Genelia Deshmukh wears a customised sari by Picchika, styled by Priyanka Castelino. The sari sits on a muted ivory base, with blue and green orchid motifs painted across the body in an evenly distributed arrangement.
The florals vary in scale across the surface. A larger motif appears along the pallu, while smaller painted orchids repeat across the length of the sari. Gold gota embroidery traces the stems of the flowers, introducing a tactile element alongside the painted work. The blouse is kept plain, with a white neckline and elbow-length sleeves that sit quietly alongside the detailing of the sari.
Accessories stay within a limited palette. Deshmukh wears jewellery from Kalyan Jewellers, including pearl earrings and coordinated hand accessories. A potli bag and mojris from Fizzy Goblet are added without introducing additional textures.
Her hair is styled in a neat mid-rise bun, finished with fresh flowers tucked at the back. Makeup stays natural in tone, with an even satin finish on the skin, softly defined brown eyes and rosy pink lips. A small blue bindi mirrors the painted hues of the sari.
From Vogue’s fashion desk
“Elevate the sari’s hand-painted elegance by draping the pallu over one shoulder and letting it fall along the opposite arm. Keep the hairstyle largely the same, but allow a few loose strands to frame the face for a gentler, more effortless finish. Swap the elbow-length blouse for a full-sleeved one to make it more refined. Soften the eyes with a more muted shade of palette. Drop the dangling earrings for a pair of medium-sized pearl studs to match the necklace and complete the look with open-toe white sandals for a light, contemporary touch.”
The skirt, the top, and the headpiece had been the “Big Three” of the lehenga choli set for a long time. It`s difficult to hold things in order when you’re wearing a wrap. These days, a wrap isn’t a woman’s best friend. The edges may be dangerous, it requires pins, and it is tough to move around in.
The outfits in our online store have become new ones. They need to eliminate the old school flow and upload layers that might be more modern, organized, and full. This is what the “Anti-Dupatta Revolution” is all about.
For dinner, you may add a coat, blazer, or jacket to your lehenga set to make it look better. If you’re the bride or a girl and need more room to move, that is genuinely great.
Modern Ways to Style Lehengas with Capes, Jackets, and Blazers
Wearing Blazers with Lehengas for a Lively Performance
It was never said that clothes are only for work. Wearing a structured jacket with a lehenga choli set can give you a beautiful “Boss Bride” look. This fashion appears splendid at a marriage in the winter or an elegant engagement party.
Easy Ways to Style: Select a quick silk jacket that hits just above the skirt`s waist. You’ll appear better and be capable of manipulating your weight.
A proper tip is to leave off the jacket’s top button while you wear a shirt with a collar on it. For a more modern appearance, tie it around your waist with a traditional kamarband.
A Heavenly Cape: A Dramatic Experience That Doesn’t Need Any Work
If you like the loose fit of the dupatta but don’t like how much you have to pin it, the cape is a great option. You will look like a royal superhero if you wear a floor-length, sheer cape with your lehenga set.
The Look: A feathered or glittery cape will help you look like you belong on the red carpet. Don’t worry about “hands-free” features; this is it.
Simply said, its rearward framing of the ensemble will capture breathtaking photographs of your big arrival, which is why it was implemented.
Long-line Jackets are a Modern take on a Classic Style
It may be worn as a jacket in case you take off the choli and add a long, floor-length jacket. If you need to reveal a bit less skin without dropping style, please wear this.
Style Tip: Wear a nice, vibrant silk jacket. Wear a clean organza jacket with plenty of small threadwork over a heavy raw-silk skirt to make it lighter.
Why are Brides Getting Rid of the Dupatta?
Today`s women want to feel calm and positive about themselves, and prefer to be on their wedding day. A lot of dupattas appear nice; however, a few are too tight and need to be changed all the time. When you do not wear a veil, you can move around more easily. This allows you to revel in the wedding ceremonies, dance, and speak to your friends.
Many women nowadays get ideas from big parties, style trends from across the world, and what is new on the catwalk. Following style regulations to the letter is not as vital as setting collectively an outfit that indicates your own style. A shirt and skirt look their best when worn with a lehenga, however, not draped over it.
How to Style a Wedding Dress Without a Dupatta?
To do this style justice, you need to pay close attention to the little things:
For a polished look, you need a lehenga and top that fit well.
If the shirt has a lot of embellishments, keep the skirt simple, or the other way around.
