What do I wear?

You’ve been invited to a wedding and the first thing that comes to your mind, what do I wear? When you are putting together the perfect outfit, there are so many colours and styles to choose from and coordinating it all together can be a challenge.

So how do you know what’s tending?

Sarees

New trends in sarees women are wearing to weddings are mauve, navy and blues according to Sheetal Agheda, fashion head of British Asian Fashion Week which is founded and owned by Terry Mardi Ltd where Agheda is the fashion director. BAFW showcases Asian designers that want to do western wear and helps designers promote their brand. The company operates BAFW online but they do place designer merchandise from Asia into stores in the London area.

Designer Jyoti Chandhok, also based in London, United Kingdom notices that blue is a popular trend among her clients as well but other new trends are sarees in shades of peach and even yellow.

As for the embroidery on sarees, gold, also known as zardosi, remains popular so go ahead if you want to stay traditional but if you want to wear something different then go towards floral and lace floral embroidery which is an emerging trend.

Bride

Now the bride, the most important person in the wedding, she traditionally wears a red saree with gold embroidery. Red is an auspicious colour in South Asian culture symbolizing purity, dignity and honour. It transforms her to womanhood and shows her union to her husband-to-be in front of family and friends. To keep the focus on the bride, Agheda recommends you avoid wearing red.

Jewellery

No outfit though is complete without plenty of jewellery. The bride sticks with the traditional gold which represents purity and deters evil. Although lately the nose rings, also known as a nath and uncut diamonds are growing in popularity. Attendees can still wear gold but if you want to change things up, go with copper. It’s a growing trend with women who want to wear less bling.

“Now it’s more fashionable to say, ‘I don’t like the golds. I would much rather go for a toned down version.’ And so therefore the copper element comes in,” Chandhok said.

Menswear

When it comes to men’s fashion, men are often unwilling to wear Indian clothing to weddings because they aren’t familiar with that style of dress, Chandhok says.

“Every time a groom walks into my studio he will say ‘I have never worn an Indian outfit before,’” Chandhok said. “[It’s] because they have never seen that. They’re not willing to experiment [with] the pajama.”

Although some men will wear the traditional slender trousers, Chandhok says, they balk at the pyjama and dhoti (an unstitched cloth wrapped around the waist).

Most often, male attendees dress in western suits. Still, Agheda believes in the end men will go for the traditional look because the fabric and materials are now available. Men are now trending towards wearing sherwanis that are in neutral colours- navy, cream and beige but some go for maroon. Men desire to look simple by also wanting less bling embroidery according to Agheda.

“I think the simpler it is, the more attractive it is for men to wear,” Agheda said.

When it comes to footwear, men are looking for jutti that is plain to coordinate with their outfit.

“Regular maroon shoes will make them [men] look simple and nice,” said Nilani Puvanendran, sales associate at Asiyans Tex & Giftware Inc in Toronto.

Groom

As for the groom, he wears the traditional white sherwani with red embroidered jewels and a red turban called a pagri to match the bride.

Fashion for attendees to wear at weddings will come and go but what the bride and groom wears remains everlasting tradition.

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