A groom sat across from me at a fitting last month, holding up the same sherwani he planned to wear three times that week, and asked me why that was a problem. I get this question more than almost any other. The bride arrives with a suitcase of distinct looks for Mehendi, Sangeet, and the Phere, each one considered down to the earring. The groom, more often than not, arrives with one good sherwani and a quiet hope that it will do the job everywhere. It will not, and it should not have to.
The wedding day sherwani is a costume for stillness. It is meant to hold its shape through the Phere, through the photographs, through hours of standing and receiving. The Sangeet is a different event entirely. It is loud, it is lit for dancing, and it asks your clothes to move the way you do. Sending the same heavy, embellished piece into that room is like asking a ball gown to run a relay. This is the gap I now build into every groom's wardrobe from the very first consultation: a dedicated second look, distinct from the wedding day, built specifically for the Sangeet.
The Aesthetic: Indo-Western, Not Indo-Confused
The Sangeet look I reach for most often this season starts with a structured long coat or an open bundi, worn over a simple kurta, with a mandarin collar in place of the traditional sherwani neckline. Think of it as the groom's answer to the bride's cape lehenga: Indian in its bones, Western in its silhouette. Kunal Rawal and Shantanu & Nikhil have both made careers out of exactly this hybrid, and their influence shows up everywhere right now, from asymmetrical hemlines to cropped bandhgala jackets paired with straight, almost trouser-like churidars.
What I will not do is layer three competing ideas onto one man. A bundi over a printed kurta under a statement necklace is not fusion, it is noise. The Aesthetic works when you pick one Western element, usually the cut of the coat or the collar, and let everything else stay rooted and quiet. One strong idea, cleanly executed, reads as intentional. Three small ideas read as indecision, and indecision is the one thing a groom cannot wear well on a dance floor full of cameras.
The Stylist's Touch: Dressing for Movement, Not Just the Photograph
Here is what most grooms do not think about until I bring it up: fabric weight changes how a man dances. A heavy zardozi sherwani sits beautifully for a receiving line and becomes a liability the moment someone pulls him into a bhangra circle. For the Sangeet, I move my grooms into lighter constructions: raw silk, linen blends, or a brocade used only as a panel rather than the whole canvas. The embroidery, when there is any, goes tone-on-tone or sits along the collar and cuff rather than across the full chest, so it catches the stage lighting without weighing down the shoulder.
Colour is where I let the Sangeet get playful in a way the wedding day never allows. This season I am steering grooms toward deep jewel tones, bottle green, rust, a true wine, sometimes an antique gold jacket worn open over a plain white kurta underneath. These read beautifully under event lighting and photograph warmer than the flat black or navy most men default to. Footwear matters just as much as fabric here: mojaris with a slight cushioned sole, never the stiff formal pair saved for the Phere, because a man who is wincing through his own Sangeet is not a man who is having fun, and it shows on his face in every photo.
Coordinating With Your Bride Without Matching Her
The question I get asked second most often, right after "why do I need another outfit," is how to coordinate with the bride without the two of them looking like a matched furniture set. The answer is to echo, not replicate. If she is in a jewel-toned lehenga with gota patti work, he does not need the same green jacket in the same shade. A complementary tone, a single shared accent colour in the pocket square or the kurta underneath, or an echo in texture rather than hue, does the coordinating work without either of them disappearing into a costume theme.
I always ask my couples to send me their Sangeet colour palettes within the same week, specifically so neither side designs in a vacuum. The groom's stylist and the bride's stylist, even when that is the same person, should be having that conversation before either outfit is finalised, not after.
A few things I ask every groom to remember when we plan this second look:
Choose a lighter fabric than your wedding day outfit, something that moves when you do, not something that holds its shape because it is too stiff to do otherwise.
Pick one Western element, a collar, a cut, a hemline, and let the rest of the outfit stay traditional. Fusion is one strong idea, not three competing ones.
Save the stiff, formal footwear for the ceremony. Choose a cushioned mojari or jutti you can actually dance in for four hours.
Coordinate with your partner through a shared accent or texture, not a matching outfit. You are a couple, not a uniform.
Send your stylist your Sangeet colour palette early, ideally the same week you confirm the bride's, so both looks are designed together rather than reconciled afterward.
At SGK Styles, I think of myself as the Creative Director of a couple's wardrobe across an entire wedding week, not just the person who shows up with one good outfit idea for one big day. A groom who trusts that his Sangeet look has been considered as carefully as his sherwani walks into that room differently. He dances differently. And honestly, he photographs differently too, because comfort is the one styling detail that can never be faked in a photograph.
If you are starting to plan your own wedding week and want a wardrobe that holds together across every function, not just the main one, I would love to talk it through with you.
With love and style,
Shreya Gupta Kedia
Founder, SGK Styles
