Rahul & Akansha’s wedding

It’s classic for the groom to be in ivory. We still advise against the obvious sherwani — when heavily embellished, it becomes too specific to a single day to ever belong anywhere else.

Rahul chose differently. An embroidered jacket over a kurta for the pheras, and a shirt with cummerbund for the evening. Our signature fabric sequins — not plastic — worked in a mosaic technique across the full jacket, giving it a lightness that belies how intricate it truly is. He didn’t want to feel like he was in costume. He wanted to look like himself, just more so.

There was no pundit at this wedding. Rahul’s mother led the ceremony herself — the couple wanted it that way. She needed to move, to speak, to hold the room, so we made her a silk organza saree dyed an auspicious yellow from marigold petals, worn with a hand-embroidered glass bead blouse designed for comfort as much as beauty. His father went one step further than his usual white shirt and denims: a tonal kurta and bandi, coloured from tender coconut skins. Quiet, and entirely his own.

Rahul, Akanksha, and their family gave us a wedding of chosen rituals — their values present in every detail.

Then there was Akanksha’s bridal ensemble, for which we broke one of our own rules.

The red isn’t from plants. It’s an azo-free chemical dye. We have refused requests like this before — many times. Our commitment to plant dyes is a founding principle of this studio, not a preference. But this time felt different. Akanksha didn’t want to wear red for the sake of red. She wanted to wear our hands, our embroidery, our design language — just rendered in her red. We tried everything to find the most brilliant hue she envisioned through plant sources. We couldn’t get there.

So we went there another way.

The result was the Himroo Adaa choli, double dupattas for the pheras, and our Abhinetri corset for the reception. Pieces we are genuinely proud of. And Akanksha wore them with complete joy.

This project will always remain special — not because we broke a rule, but because going through it showed us, from the inside, exactly why we had chosen it in the first place. Sometimes it takes going to Cairo to come home to Baghdad.

We are grateful to Akanksha and Rahul for trusting us with their most important day. We were glad to be a small part of it.