The look of an Indian bride reflects not only grace but also tradition and cultural richness. Our country is full of diversity and according to the states and culture, there are changes in the outfits of the bride and groom for the wedding, but if we talk about the look of the Pan India bride, then lehenga and saree are the most worn garments. Often brides choose bright colored outfits like red or maroon for their wedding day, which are considered a symbol of love and prosperity. These gradually became part of a kind of custom, but fashion changes with time and with it the bride’s fashion also changed. There were many changes in the design of outfits, jewelery and the way of doing make-up, but there were pauses in all this for a few years. Earlier the bride’s attire used to be selected by the family members and these were bought as per the traditions, whereas in today’s time the girls themselves select everything from their clothes to jewellery. In this article, we will know from fashion designer Sanjana John how the journey of Indian brides was from tradition to personal choice.
Whenever you would have seen your mother’s wedding photos, you must have realized that the bride of that time was in a red lehenga or saree, with a kumkum bindi on her forehead, gold and silver traditional designed jewelery and a very simple face. At that time, clothes were also chosen according to tradition, but with time, when fashion changed and girls also started seeing the world in a new way, the thinking about choice of clothes also changed. Let us know how the fashion of Indian brides changed and in which years there were more changes.
The bride of 1990 had a traditional look
Fashion designer Sanjana John says about bridal attire, jewelery and make-up during the 1990s that brides considered their lehengas and clothes as investments. During this time, each piece was taken with great care. Heavy-heavy red silk lehenga with Banarasi, Kanjivaram saree. During this period the borders were very heavy. Motish were traditional like kalga, template, paisley…bridal lehenga was bought with the mind set of reusing it again and again. That I can use the same piece later also. In fact, during that time, apart from the special occasions after marriage, the wedding outfit was also repeated on special festivals and especially our mothers used to wear wedding saree or lehenga during the evening worship of Karva Chauth.
Regional style jewelry
Experts say that the jewelery was of solid gold. The regional style was very strong right from necklace, nose ring, jhumka, maang tikka. During that time, Jadau gold temple jewelery of South and Kundan of North were much liked. The special thing was that during that time brides used to wear very big pieces.
high light heavy base makeup
During the 1990s, bridal makeup used to be matte heavy base. The bride used to apply only red lip shades, kajal and thick pan hairstyle. Sharp eyebrows. At this time, there was studio style bridal makeup, which was highlighted a lot, because the overall look of the bride at that time was traditional, family centric and minimal experimentation. Actually, at that time the brides were also of traditional mindset.
Bridal attire in the last ten years since 2000
Fashion designer Sanjana John says that 2000 to 2005 During 2015, designer lehenga entered the bridal market. Big brands like Sabyasachi and Manish Malhotra started being preferred for bridal looks. During this, Zardozi, velvet blouse and dupatta are pinned directly on the head. During this time, brides had a special designer royal look.
2006 to 2010 Corset blouses started coming in between, which give a great fitting to the body from the mid line of the waist. In this way, between these years, an Indo-Western approach started with the traditional lehenga. The jewelery was mainly kundan and polki. Talking about makeup, during this time the base was soft and glowing. During this time, there were changes in the design of lehenga, jewelery as well as dupatta draping. Dupatta started being draped in different ways.
Brides became fashion centric
Designer Sanjana John says 2011 to 2015 By then the bride had become very fashion centric. During this time, individual designs started coming and the double dupatta trend also started. This draping trend is still followed by brides. With this, airbrush makeup started. Hair styles during this time were influenced by the look of South India and were liked pan India like hair buns with flowers or any kind of hair style from buns to braids…the trend of carrying flowers in the hair came.
During this time, Broads felt the need to personalize a little more and integrate her style. Jewellery, make-up and even the outfit had to be selected, hence a lot of changes took place during this period. 2016 to 2020 During, Ivory, Champagne, Blush, Gold, Muted Tones, Concept Wedding, Outfit Theme Based, Jewelery Very Light, Layered Jewellery, Cape Dupatta, Belt, Jacket. During this time the bride felt that this was the time to do something different, unique and standing.
When the pastel trend started
Sanjana John says 2016 to 2017 If we talk about the change in the look of the bride during this period, then this credit in a way goes to the cinema, because this was the time when there was more influence from films like Sabyasachi. That breakthrough year was 2018, When colors like pastels like blush pink, dusty rose, hued blue, mint green, ivory gold etc came. The main reason for this was that marriages started taking place during the day time. And destination wedding, like beach location, so according to each place, they (brides) felt that everything should be made a little unique. In this way, what was earlier completely red and red now started changing as brides started using lighter tones in pastel.
When brides got inspired by Bollywood
Indian culture has always been high in Indian cinema and we follow cinema, be it style, fashion and definitely brides. Aishwarya Rai’s heavy red royalty look of 2007. Kareena Kapoor 2012 – Minimal and regal elegance which she presented in a traditional manner by applying absolutely naive style. Anushka Sharma 2017, during this period came the pastel revolution. Deepika Padukone 2018, traditional revival happened. He created the look by emphasizing a lot of Banarasi, red strong, very traditional. Alia Bhatt 2022, Ivory was a minimalistic bride, she kept it simple yet gorgeous and made her look unique, minimalistic high. Kiara Advani 2023, was a soft glam and heritage look. After this, again year to year Bollywood brides changed the mindset of mass bridal. In this way, the brides who changed their mindset the most were definitely Bollywood brides.
Brides are inclined towards luxury outfits
Experts say that after 2010, it started becoming mainly visual and after 2015, it became mainstream, because earlier the red lehenga was compulsory, maintaining the customs and styling by integrating the family members, family jeweler, local tailor, and one’s own family traditional things… all this was a mandate, but after 2015, the mainstream look became Felt, designer levels, custom couture, international fabric, bridal trousochronique…this is how weddings started becoming more of a status symbol. Customizing and styling the entire wedding and getting a designer wedding done became a big trend during that time. People used to follow the entire color palette during this period. The look of the brides… keeping one color theme, designer weddings started exploding, unique styling weddings started away from the traditional customs.
Bridal fashion from 2020 to 2025
Fashion of modern Indian brides…outfits which were ivory, pearl, muted gold, hand embroidered earloom pieces, sustainable fabric. Saree revival took place during this time. Like Banarasi, tissue silk started coming again. Talking about jewellery, mixup polki, diamond…statement but lightweight jewelery pieces started coming in. By creatively designing personalized heirloom pieces or making it even more personal and integrated. During this time, makeup was skin like glow, no makeup look makeup, dewy natural brows and during this time brides started going from heavy to very deep natural look.
Talking about hair and draping, open hair, soft buns, dupattas, capes, bells, shoulder drapes and the mindset has completely changed. During this time, the bride’s opinion was that my own personality should be visible more, that is, it was like what do I like? Everything should happen according to this. During this period, one’s personality, comfort and identity started being given more priority. Brides inclined towards personal look from powerful look.
From tradition to identity
Sanjana John says that if we talk about all this conclusion then the bride of 1990 was tradition and the bride of 2025 is identity. Now she wants to look unique. She wants personal choice. Powerful but personalized. Indian Bridal Fashion From Uniformity to Individuality to Ritual to Self-Expression. Red is only an emotion based color whereas today’s bride does not just get married, she wears her story and we all have an individuality in today’s bride, one is that I want to tell my story. This is about me and not about following a tradition, I will also follow it, not like that, today’s bride is strong and stylish.