J says it adds a third dimension to an embellished gown, and removes the need for a gossamer cape or trails. While Falguni and Shane created an entire ink-blue gown with just these feathery manipulations, Jajodia limited their use to the corners of her dupattas paired with lehengas for an edgy appeal. 

Cinch it with a belt: You would associate the belt with corporates and stripes, but now it has graduated to bridal wear and is present in different avatars. For men, it comes broader and embroidered on sherwanis. For prospective brides, it is leather with the brand’s logo. J J Valaya had it in hues of gold while some were studded with colourful stones to add drama to saris by Tarun Tahiliani. 

Un-Veiling: The dupatta is always conventional. A few years ago, the double dupatta became a norm — one to cover the head and another for pizazz. Just as lehengas got easier, dupattas disappeared. They made way for net veils. Tarun Tahiliani gave us mokaish and embroidered veils while J J Valaya kept one dupatta and added a veil, too. Gaurav Gupta had the veil with his fish-cut gowns emblazoned with beads and sequins. The prize went to Abu and Sandeep Khosla for getting pleasing maroon veils to go with their maximalist lehengas.