For Shantnu and Nikhil, their new wedding collection Becoming began with an old family photograph and evolved into a meditation on inheritance, individuality and how today’s couples are rewriting the rules of wedding dressing.
As the designers mark 25 years of dressing weddings, they share how tradition is being reimagined through sculpted couture, fluid drapes, expressive menswear and a new generation of brides and grooms who want to dress on their own terms.
Manifest: You describe Becoming as beginning with a photograph that already existed in your home. What did that photograph mean to each of you personally, and when did you realise it could become the starting point for a collection?
Nikhil Mehra: There is a photograph in almost every family that you grow up seeing without really looking at. For us, it was our parents’ wedding photograph. It had always been there, but I think you understand certain images differently as you grow older. At some point, we stopped seeing only what they were wearing and began seeing everything that had started there: the family that came after it, our own understanding of ceremony and celebration, and perhaps even some of the references that had quietly stayed with us as designers.
After 25 years of dressing weddings, that felt quite profound. We realised that we had spent years dressing the ceremony, but this photograph made us think about the feeling behind it—the relationships and memories that lead you to that moment and everything that begins from there. We began thinking about inheritance not as something fixed, but as something that moves forward with you. You carry something from the generation before you, live with it, and eventually give it an expression of your own. That became the starting point for Becoming.
M: The collection is rooted in your parents’ wedding, but you say it isn’t about nostalgia. How did you translate a personal family memory into something that could resonate with an entirely new generation of couples?
Shantnu Mehra: Nostalgia has always been intrinsic to Shantnu Nikhil. We often find ourselves returning to memories, familiar references and things that have stayed with us over time. With Becoming, it just happened to be much more personal. Our parents’ wedding photograph gave us the emotion, but the collection became about what happens when those memories become part of your own life. Every generation inherits something from the one before it, but inevitably adds something of its own. That is where Becoming found its relevance for us: in the space between what you carry with you and what you choose to make entirely your own.
M: Was there a particular object, garment, ritual or memory from your parents’ wedding that became an unexpected starting point for the collection?
Shantnu: We have always looked at culture through a contemporary lens, but Becoming made us look much closer to home. Our parents’ photograph wasn’t something we discovered in an archive. We had lived with it all our lives. What became interesting was everything that existed around that image, from the emotion of the ceremony and the way they dressed to the sense of family that surrounded it.
It brought us back to something we have always believed at Shantnu Nikhil: tradition is not simply inherited; it is edited by every generation that receives it. With Becoming, that thought became deeply personal. Rather than recreating a particular silhouette or moment, we wanted to allow those memories to inform the drape, ceremony and sense of celebration that have become so intrinsic to us. The starting point was deeply personal, but its expression had to feel entirely of the present.
M: Your groom remains relatively restrained while the bride evolves dramatically. What does masculinity look like in the world of Becoming?
Nikhil: Soft masculinity has always shaped the Shantnu Nikhil man. In Becoming, we explore different sides of him. Ceremonial Couture is softer and more fluid, with our signature drape meeting sharp tailoring, while Cocktail Couture brings a fiercer character, where sartorial precision meets a more audacious expression of evening dressing. Alongside him, the bride moves from romance and sculpted form into a more sensual, decadent expression. They may dress differently, but there is a shared power between them. That duality is very much at the heart of Becoming.
That same sense of individuality carries through to the bride. Becoming brings the emotion of her journey to life, and jewellery plays an equally important role in that story. With House of Aurya, we wanted to showcase how a bride can create her own modern heirloom, with pieces that feel personal, timeless and reflective of her individuality.
For this season, we explored House of Aurya’s jewellery through a modern, minimal lens, with pieces that make a statement in their own quiet way while complementing the sculptural language of our couture. Each piece becomes an extension of the bride’s look, adding character, elegance and emotion to her bridal story.
M: There is a strong idea of the couple not merely wearing a ceremony but reshaping it. What are today’s brides and grooms asking you to rethink about the Indian wedding?
Shantnu: What we love about weddings today is that couples aren’t necessarily asking to leave tradition behind. They’re asking what it means to them. A ritual can remain exactly as it has for generations, while the way the couple enters it, dresses for it or celebrates around it can feel completely personal. Brides want to recognise themselves in what they wear, and grooms are far more present in the conversation than they once were.
That is very much what Becoming explores. Ceremonial Couture moves through softer ivories and blushes into crimson, with sculpted corsetry, fluid drapes and intricate tone-on-tone craftsmanship. Cocktail Couture shifts the mood into midnight navy, black and deeper tones, with sharper tailoring, velvet and more expressive evening silhouettes. The collection moves with the wedding itself, allowing different parts of the celebration to reveal different sides of the couple. Tradition is still there, but it isn’t static. It is being lived, edited and loved at the same time.
M: What are the new bridal and groom trends that you foresee for the wedding season?
Nikhil: We think the bride is going to become increasingly confident in moving between very different expressions of herself. The lehenga will always hold a special place in the Indian wedding, but we see bridal couture opening up much further, with sculpted gowns, draped silhouettes and veils becoming as considered a part of her wedding wardrobe as the ceremony itself. For us, the most interesting direction is that she no longer needs one defining look. She can be romantic, opulent, sensual and fiercely individual across the same celebration.