This India Couture Week was all about reclaiming, reimagining, embracing, rewriting

Eight days, 14 designers, delayed clocks, sleepless nights, and my fifth time bearing witness to the craft. It all comes down to one word—couture. All year, I dream of strolling the streets of Paris during fashion week, except in the month of July when I’m nothing but proud to be home. The 18th season of the Hyundai India Couture Week 2025, an FDCI initiative, alongside standalone shows, was like the previous ones in some ways, and it was nothing like any other in many ways. While the big fat Indian wedding reigns as the muse for couture in India, this season challenged the status quo. We saw brides with shorter veils, in corsets, and sultry blouses. And grooms in elements earlier reserved for brides only— pearls and maximalist embroideries. If I were to make a trend report, I would say we played around reclaiming, embracing, reimagining, and rewriting the rules, and that is how this couture season became one for the books.

RECLAIMING...

“No one puts India in the corner,” couturier Sabyasachi Mukherjee had rightly said earlier this year. This season saw couturiers reclaiming the Indian heritage and how. Tarun Tahiliani may not have showcased twice like last year, but he followed the course of craft like no other. From the classic pichwai, multicoloured chikankari to raffia embroidery, it was a heartfelt love letter to India. Rimzim Dadu turned to Gujarat’s Banjara tribes to weave patola into her silhouettes along with her signature metallic wires, resulting in atypical architectural silhouettes. Applauded for being ahead of its time, label Ritu Kumar relived the Threads of Time, reimagined by Amrish Kumar, who paid tribute to five decades of legacy with a contemporary eye. Amit Aggarwal, the master of innovation, moved from Banarasi to ikat, proving once again how Indian textiles continue to elevate his vision. And Rohit Bal’s legacy never fails to deliver. Especially when you choose Kashmir as the muse, you know it’s more than just heritage—that mogra jaal cape stole the show.

 

 

 

REIMAGINING...

Voluminous veils, wedding couture, and the course of corsets—fashion saw the art of reimagination working its magic this season. Several colours, many forms, different structures, and one silhouette—corsets. It may not have been new to the party, but with a grip so tight, the designers find themselves digging deeper into the reigns of the same. Jayanti Reddy and Siddartha Tytler chose peplum to refurbish the structure while Tahiliani’s sculpted version qualified as the gold standard of corsets. Isha Jajodia’s pearly rich corsetry and Rahul Mishra’s floral art, it all concluded that corsets are here to stay.

 

While the corsets became longer, the traditional veils became shorter. Falguni Shane Peacock extended their embroideries to the veils, and Tahiliani’s diagonal cut veils gave a breather to the brides. That said, even the ideal notion of “bridalwear” was challenged by designers like Gaurav Gupta. His global runs may have been turning him into a toast of the West, but his latest showcase brings him back to what he knows best—the great Indian wedding. His sculptural cocktail gowns are stepping afoot into bridalwear. The colours, the embroidery, the veils, the gilded corsetry, the feathers—it all heralds the beginning of a new era.

EMBRACING…

Structure and fluidity broke the barriers of bridalwear, allowing women to imagine beyond the heavily embroidered racks. This season went easy on brides and high on statements. While Shivan and Narresh set the stage for cocktail dresses and sultry resortwear, Amit Aggarwal and Rimzim Dadu played on structure— the former’s unconventional twists and turns in ikat challenged the routine, while the latter’s metallic weaves and sculptural dresses rolled out the carpet for futuristic designs in couture. 

Further bending the norm was Shantnu Nikhil, who put men in pearls and women in tuxes— a dream come true for fluid fashion gods. Whoever thought denim wasn’t dapper enough for couture—meet FSP. A pair of denim strutted down the aisle at the designer’s show—a classic white shirt, jeans paired with an embellished jacket, it was equal parts edgy and bougie.

 

 

 

REWRITING...

As much as we all love a traditional calendar brimming in couture, a pleasant surprise hurt no one. Manish Malhotra, lauded for his groundbreaking collections, did it again, but this time not just with couture, instead with a party. Stepping out of the runway norm, he celebrated couture—from archival displays to Alessandra Ambrosio gracing the evening, it was a party no one wanted to miss. Tahiliani, on the other hand, chose an intimate salon-style show with his designs playing show-stoppers. 

Like Tahiliani, Shantnu Nikhil and Amit Aggarwal had no show-stoppers, while others played with the format in unconventional ways. Actor Tamannaah Bhatia made two mid-show appearances for Rahul Mishra, JJ Valaya opened his show with cricketer Abhishek Sharma, followed by models and real-life partners Rahul Dev and Mugdha Godse waving midway, giving way to a long-overdue change in the format. 

This season was everything that makes couture worth the chaos. Until the next season, we build our wish lists and wait for another wave of couture to cast its spell

This article first appeared in the August-September 2025 issue of Harper's Bazaar India

Lead image: Falguni Shane Peacock, Rimzim Dadu, Ritu Kumar; Inside images: Courtesy the brands

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