When old is new

Veere Di Wedding might have received backlash for women mouthing abuses and its sexual references, but the film surely gave us many ‘goals’. Remember Kareena Kapoor Khan’s unique wedding dress from the film" an off-shoulder, embellished, yellow lehenga... Yes, that lehenga was a 25-year-old lehenga for real! In the film’s plot too, it was Kalindi’s (name of the character that Kareena played) mother’s lehenga that she gave a fresh spin to, and wore it for her own wedding. 

Even before the movie, many new-age brides had been following the trend " if not for the wedding ceremony itself, but for another function, or just to add a heirloom to her trousseau collection. This is done by revamping the garment and transferring the original work. We asked some city-based designers on how they reuse older works and the kind of requests they get from clients. 

ENVIRONMENT & POCKET-FRIENDLY

Kusum and Karishma Luharuwala, of Label Faabiiana share with AFTERhrs, “Bridal lehenga is usually the most expensive attire of your wedding and it can be reused in a lot of ways. For example, make an anarkali from your used lehenga or use the blouse with another saree. Also if it’s torn or ripped off, patches can be used to make short dresses or a hair band, bag and other  accessories.” She adds, “We get inquiries by clients on how can their old real zari sarees be reused. First of all, it is environmental-friendly and secondly, pocket-friendly too. It keeps those memories from the treasure trove of your grandmother or mother intact. So it can be used by transferring the patch work on to a new saree or a half-half saree can be created with those age-old beautiful dupattas. Even old sarees can be transferred to create a contemporary and chic look.”

THE ‘ROYAL’ OUTFITS 

The trend of using older works is not entirely new. Mostly, it is to reuse the original silver and gold that have been put to use in bridal outfits, such as rajputi poshaaks. Many city designers have been putting those works to use again in their outfits. Designer Aruna Singh explains, “We transfer the work usually when people have original silver or gold work in their outfits, so that they can proudly say that it is made of silver! But, since the fabric gets spoiled, we need to transfer the whole work by tracing it.” She adds, “At the same time, we also need to check the originality of the old work. Usually, it is people from royal families who don’t wish to put their old heavy outfits to waste and get the work transferred.” 

“It is like an add-on to the trousseau collection, like re-using your grandmother’s bridal outfit, to preserve her memories,” Singh explains. However, it is not an easy task, and at times, over expensive too. “Sometimes, these old outfits are extremely beautiful, and end up brightening your trousseau to a whole new level,” she expresses. 

Designer Geeta Chauhan too gets lots of requests of this kind where clients request old poshaak work to be tranferred into a saree or a poshaak. She explains, “I recently did a 70-80 year old poshaak for a royal family. It was made of original tissue that had silver sequins and polish " into a new poshaak. I arranged for a material of the same kind, and got this work transferred onto it, which indeed took a lot of effort and time.” 

REUSE & REDESIGN

According to Pallavi Jaipur, usually the requests they receive are not for the main wedding outfit. “We usually get requests to use an old saree " these days we are getting quite a lot of Benarasi sarees to be redone. It is important to redo the entire work as well on the silhouette. Brocades too are pretty common, in terms of reusing,” she added. 

Designer Puja Arya also has done work where old brocade was used into her pret line. “We have reused and redesigned them into blouses, etc. We have also used some amount of gota from an old piece into new pieces,” she says. She adds further that usually such demands come during the wedding season or winters.

NO NEED TO REPEAT!

Celebrity stylist Shreya Juneja says, “Usually we don’t repeat our bridal outfit, but there are ways in which we can wear them differently. We can always wear our mom’s saree, in a different and quirky way -- by pairing it with a sexy cut blouse. Also, pairing a dupatta with a plain palazzo and crop top is the perfect way to bring that heavy dupatta to use in a smart way. One can also take a saree and wrap it around along with pants and top " which is quite a lot in trend lately and being done by many designers.” She adds, “The bridal lehenga usually has pretty work, one can take just the skirt and add a simple blouse and rock it in a completely different way. The dupatta of the bridal lehenga can actually be styled in many ways!”