Choose earrings that make a statement or necklaces that are stacked to frame the look.
The clean shape looks better with sleek buns, soft waves, or braids.
With these styling choices, the outfit looks full even without a dupatta.
Do You Want to Follow this Trend?
A lehenga without a skirt is all you want if you love modern fashion, want to appear amazing, and stick out from the crowd. To be honest, it really works great for receptions, cocktail parties, and occasions before the wedding ceremony. But increasingly brides are using it throughout the process too. In the end, the selection comes down to things like ease of comfort, cultural preferences, and the challenge of the wedding ceremony.
It`s amazing that people do not wear dupattas with lehengas for weddings. With this new style, you may be yourself, stand out, and appear elegant at the same time. Brides can break with their lifestyle in a way that works for them after they wear this style. It appears excellent with a cape, jacket, or blouse that makes a statement. One issue is becoming clear: women these days don`t mind breaking the rules.
Yes, absolutely. Modern brides are increasingly choosing to ditch the dupatta for a cleaner, more contemporary look. It allows the lehenga’s blouse detailing, embroidery, and overall silhouette to stand out while offering comfort and ease of movement.
Balance can be achieved by opting for a statement blouse, dramatic jewelry, or unique styling elements like belts, capes, jackets, or embroidered blouses. Hair accessories, bold makeup, and well-structured blouses also help complete the look gracefully.
A dupatta-free lehenga works best for cocktail parties, receptions, engagement ceremonies, and modern wedding functions. For traditional rituals, some brides prefer adding a lightweight dupatta or veil, but it ultimately depends on personal style and the wedding’s overall theme.
In 2013, at the University of Minnesota, Pooja Shah and Akhil Bhargava were living parallel lives. Shah, raised in the coastal city of Mombasa, Kenya, was founding her sorority’s chapter at the university, while Bhargava, born in Australia and raised in Minnesota, was gearing up to become president of his fraternity. “Our first real conversations happened over steaming bowls of pho between classes,” Shah recalls. “Over the next four years, we became inseparable friends.”
In the summer of 2017, Shah had just graduated and moved to Chicago, while Bhargava happened to be interning there between graduate school semesters. “It was, in many ways, the summer of our lives,” she says. They discovered the city together—new restaurants, long walks along the lakeshore, late nights dancing and elaborate Game of Thrones watch parties.
Later that year, Bhargava returned to Chicago for Shah’s 22nd birthday. “That weekend, he decided to take the leap,” she says. What began with a kiss stretched across months apart while Shah travelled through Spain, Oman and Kenya. “Akhil texted me every day, never wavering in his conviction.” When she returned to Chicago, Bhargava flew in to meet her with nothing but a carry-on and a plan: a basketball game, followed by dinner and a poem asking if she would be his girlfriend.
In February 2024, Bhargava proposed during a visit to the Maasai Mara. “It’s a place that holds deep meaning for us,” says Shah. “It’s where my love of photography first ignited, and it remains one of my favourite places in the world.” From there, deciding where to marry felt instinctive. “We always knew we wanted to marry in Kenya. It never felt like a decision so much as a homecoming.”
For the couple, a wedding in Kenya meant far more than its safaris and pristine coastlines. “It’s Swahili hospitality; the generosity, the genuine care, the way every visitor is embraced like family,” Shah explains. Life on the coast moves at pole pole—slowly, gently. Planning a wedding in Kenya meant leaning into relationships over online portfolios and working within the limits of what the coast could offer. Prioritising local materials, minimising waste and coordinating across an eight-hour time difference became part of the process.
Shah worked on the event’s visuals and sensory details, while Bhargava focused on what he believes makes a celebration, like the food, the music and the energy. Above all, the couple wanted their guests to understand what it means to celebrate as Kenyan Indians. “To feel the pride, the warmth and the layered identity that shaped both of us long before we found each other,” shares Shah.
Somewhere between my third Sunset Blush at a rooftop bar in Bandra and a scroll past yet another perfectly placed #vacationface, I realised what we respond to now is the residue of having been elsewhere rather than just a flex of plane tickets. Cheeks look toasted, hair smells faintly of sea salt (or a very convincing spray). Dark circles pass as jet lag chic. The ‘vacation glow’ has moved from souvenir to signal, a suggestion that you briefly stepped outside your own life.
