At his first-ever bridal couture present, held at Mumbai’s Jio World Conference Centre final night time, Gaurav Gupta wished us to imagine in love. And why not? It’s the most marketable emotion throughout India’s festive-to-weddding season, which kicks off in only a few weeks after which barrels by to subsequent summer season. The designer even skipped Paris Couture Week this 12 months to focus completely on this solo outing.
The gathering, titled Quantum Entanglement, is an ode to the enduring energy of affection. “It’s about two souls intertwined throughout time and house, always drawn to one another,” Gaurav stated over the cellphone earlier this week. “We need to rejoice love, woven into the expertise of an Indian wedding ceremony. This time, in India, we’re doing a big couture assortment — with lots of brocades handwoven in Banaras, metallic tissue impressed by my mom’s wedding ceremony sari, layers of surrealism, a little bit of Gothic, a little bit of Artwork Nouveau.”
The over 75-piece assortment (with 10 appears a part of the bridal line) mirrored this developed aesthetic with Gaurav Gupta’s signature: the sari robe he has virtually trademarked, sculptural shapes, sherwanis with trendy, razor-sharp tailoring, and loads of zardozi work. There was additionally a maturity to the palette and construction — much less “take a look at me” flash, extra “you’ll be able to’t look away” finesse.
It’s no coincidence that Gaurav selected to go for bridal couture now. The Indian wedding ceremony market is booming. In line with BlueWeave Consulting, which generates market analysis stories, India’s wedding ceremony planning market was pegged at ₹5.16 trillion in 2024, and is projected to greater than double to ₹11.06 trillion by 2031. Market analysis firm Grand View Analysis, in the meantime, estimates that the broader wedding ceremony providers market — assume venues, catering, jewelry, outfits, leisure — was already value about ₹8.64 trillionin 2024, and can hit ₹18.94 trillion by 2030.
Gaurav has taken a word of this. “In fact, there’s a enterprise lens right here,” he admitted. “However I feel what excites me most is that Indian bridal put on is turning into extra individualistic. Brides are mixing silhouettes, colors, and kinds in methods we wouldn’t have seen even 5 years in the past. That’s the house I need to occupy,” he says.
The menswear look
And, spending isn’t just again to pre-pandemic ranges, it has surpassed it. A 2023 report by wedding ceremony vendor listing WeddingWire India famous that {couples} at the moment are spending 20-30% extra on bridal put on in comparison with 2019, with vacation spot weddings and couture outfits driving a lot of that enhance.
Gaurav has acknowledged this shift. “Bridal couture is not about custom alone. It’s about self-expression, individuality, and drama,” he stated. “Indian weddings are theatre, and couture is the costume that makes it unforgettable.”
Bringing the drama
On arrival, attendees have been ushered by a pre-show house extra lavish than most precise sangeet venues: cocktails flowing freely, a grazing desk that might have doubled as an artwork set up, and a roster of dwell Indian classical music and dance performances. It was, in impact, Gaurav’s method of strolling his viewers by the pre-function rituals — besides, right here, the bride was the model, and each visitor was in on the massive reveal.
Sure, there have been items in muted tones, solely this time paired with hats and sculptural headpieces. However Gaurav additionally pushed into a spread of shades: oyster gray, champagne silver, even deep midnight blue. Banarasi brocades, some taking 200 days to weave, have been layered with crystal webs, hand-cut florals, gilded zari and complicated embroidery. Chantilly lace from France obtained a futuristic spin with elaborate drapes, whereas semi-precious stones, mother-of-pearl and temple-style motifs appeared part-heirloom, part-sci-fi prop. Laser-cut 3D petals and corsetry with handwoven piping spoke to a transparent craft focus — although at instances it risked tipping into overworked territory. Menswear strayed from the ceremonial sherwani, with uneven closures, pleated drapes and tonal beadwork making it really feel looser, if nonetheless firmly in couture land.
The primary runway had, in our opinion, a 3D mandap that felt extra architectural than ceremonial, a sculptural construction marrying Gupta’s signature futurism with a sure cultural shorthand. This was not a coy nod to custom however a direct appropriation, scaled for Instagram’s swipe-happy viewers. The units did many of the heavy lifting in storytelling: the mandap framing every look as if the mannequin have been within the throes of her personal slow-motion pheras.
The silhouettes have been sculpted, structured, typically along with his signature wave types and dramatic drapes. The superstar quotient was predictably excessive. Janhvi Kapoor took the function of showstopper in an off-white, closely embroidered creation alongside Sidharth Malhotra, dapper in a sherwani.
If Gupta’s choice to skip Paris for this was a big gamble, the packed home and Instagram tales counsel it paid off. He has, in any case, constructed his model on sculptural spectacle, and in India’s present wedding ceremony financial system, spectacle sells. If the present’s mission was to remind the market — each within the room and much past — that Gaurav Gupta is as fluent in bridal as he’s on the red-carpet, it succeeded. Whether or not you noticed it as a love letter to Indian weddings or a shrewd play for a share of that multi-lakh-crore pie, the end result was the identical: a night of couture dressed up as nuptials. And with the numbers, as they’re, don’t be shocked in case your subsequent “wedding ceremony invite” can also be a front-row seat to a vogue present.
Revealed – August 09, 2025 05:38 pm IST
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