While the rest of the fashion world may have entered its late summer slumber, India’s fashion industry is gearing up for its prime time moment: the unfathomably large, opulent and over-the-top Indian wedding season.
Depending on whose numbers you believe, there are somewhere between one and ten million weddings in India each year. Last November, on a particularly auspicious date on the Hindu calendar, a staggering 60,000 weddings took place in New Delhi alone -— all in one evening — bringing traffic in the city to a standstill.
The non-stop nuptials won’t begin in earnest until October, when the monsoon rains have disappeared and the summer heat has melted away, reaching a crescendo in November and December, and then again in the spring. But in preparation for this year’s wedding bonanza, Indian designers have already been meeting with would-be brides and their families at luxury bridal fairs and expositions held across the country over the last few weeks.
I landed in India just in time to take in the first of two back-to-back fashion weeks in New Delhi, where the country’s leading designers show their bridal and “couture” collections in runway extravaganzas that start with elaborate sets evoking everything from Pompeii at the height of the Roman Empire to mythical Kashmiri Lotus flowers and end with “showstopper” runway appearances by Bollywood’s biggest stars. But the designers I spoke to also seemed to be charting a longer-term course for a wedding market that is showing the early signs of change, after years of heady bridal fever.
Each year, around 2,000 high-end weddings take place in India. These are multi-day extravaganzas that defy the Western imagination, complete with pyrotechnics, performances by gyrating Bollywood actors and international music stars, and thousands upon thousands of invited guests.
“The Indian wedding is the Indian wedding is the Indian wedding. There is nothing that comes close to it,” said superstar fashion designer Rohit Bal over breakfast the day after his bridal show in New Delhi. “Where else can you show off your extravagance, your opulence, your wealth?”
And, each year, these weddings seem to become more and more over the top, as prominent families aim to outdo each other with even more elaborate events, more exotic destinations, more expensive clothes and fine jewelry.
There was one wedding in particular that seemed to be front of mind for many of the people I spoke to. In June 2011, up to 6,000 guests reportedly attended the wedding reception of then 21 year old Mallika Reddy, daughter of a prominent Hyderabadi industrialist, to Siddarth Reddy, scion of the Indu Group, an infrastructure and real estate conglomerate.
Held in an “arena” next to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, a special air-taxi service was arranged for VIP guests, including A-list Bollywood stars Amitabh Bacchhan, Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Rani Mukerjee. The three-day event was followed by a grand wedding reception in New Delhi, attended by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
For India’s ultra high net worth individuals, it seems no gift is too lavish and no event is too opulent during wedding season. Budgets for a high-end Indian wedding can easily reach around $2 million, including the cost of events, travel, food, clothing and especially jewellery. Each year, in India, there are dozens and dozens of weddings which cost $10 million or more. Several websites reported that the Reddy wedding cost more than 100 crore rupees, or a staggering $16 million at current exchange rates.
Finally, much of this is spent in cash. “A lot of our clients have got so much undeclared wealth, where else will they spend it?” asks Mr Bal. “They have to spend it somewhere and this is the only place they can spend it, undisclosed.” Vijay Singh, chairman of India Bridal Fashion Week, concurs. “In India, there is a lot of black money, so cheque writing happens less.”
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