For his second bridal couture show, titled ‘Light Song’, unveiled tonight in the pavilions of the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai, Gupta began with a simple question: What is the ultimate source of light? The answer, of course, was the sun. But the sun inevitably led him to the moon—and to the imagining of a forbidden cosmic romance in which the two celestial beings can only be together during an eclipse.
It’s an appropriately grand premise for a designer whose work has never been easy to encapsulate in one word. Gupta’s collections often look like they’ve arrived from another galaxy, but their emotional and technical foundations are old—cosmology, indigenous embroideries, and ancient truths. He makes mythology sexy, filters symbolism through alien silhouettes, and pushes traditional Indian handwork into the future through a philosophy he calls “Future Primitive”.
‘Light Song’ unfolds in three acts: lunar, solar, and finally, union. In the first half, lunar-inspired looks emerge with crater-like textures and crystallised in shades of blues and dusty greys. The solar half is warmer and more opulent, glowing in shades of gold and champagne (as well as a new deep fuchsia) with zardozi and bugle beads embroidered to look like molten glass, and lehengas that look like they’re dripping with jewellery. The “union” brings the two aforementioned sections together in an emotional and aesthetic resolution. “We’ve been dwelling upon the idea of duality since ‘The Divine Androgyne’ last January in Paris, the Ida and Pingala, the sun and the moon... It’s all interconnected,” says Gupta.
The exchange between the ideas showcased in Paris and India is fluid. A laser-cut technique first showcased on a gown in Paris can be translated on a lehenga in the Indian market; an embroidery developed for Indian couture may resurface in Paris. “There’s a whole Paris-India roundabout that keeps happening,” Gupta says. “We tend to do more conceptual looks for our Paris couture outings, because that’s kind of setting up our global base for the brand. For India, we innovate on things, like this bridal jewellery lehenga we’ve just shown. Sometimes it’s actually more work for us to do these bridal embroideries than making a conceptual breastplate. So, we’ll do something new and amazing in India couture, which then lends to the next Paris collection and vice versa.”
It isn’t just out with the old and in with the new, either. “Our brand is such that we keep discovering new house codes and reinventing them,” says Gupta. Some looks in ‘Light Song’ revisit embroideries that he introduced in 2013. One segment riffs on a chikankari sari that he first designed in 2006, while a series of black looks are realised through an engineered lace technique introduced in Paris in January.
The refusal to choose between the old and the new is what makes him particularly suited to a new generation of Indian brides and grooms. For instance, a bride might want a traditional red lehenga for the pheras and an otherworldly couture gown for a Surrealist-themed after-party. Gupta believes Indian weddings have changed because the people getting married have. Although, he won’t say that the Gen Z bride is abandoning tradition entirely. Rather, they’re creating their own visual worlds. “What’s beautiful is that they’re forward-looking, but clients still find soul in it,” says Gupta. “That primitive is very important as well.”
Ahmedabad-based architect Dharmi Vasani, 26, wore two Gaurav Gupta ensembles for her wedding in Goa this January. Her sangeet lehenga was gold, shaped with the designer’s signature sculptural swoops. For the pheras, she chose a monochrome crimson lehenga with a matching veil.
Vasani had originally planned to wear another designer and spent three days in Delhi trying about 15 different outfits. Her final stop was Gaurav Gupta. “The first outfit I saw there I immediately knew I was gonna wear, because I fell in love,” she says. She knew she wanted red on red but struggled to find a fully crimson outfit elsewhere. At Gupta’s atelier, she found both the colour and the distinctive vision she was looking for in the traditional silhouette.
New York City-based brand strategist and content creator Aviva Mehta, 27, knew she wanted something fitted, almost moulded to her body, for her coastal wedding in the Hamptons. She had been following Gupta’s work for years and had initially selected a different dress from his latest Paris couture collection. Then, she learned that her grandmother would no longer be able to attend her wedding. When Mehta saw a sheer, ivory corseted look covered in delicate mogra, the decision felt obvious. Her grandmother’s favourite flower was jasmine. The minimally embroidered gown with jasmine buds creeping up the body gave her the mermaid-like silhouette she had imagined while also becoming a private tribute. “I think a lot of times, when we think of our weddings, we think of wearing the sparkliest outfit or one with the most amount of embroidery. But the design just stood for itself in such a huge way with this look. Anybody that looked at you could tell you were the bride. It was just so beautifully constructed,” she says.
