Is bridal wear on the wane?

Feminism is changing consumption, and is changing India's gargantuan bridal wear industry

So many guests walked out of Sabyasachi’s grand 25th year celebration in Mumbai last weekend, a little confused, even outraged. How can India’s most famous bridal wear designer not showcase a single bridal outfit? Guests were underwhelmed, or disappointed, unable to wrap their coiffed heads around the fact that India is changing, and fashion is now more than a lehenga.

This is Sabyasachi 2.0. The designer is determined to spend the next 25 years of his label going global. But, he adds, the Indian consumer is also the global consumer. Indians want to wear what the world is wearing, and the only way to keep our repertoire of extraordinary crafts alive is by making clothes the world wants to wear.

Moreover, the designer presciently avers, “The marriage market is completely going to collapse.” Sabyasachi points to his Kolkata clients who complain to him that their daughters refuse to get married. “I tell them you send your daughters to Yale, Princeton and Radcliffe. You give them freedom and wisdom. But knowledge is a one-way street, you can’t give them knowledge and then send them back into the prison of marriage because it settles family businesses.”

Bride Rasnoor Thind in Sabyasachi for her engagement in California | Instagram@bridesofsabyasachi Bride Rasnoor Thind in Sabyasachi for her engagement in California | Instagram@bridesofsabyasachi

The death of the lehenga was dog-eared when actor Alia Bhatt got married in her balcony wearing a sari, and her hair open. There was no pomp and show, there were no extra guests. Just people who mattered to her in a space that mattered to her. Bhatt became the poster girl for the modern bride.

Indian weddings have changed. Women, far better educated and financially empowered than they were a mere decade ago, are calling the shots. They are beginning to dress sensibly, practically, and seeking value in their purchases. You could even say they are beginning to dress like men. They will get the expensive suit, and they will get the fancy watch. But they will wear them again and again.

Feminism is changing consumption, and is changing India’s gargantuan bridal wear industry.

“The business we operate in sees such a varied client base, so bridal wear is not our only focus,” Alka Nishar, founder and chairperson of Aza Fashions, tells me. “As a multi-designer store, we experience all sorts of customers. Today, even NRI brides want more practical choices to wear. But, yes, in smaller towns, brides still do see weddings as a life-time experience.”

According to the National Statistical Office of India, the number of unmarried people in India is increasing. The percentage of unmarried people in India has risen from 17.2 per cent in 2011 to 23 per cent in 2019. In 2020, more than 51 per cent of India’s population has never been married. And, as of January 2022, India has 72 million single women, the largest number of unmarried women in the country’s history.

The lehenga has now become a symbol of patriarchy. It is worn by daddy’s princesses, or who Sabyasachi calls “Cinderella’s step-sisters”. The bride is now choosing pieces that bring value to her new life, not something that will be a one-time wear. The sari has naturally seen a fabulous resurgence.

The couture jacket is also an item that’s now being counted as a must-have. Either made of brocade, or heavily embroidered, or then made of couture left-overs up-cycled and given a new life—the jacket can be worn with jeans, trousers, a skirt or a sari, and metamorph into multiple styles and moods. Much like an Indian woman.

“Children are telling their parents they don’t seek validation from showing off wealth,” Sabyasachi notes. “These children are born in a free India, the internet is their classroom. Girls today come in with their boyfriends to select their wedding clothes, as they are jointly paying for the wedding. Or they come in alone. They are confident because they all have jobs. When people are confident they become discerning buyers.”

X@namratazakaria