The latest style statement made by Kate Moss, Kate Middleton, the new Duchess of Cambridge, and by the Princess of Monaco, Charlene, may not find any takers here in India. All three brides decided to either wear the bare minimum or do away with jewellery completely. They were in no mood to flaunt their baubles.
Charlene didn’t even sport a pair of earrings on her big day. Apart from a discreet headpiece and her gold wedding band, she wore no bling. The Duchess of Cambridge decided to dress the part of a princess by wearing one of the groom’s family’s heirloom tiaras, but she too didn’t go over the top. Apart from the elegant tiara, she wore a pretty pair of diamond earrings and her engagement ring.
The other Kate, Kate Moss, who is fashion royalty, also opted to tone down the ice. Barring her engagement ring and a diamond bracelet she wore no jewellery. Necklaces in particular seem to be passé; flaunting your bare neck seems to be in. Though they had access to some of the best and brightest jewels in the world, these glamazons opted to shine and dazzle minus the help of sparkly stones. Guests also kept it simple.
But can you imagine the big, fat, Indian wedding minus the bling? People will think the poor bride’s family suddenly lost all their money, if the girl shows up with nothing but a dinky pair of earrings and her engagement ring to the mandap!
Do you think we too should go easy on the sparkle quotient or is it okay to enjoy an overdose of baubles now and then?
Says designer Anand Kabra, “There’s nothing wrong in wearing jewellery for the fun of it or if you enjoy doing so. It becomes crass and tacky only when you wear it as a means to flaunt your bank balance to the world.” Also, our Indian brides will always be dressier than their Western counterparts due to the difference in cultures and lifestyle. “In a church wedding simplicity and virginity are celebrated. The bride is treated delicately, she is demure. In India, everything is more robust whether it is our food, colours... it’s all larger than life, that is how we celebrate our joy,” he says.
Jewellery designer Suhani Pittie also feels you can’t compare our Indian bride with her western counterpart as our cultures are different. “In India a wedding is a huge society affair where the father of the bride feels he owes it to society to call everyone. In the West, weddings are simpler with just friends and family,” she says. As long as you don’t overwhelm everyone around you with your wealth, it’s fine.
Also, though women in India are slowly finding their own identity, very few of us are allowed to think freely and do what we want during a wedding. “If your mother or mother-in-law asks you to wear this huge diamond necklace, you will wear it. You won’t disrespect or disregard their request,” says Suhani.
But sometimes you should put your foot down when the plan is to bury you in diamonds as Vandana Mohan, MD Wedding Design Company, who has organised the nuptials of everyone from Vikram Chatwal to Yuvraj Shivraj of Jodhpur says, “I always believe less is more. Though adornment has always been part of our culture, teaming your already jewelled, Swarovski encrusted heavy ghagras with three necklaces, handful of bangles and lots more jewels... is not pretty.”
Of course you should wear pretty jewellery, but Vandana believes the beauty of gems are best showcased when pieces are worn individually. More than the brides, Vandana feels it’s the grooms who need to realise that less is more. “Emeralds seems to be the in thing for them. These days you see them wearing six rows of the stones!” laughs Vandana adding that sporting the sword too is very in. They like to look like maharajas from a forgotten era. Now, men are competing with the ladies and turning up to be the flashier of the two and this is never cool.
People who have a comfortable equation with their wealth and who own it, instead of being owned by it, don’t feel the need to go overboard and display all that they have to the world to prove something.