It’s rather old-fashioned to think that only a bride shines in all her finery on her big day. Bridegrooms these days are making a style statement too. They’re shrugging off those traditional, crisply-starched off-white and gold shirts and dhotis and off-the-rack suits and sherwanis in favour of bespoke garments, in a variety of colours, styles and embellishments, which give their brides-to-be a run for their money.
Designer Vivek Karunakaran says that it’s because grooms are getting more adventurous with their choice of wedding garments. “They are far more conscious of their personal style and also about how nowadays weddings are elaborate productions, with multiple ceremonies and festivities, each of which requires a different look,” he explains. Take a look at cricketer Yuvraj Singh, who hit all sixes as far as style was concerned, during his wedding with actor Hazel Keech. The sangeet saw him dressed in an elegant black bandhgala in velvet — incidentally, the wedding fabric of the season. For the traditional Sikh wedding, he wore a customised burgundy velvet sherwani, with a stole in the same colour to complete the look. For the Hindu ceremony by the beach, Yuvi chose a much breezier embroidered, red jacket and dupatta over a plain beige kurta, while for the post-wedding reception, he was all beach glam in a powder-blue linen suit. All colours coordinated with his bride’s outfits.
Am embriodered suit, designed by Matin Mac of Ethics by Matin Mac Photo: Sanoj Kumar
Down South, even though singer Benny Dayal chose to go traditional in a white kurta and dhoti for his nuptials with actor Catherine Thangam, for the mehendi function and the wedding reception, he made a splash in blue. He teamed a bright blue kurti with beige Jodhpur pants for the former and was seen in a jacquard suit of green paired with a blue shirt, for the latter.
Noticeably, if plain white, off-white and gold, beige and conservative black or grey were the norm for decades, now it’s the time of aqua blue, peach, wine red, mustard yellow, emerald green and what not, for shirts, suits and jackets, in monotone or in contrast colours.
“Fashion has evolved with time and men have begun to explore the whole palette of colours,” explains Karunakaran. Recall Rohit Bal’s much-drooled-over plain silk sherwanis in sky blue, orange, yellow and the like teamed with contrasting brocade pants and dupattas? “There’s no more a difference between traditionally ‘feminine’ colours and ‘masculine’ colours in wedding wear. So, we see grooms these days going for mints, salmon pinks and dusky corals, as much as they go for bolder burgundies, plums and jades,” adds designer Shalini James of Mantra.
The same goes for embroidery. Florals, a constant in women’s fashion, have caught on in a big way in men’s couture, after it hit the ramp at fashion weeks across the country. Yuvi’s burgundy sherwani, for instance, had beautiful hand-crafted gold floral motifs. Geometric patterns are also equally popular this season.
A customised bandhgala. Photo courtesy: K. K. John Kallat
“Imagine the kind of hand-embroidery that goes into the bride’s clothes — stone work, zardosi, crystals, bead work, aari, gota, phulkari… we now do them on the groom’s clothes too,” says Sobha Ashwin of handloom brand Weavers Village. These embroideries mainly go on collars, lapels, pockets, cuffs and shoulders and sleeves. If you had noticed Salman Khan’s wedding outfit in Sultan , you would have seen the red embroidery on the sleeves and collar that added a dash of much-needed colour to the otherwise plain-white sherwani.
That said, the embroidery for men’s wear is rarely as elaborate as the bride’s — unless it’s OTT gorgeousness as a Sabyasachi outfit! Minimalism is the key, say designers. “Too much and it can overpower the bride’s look, or worse, look like it’s off the rack,” says designer Matin Mac of Ethics by Matin Mac. “For instance, the in thing is to only get a crystal broach embroidered on a tuxedo or beadwork and piping on collars and the cuffs,” he explains.
Unconventional (read Indo-Western) silhouettes are haute. That means well-fitted bandhgalas now get teamed with slim pants and trendy dhotis. Grooms think nothing of wearing anarkali kurtas and sherwani bandhgalas with broad pants. They fit trendy Nehru jackets over kurtas; velvet dinner jackets get paired with slim pants or Jodhpurs. Embroidered jackets are matched with Jodhpurs and dhotis, draped sherwanis go with sleeveless jackets, and angarkhas with pencil pants. “These days, literally anything goes as far as silhouettes are concerned. You are limited only by taste and personal style,” says Matin. So, as the wedding season approaches, what will be your look?
