Sanjana Rishi says she wore a vintage, powder-blue pantsuit to her traditional Indian wedding recently “simply because I love suits”.
But, with her choice of wedding outfit, she also delivered a bold fashion statement – that made many wonder whether more brides would ditch traditional clothing in favour of the power suit.
In the West, bridal pantsuits have caught on in the past few years. Designers are promoting trousers in their wedding collections, and they’ve received celebrity endorsement too. Last year, Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner wore a pair of white trousers when she married musician Joe Jonas in Las Vegas.
But, Ms Rishi’s outfit was highly unusual for India – where brides usually dress up in silk saris or elaborate lehengas (long skirt-blouse-scarf combos). The preferred colour is red and many are embroidered with expensive gold or silver thread.
“I’ve never come across an Indian bride dressed like this,” says Nupur Mehta Puri, former editor of a bridal magazine. “Brides usually like to wear Indian attire along with the traditional jewellery from their mothers and grandmothers.
“This was something very new. And she really stood out.”
An Indian-American entrepreneur, Ms Rishi, 29, married Delhi businessman Dhruv Mahajan, 33, on 20 September in the capital, Delhi.
She had worked as a corporate lawyer in the US before returning to India last year and the couple were living together for close to a year.
They had planned a wedding in September in the US – where the bride’s brother and most of her friends live – and a second traditional Indian wedding in Delhi in November.
But then Covid happened and their plans “got completely derailed”.
Source: BBC