Gaurav Gupta is coming for the Great Indian Wedding

“It’s a play of perceptions. I culturally play table tennis with my audience,” says Gaurav Gupta. The designer is not wrong; he knows how to navigate shifting perceptions, making the sculptural gown a staple in a sari- and lehenga-dominated bridal market while cementing himself as one of just two Indian designers on the Paris Haute Couture Week calendar. In the ongoing silent race to becoming India’s first global designer, GG (as the designer is lovingly known) has come out as a top contender, getting there one star-studded red carpet at a time (think Halle Berry at Cannes in 2025 or Cardi B at the Grammys in 2023). But just when you think Gupta is headed West, he serves a perfect dropshot and pours his creative attention into nailing that all-encompassing cultural phenomenon: the Great Indian Wedding.

It’s all you see as you step into his studio in Noida in Delhi-NCR, across the walls, cutting tables, and racks—pops of pastels, reds, and metallics layered with floral embroideries and appliqué. The queen bee is easy to spot: he stands stark in his signature all-black look, busy pinning and tucking on the champagne and gold-tinted gowns draped on his fit models. His crew of patternmakers, designers, and store managers, along with his marketing, sourcing, and production heads, all weigh in. He listens, opines, decides, only pausing to grab quick sips of caffeine. The energy is peaking, the studio is abuzz. Meanwhile, social media feeds are aflood with images of a red velvet-clad box in which is tucked an ‘infinite bell’. It’s the invite to the Mumbai showing of his eponymous label, Gaurav Gupta Couture, scheduled for August 8. It will be his grand slam and a marker of 20 years of his brand.

So, why did the designer decide to shift focus to the wedding day, when he’s already mastered the cocktail and reception?

“The Indian bridal market is getting bigger and bigger, and as a label we’re getting more attention. The nature of the Indian wedding is changing too; today’s brides and grooms want to wear us for their wedding day. So, we’re now doing the wedding day!” He pauses, not completely satisfied with the math-steeped reasoning, and confesses, “There’s a non-obvious Indianness in us that makes us very global.” Because strangely, as GG has dived deep into couture across the globe, it seems to have only drawn him closer to home. And it is this non-obvious Indianness that has made both millennial and Gen Z brides and grooms demand more of Gaurav Gupta Couture.

Ask anyone and you know what the GG signature looks like. It doesn’t matter which craft, textile, trend or era of inspiration he draws from—in his hands and mind, it turns into something sculpted, monochrome, original. He’s one of the few designers to have found his signature early on and has not just stuck with it but also expanded it into a universe he can claim is all his. It’s not simply an aesthetic made up of brand codes and motifs; it’s also an extension of his intellect. “I authentically live a fantasy life in my head. For me, it’s this universe that is much larger than the reality of cities that we live in,” he says.

GG refuses to be boxed in. His now-signature half-shaved head is just a physical marker of his refusal to conform to either side. There isn’t a particular era, artist, ism, art form or region you’ll find on his list of muses. Instead, there’s a fluid interlinking of all of these. “I get more inspired by abstraction and art as a larger format. I don’t have fashion references. There are Raja Ravi Varma paintings, Gaudi’s Art Nouveau architecture, Dali and Magritte’s Surrealist art, and all aspects of Indian spirituality that are imprinted on me really,” he adds.

His bridalwear, like his ready-to-wear or couture, ties directly into this universe. The upcoming collection, called Quantum Entanglement, is meant to rewrite legacy, not preserve it. It’s a celebration of modern love that draws on everything from his mother’s bridal tissue-brocade sari on one side to Art Nouveau’s sensuality and the grandeur of Baroque on the other. GG has, after all, never tried to fit in with the ideas of conventional wedding dressing. He’s not the one you go to for that Jodha-Akbar-era lehenga. Instead, GG creates his own bridal language. “I think, my dream wedding would have three parties—themed Roman, Greek, and Surreal. Oh, and maybe I’ll add in a Space theme too. All these elements come into my clothes anyway. At the end of the day, I just want everyone to have a blast.”

What’s the secret to cultivating this sort of single-minded creativity? There are books piled high around his desk, a sense of adventure that stretches from hopping across monasteries in Ladakh and joyrides in Hong Kong’s Disneyland, to scuba-diving off the coast of Miami, glamping in Morocco, and dancing the night away at his home in Delhi. But most of all, he admits it’s the people he surrounds himself with. “I absorb from mouth,” he says. Smirking, he waves off my dirty mind and explains, “I love artists and spiritually evolved beings. Like the other day, I was having a two-hour conversation in Leh with a monk. But I’ll admit I’m a selective sponge.”

Conversations, comfort in non-conformity, and the company of people seem to be what have most shaped GG as person and designer. Twenty years ago, his brother, Saurabh Gupta, encouraged him to come back to Delhi after he graduated from Central Saint Martins in London, and the two have built brand Gaurav Gupta since. About three years ago, a chance encounter and conversation with strategist Hema Bose of Maison Bose Communications led to his domination of the international red carpet. And then, of course, there’s his school bestie and now life partner, Navkirat Sodhi. His now-viral spring/summer 2025 Paris Couture Week collection, Across the Flames, was inspired by a near-fatal accident the two of them survived. Their story of love and resilience is already one for the books.

“I am gay, she is straight, and she’s my soulmate. I’m lucky to have multiple soulmates in the world,” he says. Not one to be confined by hetero-normativity or narrow definitions and boxes, GG traces his ability to be exactly who he is, as both person and designer, to his freedom to just be himself. “I’ve just been very lucky with my family, my friends, and my chosen family. They are extremely open-minded and accepting. And when you’re truly comfortable in your own skin, then you know exactly who you are, and everybody else is comfortable around you too.”

Coming to his own skin, GG goes on to outline his two big goals for the year, “I want to work on my body, and I want all the brides and grooms to come to me for their wedding day now,” he says. You can already spot a few gym selfies on his feed, and when his deconstructed tailored jacket comes off, he’s happy to show off his newly sculpted arms. He adds, “I was already on a path towards concentrating on my health and body before the accident in June last year. Now I’m completely committed.”

And as far as his new collection goes, give it another day or so, and brides and grooms are going to be lining up for their wedding day. Something tells me GG’s getting his way this year.

Watch Shuffled with Gaurav Gupta below