Jewellery happens to be an inseparable component of Indian weddings be it heirloom or a new addition. We catch up with one of the most revered bijouterie houses in Kolkata- Mahabir Danwar Jewellers to know more about trends this wedding season. Vijay Kumar Soni, director of the jewellery house shares with us ways in which they are trying to merge tradition with modernity and their wedding special collection.
How has wedding jewellery choices evolved over the years?
Mahabir Danwar Jewellers is fortunate enough to be serving families across generations, which has furthermore helped us understand how jewellery preferences have changed over the years. I remember my grandfather telling us how during their times the eldest male member of the family used to decide the budget and designs for the bride. This evolved into the bride’s parents deciding what and what not to buy during my father’s generation while for us, we cater to brides directly according to their preferences and demands. Brides are very much into traditional designs even now but they prefer to wear something unique, and something that complements their personality and wedding outfit instead of going for a ready to wear design. Keeping this aspect in mind, we at Mahabir Danwar Jewellers focus a lot on our designs by coming up with ideas ourselves, alongside having a full-fledged design team. Brides also prefer to own pieces with a professional finishing touch.
Which aspects are truly important to cater to modern bridal bijouterie demands?
Quality is of primary importance followed by a blend of tradition with modernity. In order to merge traditional aspects of jewellery such as motifs, cuts and designs with new-age requirements, one need to have a lot of knowledge and contemplation so as to put forward something aesthetic. Customers are also into customised jewellery these days, so the usage of coloured precious stones, styles of gold has also gained popularity. I believe it has become more challenging over the years to deliver a dream piece to the bride.
How are you trying to bring together tradition and modernity?
There are instances where a purely traditional piece like a choker has been picked by the bride, but the piece needs to be customised as per the colour of her wedding ensemble. This is where coloured precious stones such as sapphire, emerald, rubies come in. We also play around a lot with the cuts of these precious stones so as to make it one-of-a-kind. However, it is still important to stick to its traditional value so we also use meenakari on our jewellery as well. Purely western jewellery is still not working amongst brides, and even if a piece has strong western influences, brides still prefer to adhere to some traditional elements in it.
What’s in store at Mahabir Danwar this wedding season?
We have worked on our wedding collection this year for more than six months and come up with a lot of Kundan and Jadau pieces with different stone setting styles, and cooloured gems. The pieces look heavy but are lightweight keeping in mind the preferences of the modern bride. We have also curated some rose gold pieces as it is trending right after traditional gold.