A spring in his step

Manpriya Singh 

For the past couple of seasons Sabyasachi has gone all out with his grooms. Brides not so much, for the ladies have already been riding high on the wave of tradition, modernity, experimentation - you name it. From the offbeat to the quintessential and, of course, the modern — Indian bride has truly been all out there. Over to the grooms now, guys who have hitherto played it safe, but not anymore.  

Grooms in florals are just an extension of the idea. Sabyasachi’s grooms have been floral, colourful, eclectic…dandies if you must say. As pointed out in one of the notes accompanied by a collection or an outfit, The Peacock Dandy, that put together an Indian orange and rani pink cross-coloured kanjeevaram with traditional peacock motifs to create a royal sherwani with uncut diamond buttons. Did that sound like the outfit of a bride? Exactly what the ace designer means by one of his posts, “You just need to take a look at history to see for yourself how exuberant and extravagant bridal and formal Indian menswear can be.” Well the nation saw that with his real-life groom Ranveer Singh; out-of-the-box and not a notch less than the bride. Never mind the memes.  

Bright & beautiful

Not that florals for men had been unheard of. With Rohit Bal, putting his men, all out there in rich colours and bold floral sherwanis in brocade fabric, way back in 2014 at India Couture Week in his work titled Ivory Collection. It was only a matter of time when with each season many more joined the bandwagon; floral motifs, prints, embroidery— sherwanis came a long way from the unsure self-prints in muted tones. Talking about men’s fashion in general, Ashish Jain, director of the brand Camla Barcelona, reflects on the universal difference between grooms vis-a-vis brides. “Talking about the big day, brides come to our mind first. But we must not forget that it’s a big day for the grooms too.” He adds, “Grooms definitely are taking away the limelight these days. The reason is the evolution in the style they carry,” while talking about the out-of-the-box options that grooms of today have in experimenting not just with colours but even patterns. “Incorporating colours is a playful task. It needs experimentation and guts to carry it, especially on the D-Day.”  

Ups-a-daisy 

One can’t stand out while playing safe and this is something men’s wear designers realised a tad too late. Nods Anoop Rawal, Ludhiana-based menswear designer “Many a time grooms still walk to me saying they want the safe, muted outfits, because, let’s face it, how many men have hot pink in their wardrobe anyway. Be it the desire to match up to their vibrant brides or be it the plethora of bright, floral options that men now have, they have finally come to accept flowers and colours in their wedding wardrobe.” From florals for spring to florals for brides and happily we now have florals for grooms.