Aisha Rao is Ready to Surprise You At FDCI Manifest Wedding Weekend 2025

For Aisha Rao, fashion has always been more than fabric and form; it’s about ideas. A confessed observer of the human mind, she approaches design with a curious mind for what makes people feel something. Her collection Kinfolk explored the complexities of the human brain, and she used them to turn in fashion statements. 

Aisha Rao’s pieces have long stood out for their visual drama and bold appliqué florals, but her use of vibrant motifs made her luxury occasion wear instantly sought after. And now, she’s shaking things up again, with molten metallics, abstract blooms, and silhouettes that go from ceremony to afterparty in a heartbeat.

If there’s one thing Rao doesn’t do, it’s rest on her laurels. “Each season, we’re asking: What else can we do? What can we do differently?” she says. That curiosity is what’s kept her collections evolving, and what makes her work such a delightful outlier in the bridal space. In her Hyderabad atelier, innovation is an everyday ritual. “Creation comes more naturally to me than administration,” she laughs, “and there’s so much joy in wondering what we haven’t tried yet.”

This season, she’s leaning into a new visual language, deeper textures, sharp tailoring, rich metallics and reimagining what bridalwear can feel like today

At the FDCI  Manifest Wedding Weekend, Aisha Rao’s showcase promises to do exactly what she’s known for: surprise you.

In Conversation with Aisha Rao

Manifest: What inspires you to create every day?

Aisha Rao: Creation comes naturally to me. I think it's a curiosity. There's constant innovation that drives us. With us, it's constantly innovating, and what else can the brand do? What else can I do? And that's what keeps us going. 

M: What’s your favourite part about Indian weddings?

AR: The magnitude of it all. The largeness of an Indian wedding in terms of the number of guests, the number of events. The sweetest bit is the Sangeet practice. The hours that the family and friends put in. I think it's really sweet. It's super fun. 

M: Tell us about your favourite moment when you dressed a bride? 

AR: I vividly remember at an exhibit when a Canadian mom and daughter had come, Canadian Punjabis,  and when she saw the tissue line that we did, and she said, This reminds me so much of my wedding back in the day when we would wear the Pani ka Chaadar, the tissue. The daughter immediately resonated with it because it's something that her mom wore, and we were one of the only designers that were doing tissue lehengas 2-3 years ago. It was a special moment when she connected to India, and the exhibit connected to her roots. 

M: What trends do you think will dominate this wedding season?

AR: Back at the atelier, we’re doing a lot of molten metallics, they always stay in trend and a lot of deep textured pieces, for the upcoming winter. We’re also leaning into functional pieces that could really move from a ceremony to an after-party. 

M: And lastly, what can people expect from your upcoming showcase at the FDCI Manifest Wedding Weekend?

AR: The unexpected! We’ve spent months perfecting a new colour palette that’s quite unlike anything we’ve done before. You’ll see deeper textures, metallics, abstract florals, sharper tailoring… and of course, our signature romantic silhouettes. We have a lot of fun things in store for you. 

Inspired to get started on that wedding wardrobe moodboard? Head to the FDCI Manifest Wedding Weekend this August 2–3, 2025, at the Taj Palace, New Delhi, for the hottest fresh-off-the-runway couture looks and jewellery. Register now by contacting: +91 88004 32645 | +91 88006 11645