Meanwhile, real rest has become one of modern India’s rarest indulgences. Work trips pretend to be holidays, holidays turn into remote offices and ‘ease’ becomes an aesthetic. In that gap, beauty products inspired by vacation function as a loophole. We lather ourselves in oils and mists that promise private island sheen and vacations in a bottle without having to work out the logistics of it. Product language increasingly leans into restoration and exposure to the outdoors: glow drops, recovery serums, skin resets, sunlit finishes. The promise is a way to hold on to how you looked after time away.
Beauty often becomes recovery; products like botanical oils and naturally scented self-care hold firm as brief sensory suspensions from our routines. The afterglow economy is built on extending a feeling that’s meant to fade, because letting it disappear feels like slipping back into something heavier.
The so-called soft life shows up online as a particular look: linen breakfasts, muted vlogs, days edited to feel spacious and unhurried. Living at that pace, though, is far harder to sustain alongside full workloads, family responsibilities and the expectation of constant availability. So what am I really buying into the next time I scroll past a #afterglow post on my feed? You could say a permission slip. In a culture that rarely builds those boundaries into everyday life, this version of afterglow steps in as a substitute.
And this is where the truly modern twist lands: We’re still longing for the vacation in the Maldives, but also the ability to be read as someone who can leave and rest.
“I’m not reachable,” is a muscle many of us haven’t exercised in years. We crave distance, but because absence here comes with friction: the guilt of not replying, the follow-up messages checking in, the expectation that unavailability needs explanation. So when the vacation itself isn’t possible, what we reach for instead is the suggestion of it. The glow that implies time away, even when we’re still very much here. Someone saying “You look so rested” can spark more joy than the weekend you didn’t get to switch off.
It is usually mid-meltdown, not mid-morning, that we realise just how much our bags are holding. A laptop, chargers, paperwork you meant to file last week and somehow still room for tissues and a protein bar. Just in case.
Work asks for your best self, even on days when you feel anything but. And so we lean on objects that keep up. What we carry with us tends to stay with us. Enter black tote bags, the unsung partner to the 9-to-5 and beyond. Some ask you to rummage. Others are neat to the point of reassurance.
Totes were, after all, designed to carry weight. While we no longer need them to haul the literal burdens of civilisation, their purpose has held. Today, form has to earn its keep through function.
Black is the most dependable colour in any wardrobe, not because it hides but because it absorbs. It takes in the chaos of the day without advertising it. In office settings, especially, black blends in, reads professional and never feels out of place. That is why black tote bags endure. They move easily through routines, meetings and long commutes, transitioning from a day of to-do lists to an evening of me-time.
Choosing one is not just a style but a practical decision about what will show up best for you.
Ahead, an edit of black tote bags that do exactly that.
This year, Akanksha Gajria orchestrated a birthday party pre-destined to become a core memory—all from her recovery bed. Laid up after a gall bladder surgery, forbidden from eating anything that hadn’t been whipped up in her own kitchen under the strictest guidance of her doctor, she chanced upon an Instagram story by a fashion magazine’s editor. Potluck. Of course, she thought: There was her answer to “How do I celebrate my 39th birthday while having people over and not feeling FOMO about all the good food they’re having?”
Soon, twenty people descended on her Bandra home bearing Bihari mutton curry (which they wiped up with idlis and appams), chicken cutlets and date rolls wrapped in bacon. It also marked her husband’s foray into baking—he whipped up dark chocolate cupcakes that tasted like devotion. “Everyone just brought something made at home. Different flavours and minds came together and conversation just flowed, which was amazing to see for a person like me who is not a foodie,” Gajria tells me. “Food brings people together, especially when you have such a vast section of people who don’t really know each other. I needed that warmth, in people and in the food.”
Consider the modern socialising landscape. Like Carrie Bradshaw and her flock of very busy women carving out time for each other over power lunches, you’re queuing for an hour to eat ramen with the maitre’d tapping their smartwatches. Or, like a modern-day Clarissa Dalloway, you’re attempting to coordinate your entire phone book’s dietary preferences via a WhatsApp group that’s spiralling out of control. Enter the potluck: the low-lift, high-reward way of partying that possesses those increasingly rare qualities: community, variety and a grain of surprise.
Not that the potluck ever truly went out of style. Our parents knew this secret all along, gathering around groaning tables while we eyed the cake hiding in the kitchen. But somewhere between Zomato’s rise, restaurants with shifts and overcrowded NYE bashes where total strangers find any excuse to accidentally grope your behind, we forgot that the answer to “Where should we go?” might just be, “Your place. I’ll bring the kheema.”
