How Tarun Tahiliani Weaves Magic With His Creations

With his history-making showcase at the Hyundai India Couture Week, Tarun Tahiliani has cemented his icon status...

Jan 22, 2025
  • Tarun Tahiliani, FMWW

    If you’re on a perpetual search for comfort, elegance and versatility, Tarun Tahiliani’s magic is unmissable. New York's Fashion Institute of Technology graduate began his design journey in 1994 when he launched his eponymous label. Since then, the designer has developed his designs in such a way that they emphasise women’s natural form and their sensuality while still being free-flowing and comfortable. He has a unique way of merging textiles, traditional embroidery techniques (such as kashidakar, mukaish, chikankari), drapery, comfort, and honouring women’s physiques in such a way that simply cannot be forgotten.

    His excellence is well known and reputed, so much so, that Tarun Tahiliani is one of the first designers to have taken Indian fashion global and his work has been worn by various international celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Gigi Hadid and Zendaya.

    A loyalist to the Indian sari, the couturier has found intriguing and proven ways to compliment the sari with blouses that are sculpted to perfection, either by being corsetted wonders, fluted and embellished marvels or tailored masterpieces. Regardless of his detailed work, Tarun Tahiliani places immense significance on the comfort and the lightweight nature of his designs. “We want things to be light, we want people to be able to wear them. People tell me they wear our clothes after 20 years, I love to hear that. I’d hate to see someone changing at 10 pm because they’re miserable,” says the designer as he speaks to Manifest India. Something evident in his recent collection at the Hyundai India Couture Week.

    Tarun Tahiliani India Couture Week 2024
    Image credit: FDCI

    In the collection, titled 'Otherworldly', colours such as ivory, pastels, black and reds dominated and comfort was, yet again, placed at the forefront. The showcase also set a new record for being the first in history to repeat the showcase right after it ended. Due to an organisational mix-up, some attendees were left outside the venue even as the show began. The designer rose to the occasion and made the unexpected decision to host the show again for those who missed it.

    The couturier clearly understands the role that personal style, garment construction and textile play in versatility. For one cannot be versatile without comfort! “People who have style own it, it’s not so much to do with what they adorn themselves with, that’s a very nouveau way to look at style,” the designer had said in a conversation with Manifest's Editor Chaiti Narula in an episode of The Clique.

    It’s a rare combination to watch a designer be so well-acquainted with traditional Indian textiles, embroidery, and at the same time with the idea of comfort, wearability and sustainability of an outfit. We love to see it!


    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    For Manifest to become one of Cambridge Dictionary's most viewed words of 2024 — 1,30,000 hits and counting — it means some of us must have Googled it at least once. I know, I hit that search button over and over again
    because each time I looked at it, I saw a new meaning.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    Putting together a homegrown title at a time when the demise of print has been long announced may seem surprising...
    ...but it has long been a dream of mine to give India a magazine it deserves. A magazine that is the country.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    And nothing, absolutely nothing, represents India more than our weddings.It is a time when families are brought together. Traditions come alive as they are adapted to each couple's beliefs. And lives are joined in a way that the romantic in me still enjoys.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    The fact that it comes with band, baaja and baraat — what's not to love?And that is the reason our first issue celebrates:
    THE NEW BRIDE.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    If you look at
    'Curate Beautiful, Create Happy'individually, they are powerful but when you put them together, they become a promise. While each section is dedicated to a word, I hope you will see this as your first of many handbooks for happiness.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    Curate
    Where we give you a fast-paced look into everything you should wish list when you start to think about marriage. What to buy and how to dress, along with modern mithai and the homegrown fragrance makers to bookmark. Make special note of the feature on alta.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    Beautiful
    It has everything you need to make your wedding special. From the big comeback of red and pink in bridal wear to how the cool kids are wearing corsets to the celebration, there is only one way to get ready for a wedding —with enjoyment.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    Create
    This section is a building block, a step to a better life. A place where we have all the answers. Or at least the beginning of a great conversation.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    Happy
    This needs very little description. It has travel with a special focus on incredible India, and a collection of wedding albums, sourced randomly, but collected with abundance because happiness has no limits.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media

    This first issue has a lot more, including a carefully edited address book of everything you need to make your wedding perfectly 'gramworthy! But it doesn't stop there. Each issue will be different because each one of you is unique.
    Because we manifested this difference, now we will celebrate you.

    - Avarna Jain,
    Chairperson RPSG Lifestyle Media