You have kept your bridal lehenga in the storage far too long. It's time to take out the masterpiece and recycle! Here's how you can do it.
After months of research and browsing through multiple swatches to select my wedding lehenga, I glanced upon a beautiful cherry red raw silk masterpiece. It had a subtle zari work and was absolutely flawless. No doubt, I fell in love with it instantly!
But now that it's been two years since I actually opened the box in which I so lovingly packed it away, I plan to reuse the masterpiece for my brother's wedding. (Remember how Genelia D'souza wore her bridal lehenga for her brother's wedding!)
And if you are anything like me, you'd also plan to reuse the masterpiece. So here are some of my pick's for what you can do with your wedding lehenga.
Lose some weight
Bridal lehengas are incomplete without that extra glitter and plush volume. Perhaps you recall how you may have forced your designer to add those four extra kalis! I sure did.
But if you plan to reuse it for somebody else's wedding, you can ask him to reduce the volume of the ghera to make it more easy to wear and twirl around.
Anarkali can come to your rescue
You can also reuse your bridal lehenga and turn it into an elegant anarkali. Simply ask your designer to remove the hard ruffled support cloth underneath the lehenga and attach the skirt to a well-stitched and fitted blouse. Viola! You are ready to rock the floor with your super comfy, reused lehenga.
Trust me, nobody will notice that it is a reused lehenga as long as it is stitched properly. Take a cue from this beautiful Anita Dongre piece, and ask your designer to give it a nice long slit in the middle if you so desire.
Dress it down to spice it up
You can use just the lehenga skirt and team it up with a simple shirt or blouse with no work. It'll give your lehenga its due attention and also make it look super modern.
If you are into androgynous clothing, then you can throw a buttoned shirt on top of your lehenga skirt and there you go. Look at Alia Bhatt's super cool lehenga-shirt combo. We love!
What are jackets for
Team up your bridal lehenga with a long-slit jacket, they are in vogue right now and something your must try. I teamed up my engagement lehenga with a champagne coloured net jacket and it was a super hit at my best friend's wedding. You can get the slit either on the side or in front, like Kareena Kapoor did with this Manish Malhotra creation.
Play with some colour blocking
You don't always have to team up your bridal lehenga with the same coloured blouse. Colour blocking is the favour of the runway season, so cash in on it this year.
If you are attending a friend's wedding or even a cousin's, throw away that gowdy blouse and team up the lehenga skirt with a simple, no-work blouse. You can add some baubles to add a dash of elegance of course. Take a cue from Bhumi Pednekar, she looks spectacular in this Manish Malhotra creation!
Mix and match
Why should you only wear your lehenga blouse with a lehenga? How about teaming that blouse with a salwar and adding a heavy dupatta.
Alternatively, you can use the dupatta from your bridal lehenga to a simple salwar suit or team it up with a jacket and dhoti. We like how Kajol teams this beautiful dupatta with her salwar suit.
Dupatta like a sari
If you are also like me, you probably got a lehenga with a long trailing dupatta. So how about using that as a sari!
Wrap the dupatta like a sari on a simple skirt and team that up with a super worked blouse. Maybe tie your hair in a loose bun and add some sparkle to your hair. Viola! There is no way you won't be the life of that party.
Use it as is
Our love for our bridal lehenga sometimes doesn't let us alter it. So if you in that phase, let it just be. Just change the way you wore it last.
Leave your curled hair open, add a passa or jumar and some heavy chaandbaali and a long uncut diamond or polki neckpiece. Throw on your dupatta loosely. That's it, you're done.
Cut it up
This sounds really harsh, but, if you somehow managed to dirty your bridal lehenga beyond cleaning, you can simply cut out the motifs and handwork from it and add that to an anarkali, salwar-suit or a jacket shirt, basically anything you like.
This way you get to keep some of your old memories and create some new ones. You can add your bridal lehenga's border to resemble Kareena Kapoor's stunning piece.
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