“I feel like we do it almost every month now,” says PR professional Anindita Kannan. Growing up in Dubai, Kannan watched her parents build a social network with other nuclear families by inviting people over with their favourite dishes. Moving to Delhi and then to Bengaluru, Kannan has perfected the art of themed potluck parties in the last decade, hosting them on the vast terrace garden of her Domlur penthouse-style apartment.
She’s done garlic-themed nights where people brought hot-cross buns, aiolis and hummus. When the weather is nice, she’s done barbecues where everyone brings their favourite meats and vegetables in unique marinades. She’s hosted cook-offs judged MasterChef-style for no reason other than to make things fun. Kannan thinks the return of the potluck might be generational: “We watched our parents do it, and now that we’re in our 30s, have kids and homes where we can host, we’re excited to get back into cooking.” Our reasons for hanging out might have been different in our 20s, she adds, and now it might be that we all just want to participate again.
It’s time to celebrate, feel loved and shower your love on others. Taurus, you could get used to this feeling of warmth, celebration and kinship. You asked and the cosmos is showering you with support, resources and gifts. Things may not always feel perfect, but intuitively, in your heart you know that no matter what, they always work out for you. The order, structure, and depth you seek will be found once you are willing to give your ideas and hunches a shot. You may enter seeking a particular outcome, however, what you gain is likely to be intangible, Leo. You’ve got an iridescent fire burning and Sag, this is drawing all the attention your way. You started on a journey knowing that you would be paving the way for something new and unexplored, at least within your circles. However, your guides insist that you must not allow your fears to get in the way of how you move and where you are headed. There is little point in winding yourself up about things that are beyond your control. The only thing you can do is choose to find a way out and leave the circus behind—even if just mentally. Relax your energy, sink into this moment and really notice what awaits you at your table. You are being guided to soften up Libra—just a tad bit so that not only your energy, but also your thoughts can flow.
Read on for what the stars have in store for you, and make sure you check out your sun, moon and rising signs for the complete picture.
Rest, reset, play. Aries, just don’t drown in fret and sweat all over again, okay? The gazillion things you may have committed to when you were at an emotional high may have felt amazing when you said yes, but now do they feel a bit much? Whatever your situation, know that even when you feel like crashing, you really aren’t. Your body and mind are simply asking for some down time. So rest up and know that life need not be lived in one single day, okay?
Cosmic tip: Move on into calmer waters, now.
It’s time to celebrate, feel loved and shower your love on others. Taurus, you could get used to this feeling of warmth, celebration and kinship. You asked and the cosmos is showering you with support, resources and gifts. Things may not always feel perfect, but intuitively, in your heart you know that no matter what, they always work out for you. Your willingness to receive, gives you a lot more blessings to be grateful for.
Cosmic tip: Brainstorm your ideas and look for creative and ingenious solutions.
Velvet has become a recurring choice in eveningwear this season because of how it carries embellishment. Its dense surface absorbs surrounding light, allowing crystals, pearls and metal embroidery to sit heavier and appear more concentrated, even when used in limited areas. The fabric does much of the visual work on its own, making placement more effective than coverage.
Khushi Kapoor wears a black velvet ensemble from Manish Malhotra’s INAYA line, styled by Mohit Rai, that puts this material quality to work. The look is built from separate components, with each piece treated as an individual surface for embellishment rather than a continuous field.
The strapless corset top is edged with silver and pearl embroidery along the neckline and hem, concentrating the detailing high on the body. On the skirt, jewelled motifs appear across the surface. The spacing allows the fabric to remain visually present between points of embellishment.
Accessories are kept minimal, with diamond studs and a single ring. Hair is styled in a high bun, clearing the neckline and leaving the embroidery unobstructed. Makeup stays evening-appropriate, with an even base, softly contoured cheeks, dark liner at the eyes and a neutral lip.
From Vogue’s fashion desk
“Soften the high-glam drama by breaking up the heavy embellishment with something unexpectedly easy, like a sheer black organza dupatta worn loose and low on the arms. The silhouette is already doing a lot, so skip anything too ornate at the ears and instead go for tiny diamond or onyx studs. Hair could loosen slightly too, sleek at the crown but not shellacked, with a few strands breaking the perfection so it feels almost effortlessly undone. Finish with a barely-there sandal or even a slim leather flat,” says Vogue India fashion associate Manglien Gangte.
