Indian Couture Week Digresses from Creative Economy to Wedding Economy

With its glamorous settings and royal themes of destination weddings, recently concluded India Couture Week could have been a dazzling representation of  famed traditional crafts, textiles, and embellishments.

It seems like everyone wants its share of the $ 50 billion wedding industry in India,  well there is no harm in that but it should not overshadow the legacy of textile craft heritage. As video representations suggest,  recent Indian Couture week 2021concluded last week was more inclined towards destinations than designs especially when travelling is not as easy and a splurging affair as it used to be.

It was a bit queer of India’s creative minds and designers to focus more on location as the backdrop than crafts and textiles just because such places present s safe and splendid locations and experiences, not to mention great wedding packages.

From  designer Falguni & Shane taking their collection to the Taj Mahal Gupta’s Universal Love show shot at the Taj Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad, this season was all about destinations rather than journey.The Eternal Story unfolded at The Banyan Farm, both on the outskirts of the Capital. Rahul Mishra’s Kam-Khab had its outing at a 300-year-old haveli in Mandawa, Rajasthan.

Despite some noted designers like Tarun Tahiliani and Rahul Mishra who actually chose to portray and integrate the traditional textiles in a version of the How-To-Luxury-Wedding theme, hardly anyone was disposed to discuss the craft of couture.

After the collective outrage about Sabyasachi’s mass-market H&M collaboration which boasted the exquisiteness of Indian crafts but didn’t fulfil made-up expectations of how India’s crafts should be represented worldwide, one thing is apparent/ We tend to tell stories that have nothing to do with what we have designed and made.  We are just as quick to bring up our deep-rooted work with India’s craft clusters at every opportunity, most significantly on social media.

There is no denying the fact that Indian wedding market has always been a welcoming ground for designers as bride-groom want to go all out; and  want a mix of tradition and modernity.The designer has been dressing a panoply of brides Jaipur, Mumbai and Delhi, and calls the 2021 woman the ‘opulent bride but striking a balance between haute couture and crafts is vital.