A groom walked into my studio last week holding two swatches. One was a heavily zardozi-worked silk, the kind that catches every light in the room and announces itself before you do. The other was a plain length of wine-coloured velvet, matte, almost sombre until you tilted it and it caught a shine like the inside of a shell. He asked which one said "I take this seriously." I told him the velvet did. He looked a little surprised. Most grooms still assume that seriousness on a wedding stage is measured in grams of embroidery.
This is the conversation I am having on repeat as October slides into the real body of wedding season. India's wedding calendar is about to hit its most crowded stretch, Diwali through February, and the fabric conversation with my grooms has shifted noticeably from the summer months. Nobody is asking me for pastel linen anymore. They are asking about weight, about warmth, about a jacket that photographs as rich without looking like it is trying. And the answer this year, more than any other recent season, is velvet.
The Aesthetic: Weight as Confidence
Velvet had a quiet few years. It got treated as a heritage fabric, something you wore if you were leaning nostalgic or doing a full maharaja moment. This winter it is back as the fabric of choice for grooms who want richness without noise, and I think that shift tells you something about where menswear is heading generally. The bandhgala this season is arriving with sharper shoulders and a cleaner front, closer to a European ceremonial coat than the boxier silhouette we saw five years ago, and velvet is what makes that precision read as luxurious rather than plain. A well cut velvet bandhgala in navy or emerald does not need a single motif worked into it. The fabric itself is doing the talking, and it does it in a lower register than zardozi ever could.
Colour has moved in the same direction. Wine, emerald, royal maroon and navy are the four I am pulling for almost every winter client right now, sometimes layered against each other across the wedding week rather than repeated. What I am not reaching for as often is the classic gold-on-cream combination that used to be the default safa-and-sherwani formula. It still has its place for a Phere, but for a Sangeet or a winter reception, a deep jewel tone in a heavy fabric has become the more confident choice, partly because it photographs so differently under string lights and candlelight than it does in daylight. Velvet holds shadow in a way silk simply cannot, and a lot of this winter's best groom portraits are happening after dark.
The Stylist's Touch: Where the Embroidery Goes
The instinct with a fabric this rich is to leave it almost entirely alone, and for a groom who wants restraint, that is exactly what I recommend. But most of my clients still want one moment of craft on the garment, so I have started concentrating embroidery into a single, deliberate zone rather than spreading it across the whole silhouette. A hand-worked collar and cuff in tonal thread, the same wine on wine or navy on navy, gives you texture up close without disturbing the clean line of the jacket from across the room. This is the tonal dressing conversation that is genuinely everywhere in menswear right now, and it works because it respects the fact that a groom is photographed at every distance, from the mandap wide shot to the close-up during the vows.
Where I do let colour speak louder is the safa or turban, and this is where a lot of my Diwali-season grooms are surprising themselves. A contrasting stole in a warmer, brighter shade against a deep velvet base gives the whole look a lift without touching the jacket itself, and it is a far easier adjustment to make across a multi-day wedding than changing the sherwani each time. One base velvet garment, three or four different safa treatments, and suddenly you have a wardrobe that reads as considered rather than repetitive, which is exactly the brief I get from almost every groom I dress now: enough variation to feel like an event, not so much that it feels like a costume change.
Footwear and accessories are the other place I am telling clients to spend attention this season. Mojaris in a matching velvet or a contrasting jewel tone are having a real moment, replacing the gold brocade pair that used to be the automatic choice. A brooch, if a groom wants one, should sit at the collar rather than mid-chest, which keeps the eye moving up toward the face instead of settling on the torso. These are small calls, but they are the difference between a groom who looks dressed for the occasion and a groom who looks like he understood the assignment.
Building It Across the Week
A winter wedding usually means at least three, often four, distinct groom moments, and fabric weight has to be planned across all of them, not chosen once. I typically start lighter for the Haldi and Mehendi, where a groom is on his feet and often outdoors even in December's milder daytime heat, moving into the heavier velvet pieces for the evening Sangeet and the Phere, and reserving the richest, darkest tone for the reception, where the lighting rewards depth of colour the most. Layering matters more in winter than people expect. A structured bandhgala jacket over a simple kurta gives a groom the option to remove a layer indoors without losing the formality of the look, which matters more than it sounds when a venue is running warm from four hundred guests and a dance floor.
I also ask every groom to think about his bride's palette before locking fabric choices, not to match her exactly but to sit comfortably beside her in every photograph. A groom in emerald velvet beside a bride in deep red or gold reads as intentional and rich. A groom in emerald beside a bride in a competing jewel tone can read as two separate outfits accidentally sharing a frame. This is usually the last conversation I have with a groom before we finalise anything, and it is often the one that changes his final colour choice more than any trend report does.
A Few Things I Tell Every Groom This Season
Choose one heavy velvet piece for your most photographed moment, usually the Phere or the reception, and let it be the anchor of the week rather than repeating it.
Keep embroidery concentrated at the collar, cuff or placket if you want texture without competing with the fabric's own richness.
Let the safa or stole carry your brighter colour statement so the jacket itself can stay tonal and restrained.
Coordinate mojaris to the jacket's family of colour rather than defaulting to gold brocade.
Plan your fabric weight across the whole week, lighter for daytime functions, heaviest for the evening finale, so no single look is fighting the venue's temperature.
Confirm your bride's palette before finalising your own, so the two of you sit together in every photograph rather than competing for attention.
The SGK Philosophy
I always tell my grooms that a wedding wardrobe is not about looking like someone else's idea of a groom, it is about looking unmistakably like yourself on the one day everyone you love is watching. Velvet, this season, happens to be a wonderful vehicle for that because it asks for confidence rather than decoration. It trusts the man wearing it to hold the room without needing every inch of fabric to help him do it. That is the kind of quiet authority I try to build into every groom's wardrobe I touch, whatever the season, whatever the fabric.
If you are planning your winter wedding wardrobe and want a second pair of eyes on fabric, colour and how it all sits beside your partner's, I would love to talk it through with you. That first conversation, over swatches and a cup of chai, is often my favourite part of the whole process.
With love and style,
Shreya Gupta Kedia
Founder, SGK Styles
