Indian brides cast off red - for purple, pink, mustard!

NEW DELHI - For decades, red has been the colour of the Indian bride. But women are now experimenting with a variety of hues like purple, pink, copper and even white to make a style statement on the special day of their life.

“Women have got bored of wearing the same colour and are looking for something different. They want to make their D-Day special. So they are looking for lehengas that help them stand out,” Nupur, a representative of designer duo Rimple and Harpreet Narula, told IANS.

Designer Pam Mehta said: “Women are moving away from the traditional red to opt for colours like hot pink, blue, green - in heavily embroidered as well as simple lehengas.

“Brides-to-be are looking for colourful lehengas, something that shape up their body. Keeping in mind that trend, we have introduced newer tones in reds, pinks and yellow colours that would appeal to them.”

On their wedding day, a bride wants to look her best; so a lot of emphasis is given to her outfit. A bridal lehenga is adorned with a lot of embellishments to give it a rich and luxurious look. In most cases, heavy embroidery with silver or golden thread, stones, crystals and sequins are used to decorate the outfit of a bride and give it a royal look.

With changing lifestyles and tastes, brides now don’t mind experimenting. From subtle or natural colours to dull silver and metallic ones, they are opting for everything that is non-traditional but at the same time stylish and sophisticated.

These days, colours like golden copper, maroon, onion, yellow, pink and brown are quite popular. Along with these, double shade lehengas in red-yellow or green-red or yellow-pink combinations are much in demand.

Designer Jaya Rathore feels the desire to look different from other brides is prompting women to experiment with their wedding outfit.

“Women have become very fashion-conscious. I have been receiving a lot of orders for designing bridal lehengas, traditional Indian wedding attire, with a contemporary touch. The brides-to-be are looking for myriad colours like sindoori (vermilion), emerald green, fuschia and mustard among others,” Rathore said.

Many Indian women look up to Bollywood for inspiration, and some actresses have indeed broken the monotony of the colour red at their own weddings. While Kajol draped a green sari for her wedding to Ajay Devgn, Bollywood diva Aishwarya Rai wore a golden sari when she married Abhishek Bachchan.

As far as movies are concerned, in “Dhadkan”, Shilpa Shetty looked absolutely gorgeous in a royal blue lehenga for her wedding sequence, Priyanka Chopra dazzled on screen in the combination of white and gold lehenga in “Hero” and she dressed in a green Maharashtrian sari for her wedding scene in “Kaminey”.

A lot of brides are also opting for white.

Ridhima Sharma, who is getting married in November, has bought a red and white lehenga for herself which she will be wearing on her D-day.

“I deliberately did not opt for a bright colour lehenga because I like subtle colours. My mother did tell me that white doesn’t go well on an occasion like marriage. But I was adamant. However, I still need to decide what kind of jewellery I will wear that will complement my attire,” she said.

“My fiancé will also be wearing a matching red and white sherwani on our wedding,” laughed Ridhima.

The trend was noticed in the recently released “Aisha” where in wedding celebration scenes the cast including Sonam Kapoor, Ira Dubey, Amrita Puri and Anuradha Patel were seen serenading the screen in white-red and white-gold saris.

Gunjan Gupta, who is set to tie the knot in December, has bought a heavily embroidered, purple colour lehenga for her wedding.

“I didn’t want to wear red as I wanted to look completely different on my wedding day. I visited a lot of shops that sell bridal wear but didn’t find anything interesting. Finally, I got what I wanted in Chandni Chowk market,” she said.

(Priyanka Sharma can be contacted at priyanka.s@ians.in)