“As a bride, you should be able to have fun and move around and be able to dance freely at your wedding,” says Tarun Tahiliani, who’ll be opening the India Couture Week at the Taj Palace Hotel today, with his bridal and occasion-wear couture collection, In Elysium. He hopes for brides to be completely at ease, whether at the actual wedding solemnisation or the after-party. It’s all about bursts of shimmering florals on lehengas, saris, gowns, and jackets. “Brides have always wanted a lot of red, but a lot of girls are opting for paler colours. Colours that they wear in their normal lives, so it is not a day in costume, but an extension of their day-to-day elegance,” he says, giving us a hint of what is to come in the new season. Edited excerpts from an interview with the designer who has been in the business over 30 years now.
What is the collection about, in a nutshell?
In Elysium, a mythical paradise is recreated through decadent lightness. The fine threadwork of traditional Indian embroidery forms the textured canvas for myriad layers of embellishment and drape. Fabrics like tulle and georgette add lightness and enhance movement, while the carefully hand-embroidered Swarovski crystals add the twinkle. Vivid bursts of three-dimensional florals span the collection in the innovative crafting of ribbon-twisted organza, chiffon couching, twisted sheer silk, laser-cut textiles, and detailed appliqué.
Tell us about the challenges
The collection that we are showing at Couture Week took an unusually long time because it started with a very strong technical base. Having spent almost two years in development, we have mastered a way to achieve the gossamer lightness we’ve been looking for.
What is your inspiration?
For too long I have seen people dressed in occasion wear very uncomfortably and unable to move freely and often end up in great pain. So, we started with a premise that we wanted the lightness to be felt in each of these garments, so that people were comfortable, they looked glamorous, they felt great, and did not have a need to change. This resulted therefore in a need for a new kind of construction in terms of detailing and a very strong basis for embroidery for it to be light and ethereal. The collection is a perfect amalgamation of contemporary techniques of Gota and Ari juxtaposed with exquisite Swarovski crystals to create surface texture.
Has the fashion vocabulary changed over the years?
I think comfort is key, and the most popular request I get is just ‘please let me be comfortable’. Most often the thank-you texts we get afterwards say that they looked fabulous, felt like a dream and weightless, that the clothes moved on them and they can’t wait to wear them again.
What are the trends for the coming season?
In my opinion, the biggest bridal trends for this wedding season are elegance, elegance and more elegance, as opposed to being over the top. Lightness, movement, pastel colours, looking like yourself.