India Couture Week 2024: Fashion trends beyond sequins, florals and fringes

Eight days, fourteen shows and a whole lot of fashion inspiration. The recently concluded fashion extravaganza, India Couture Week 2024, concluded with a grand finale hosted by designer duo Falguni and Shane Peacock in New Delhi on July 31. The week-long celebration of Indian fashion, primarily wedding wear, brought remarkable new fashion trends into the spotlight.

P.S. It’s not just about the bride anymore. Grooms now want their fair share of attention with elaborate jewellery and glitz. For brides, there’s a lot to experiment with in terms of silhouette and drama. While red is timeless, the “Met-galafication” trend also deserves your attention.

Bridal corset

Desi Bridgerton fans, gather around! You can no longer just stare at those dreamy corsets in your favourite Netflix show; it’s time to wear them as bridal blouses. All thanks to designer Tarun Tahiliani, whose new collection was full of models wearing his signature corset blouses with modern Indian outfits. The craze for corsets was also seen in other designer showcases like Jayanti Reddy’s traditional wear collection. It featured a model wearing a corset blouse with a contemporary sari and cropped cape.

Sonakshi Sinha’s show-stopping look for designer Dolly J’s label also included a gown with an embellished corset bodice. Corsets have a sensuous appeal and tend to accentuate the body shape. In Indian bridal wear, hand-embroidered or embellished corsets can serve as stylish accompaniments to saris and lehengas. Actress Kriti Kharbanda also wore a royal corset designed by designer Ritu Kumar during her wedding ceremonies, paired with a matching lehenga and dupatta.

Plenty of drama

Are you ready for the Met-Galafication of Indian bridal wear? You better be prepared, because the sky-high drama present in the dresses at ICW 2024 certainly points to art-deco couture being a big trend to come. Think sculpted details, pearl-adorned veils, ornate headgear, pointed silhouettes and puffed sleeves. This maximalist approach was seen in most of the designer showcases at the event.

New-age brides, who are taking bridal attire beyond culture and making it a form of self-expression, consider their wedding ceremony as their own personal red carpet event. Frankly, why not!

Fancy a cape and co-ord set?

Capes and cord sets got a wedding makeover at India Couture Week 2024. Designers such as Tarun Tahiliani, Gaurav Gupta and Jayanti Reddy offered functional creations for the modern Indian bride, looking both traditional and modern in the same breath.

While these motifs have already been a part of wedding trousseaus, mainly for smaller ceremonies like mehendi and haldi, the enhanced versions seen at the fashion week may bring them into the limelight.

Cocktail Glamour

Good news for brides-to-be – sequin embellished gowns and saris aren’t the only way to shine on sangeet night. Designers like Rimzim Dadu have reinvented cocktail glamour this season with a little flair. So, make way for adding a quirky blazer or an asymmetrical skirt set to not look like every other bride on Instagram.

Curtains with grooms

Draping has always been a staple of an Indian bridal outfit in the form of a saree or a dupatta, but now it is going to be included in the groom’s outfit as well. For example, in Tarun Tahiliani’s new collection, models walked the ramp wearing sherwanis with double dupattas.

Yes, a stole is no longer the only thing men need! Jayanti Reddy, on the other hand, brought draping to the forefront of groom’s attire with a shiny silk stole. Traditional stoles were the star attraction in many of her looks this season. One model even wore a sari-inspired drape with a bandhgala kurta.

Groom’s Jewelry Goes Bold

Grooms no longer want to be the supporting cast at a wedding while the bride takes center stage. They want equal attention, which is why the groom is going for maximum attention this season. This maximum attention is not just limited to the outfit but also comes from the jewellery worn around the neck – a trend that is also favoured by Shah Rukh Khan, Sidharth Malhotra and Aditya Roy Kapur.

The grooms’ jewellery too got a bold upgrade, with a jadau sehra by Falguni Shane Peacock and Kunal Rawal and a brooch party seen at JJ Valaya’s showcase.

metallic bustier

Metallic bustiers, previously seen on Zendaya, Kim Kardashian and Bhumi Pednekar, had a major moment at India Couture Week this season, formalising their entry into the Indian fashion sphere. Haute couturier Gaurav Gupta presented a striking sculptural version featuring mystical creatures such as snakes.

Meanwhile, Isha Jajodia of Label Roseroom introduced metallic plates as cool blouses to wear with traditional lehengas and skirts.

The color red remains timeless

India Couture Week 2024 was a lesson in how evolution and timelessness coexist in India. This season certainly saw new and unconventional trends, but also reaffirmed the unmatched elegance of the traditional red bridal lehenga or sari.

If you want a royal and traditional vibe for your bridal look, then you know which route to take.