In royal remembrance: Hyderabadi designer Swathi Veldandi's wedding edit hark backs on Mughal and Nizami era

The wedding and the festive season are soon to begin in full swing. While new trends emerge every year, some designer labels hark back to experimenting with the old traditions. Hyderabad-based designer Swathi Veldandi is one of those names, whose eponymous label has stayed true to the Nizami roots of the city. However, this time the design powerhouse takes us down memory lane to a different route, to the Mughal era with a new collection titled Nadira.

The edit takes inspiration from the beautiful Mughal princess Nadira Banu Begum. Telling us about the historical muse, Swathi shares, “Nadira was a Mughal princess and the wife of the prince Dara Shikoh. She’s mentioned in historical tales as being graceful, courageous and loyal.

Our Nadira collection signifies her strength, beauty, and power, embodied through the motifs of elegant flowers and birds.” The edit’s design is influenced by Mughal architecture as depicted through motifs like flowers, birds and creepers.

The designer used hand embroideries like zari, kat dana and zardosi to create opulent lehenga sets in classic shades of light grey, maroon, bright orange, navy blue, white, sky blue and more that bear a playful yet regal charm. While the collection has a muse from the Mughal-era, it also pays homage to the era of the Nizams.

Telling us about the same, Swathi shares, “Nizams were the rulers of Hyderabad from the 18th to 20th century. They promoted the gold embellishments on costumes and clothing and encouraged the traditional handlooms like zari, brocade and heavy embroidery work. Through my collection, I tried to touch on Nizami fashion too by reviving my city’s exquisite Nizami crafts.”

Since the collection is bridal wear, we asked Swathi about how couture has evolved in India. She says, “We’re entering the zone of no rules where a person is very specific about what they want to wear. At the same time, young designers are also pushing the envelope constantly with experimentation in couture.

Besides that, technology is also helping to achieve wearability— you can make your fabrics and linings sweat absorbent, you can deconstruct complicated silhouettes to make them more wearable — and a lot more is coming in being enabled with tech advancement. This is making couture even more relevant.”

Predicting some popular trends in occasionwear for the season she says, “The future will be about celebrating natural and playful elegance with vibrant colours, effortless styling and embellished and bold outfits. The coming years will be about donning a dynamic look that represents contemporary times.”

Rs.50,000 upwards. Available in-store at Jubilee Hills and online.
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