A violently sweet saffron and rose scent diffuses in our small seminar room, mellowing down my stressed-out classmates (or so I was told). What followed was different versions of: “Wow, what are you wearing?” The lady interviewing me and the man taking my mocha order even proceeded to name-drop luxury brands in an attempt to guess what I had on; 6,538 miles away from home, my attar entered the room before I did, as if announcing my Indian identity.
Fragrances are the most effective time capsules. Mogra? Your grandmum’s ghajra. Clove and cardamom? Chai at 5pm in a desi household. We associate places we frequent, books we love, men we’ve sworn off and our closest friends with scents that initiate a time skip to another moment. They become extensions of our personality and have been entangled with our culture and identity for years. For Mughals, the more complex your attar, the stronger your standing. Egyptians, too, used scented oils in divine rituals and took pride in their creation. It would be diminishing to say that a whiff of attar only carries fragrance. It’s weighted with history and the luxury industry is finally seeing it. Attars are no longer tucked away in forgotten corners of Delhi and Lucknow; they’re touring the world. From Tom Ford’s Oud occupying the highest shelf at Sephora to Jo Malone’s oil-infused fragrances and Byredo’s patchouli perfume oil, attar has gone global. Once looked down upon as “cheap,” it now graces the wrists of everyone who’s anyone.
As mass-produced perfumes have grown increasingly homogeneous, attars and ouds stand out for their complexity and depth of notes; an added advantage at a time when personalisation and DIY reign supreme. Their resurgence is also tied to a broader cultural shift: a return to tradition marked by Gen Z marrying younger, hemlines lengthening and conservatism making quite the comeback.
Alongside this renewed respect for heritage, growing concerns around clean beauty have played a significant role. CHEM Trust’s 2022 report, which revealed that 20 popular luxury fragrances contain endocrine disrupters that can dysregulate hormones, has prompted consumers to question (and reinvent) their relationship with scent. In contrast, attars, made from botanical ingredients and produced through slow, careful distillation, embody the art of slow perfumery. For a country with a grand olfactory legacy long reduced to a supplier of raw materials for international luxury houses, this renewed appreciation feels overdue.
More than anything, attars became a way of not losing myself in a foreign land. In a city I couldn’t yet call mine, I could still leave a trail that was. One that smelled like Chandni Chowk, where I first realised that the poorly documented origins of attar in Delhi were far from humble. I was told by the experienced distillers there that the Mughal ruler, Akbar, founded an entire ministry in Dilli 6 just to develop perfumery, so he could douse his body, his baths, even his furniture in scent. Perfumed vials of distilled flowers hung off wrists and waists like talismans. Chandni Chowk became the epicentre of that obsession, its attar shops passing down an olfactory archive that refuses to be forgotten.
If you’ve ever stood in front of a mirror trying to convince yourself that a “my lips but better” shade looks the same on your two-toned lips as it did on the model, you know the struggle. Pigmented lips don’t just change how a colour shows up, they can make some lipsticks look patchy, greyed out or oddly dull, even when the formula is expensive and the shade looks perfect in the bullet. Add in the fact that many “nudes” wash out deeper Indian skin tones and finding an everyday lipstick that feels flattering can feel like a real ordeal. So we adjusted. We layered, toned things down with lip liner, mixed shades or just convinced ourselves it looked okay.
Pigmentation itself is more common than most people admit. Genetics, sun exposure, leftover stains from long-wear formulas, constant lip-licking, dehydration, hormonal changes and even old smoking habits can all deepen the lip line or leave the top lip darker than the bottom. Skincare helps; daily SPF on the lips, gentle exfoliation once a week and a hydrating balm as a base, but makeup still does a lot of the visible heavy lifting. The right lipstick has to do three things at once: even out uneven tone, stay comfortable and deliver colour that doesn’t look like you’re trying to correct something.
With that in mind, we put formulas to the test on real, pigmented and two-toned lips across a spectrum of Indian skin tones to find 30 lipsticks that don’t turn ashy or streaky and look rich and even in one or two swipes. From deep maroons that brighten the face instantly to chocolate browns, berry tones, rosy pinks and terracotta nudes that hold their ground against natural pigmentation, these shades work for almost every Indian skin tone.
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