Have South Asian Weddings Reached Peak Pastel?
As actor Parineeti Chopra’s wedding photos went viral, many wondered where all the color had gone in subcontinental nuptials.
When actor Anushka Sharma walked out the door in a Tuscan villa, dressed in a blush pink Sabyasachi lehenga to marry cricketer Virat Kohli in December 2017, something permanently shifted in the over $50 billion Indian wedding industry. While most weddings prior — across Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, and other South Asian communities — tended to be grandly decorated, richly-hued affairs, the Virushka wedding, with its European garden-inspired decor and intimate guest list, showed that a wedding could represent the couple’s personalities — while still being traditional.
It didn’t take long before this soft aesthetic took over many high-profile weddings that followed, with color all but disappearing: Alia Bhatt, Athiya Shetty, Kiara Advani, and, most recently, Parineeti Chopra got married in shades of very pale pink and ivory, with white flowers, little henna, muted decor, and photoshoots almost indistinguishable from each other. But not everyone is a fan of this homogenization. Fashion experts, wedding professionals, and even brides are now wondering: where did all the color go?