The Pulled-Together Bride: Travelling with your Lengha

Chances are that like most desi brides, you will be travelling with your wedding clothes from India or Pakistan.  You may even be travelling for the wedding itself, by car, train, or airplane.  It's important to pack your lengha carefully to ensure that it arrives at its destination as beautiful as it starts.  To ensure that your lengha is correctly packed, you will need:

• a breathable garment bag or specialty dry cleaning bag (they are made of a particular type of plastic to ensure the material can breathe and does not become discoloured).  You may need two, depending on the size of the garment bag, and the weight of your lengha.
• one piece of carry-on size luggage, exclusively for your lengha, if you want to carry it in an overhead compartment on the airplane, otherwise it will travel with the checked luggage in the cargo hold.
• waterproof luggage tags
• acid-free, white tissue paper (not newspaper!!! I've seen this recommended on some sites, but honestly, you run the risk of getting ink on your dress).  If you aren't worried about weight restrictions because you're not flying, you can always use muslin or another inexpensive cotton blend material.

The Skirt
Lay it down on the floor on top of a layer of tissue, if the back panels of your skirt are also beaded. Place tissue along the left edge and the right edge of the skirt, where you will fold it into the centre.  This way the tissue will protect the beading snagging on itself.  Fold the skirt lengthwise in thirds, wrapping it in the tissue it was laying on as you go. Slide it into the garment or drycleaning bag.  You will find that folding any garment in thirds allows it to sit flatter.

The Kameez/Kurta/Choli
If your top opens from the back or front, undo the buttons, hooks or zippers that keep it shut.   Lay the top down flat on the floor or bed. Place tissue all along the front of the bodice, covering any beading and embroidery, and then turn the garment inside out so that the back of the choli, where it opens, is now facing up.  Reclose all the fastenings on the back (The reason I don't just say turn the choli inside out and stick tissue inside is because that may damage the beading or cause a snag in the fabric). Fold the top the same way they fold sweaters in the shops, and then in half before laying it flat on top of the skirt in the garment bag.  If your top has long sleeves, turn these inside out too, and thread some tissue through them before folding.

The Dupatta/Chunari
This step is a little bit dependent on the weight and style of your dupatta, as the lighter weight, less embroidered dupattas will not need as much protection. My preferred method is as follows:  Lay the dupatta flat on the floor or bed and place tissue or muslin fabric along half the length, allowing for some overhang. Fold it in half so that the uncovered half now lies on top of the tissue.  Now take the overhanging tissue and fold it over so that it covers the top of the dupatta. Fold it down the middle so that it is short enough to fit in the garment bag. You may need to use a new garment bag if the other one is too packed with the skirt and choli.

A few more considerations:
Some lenghas can weigh up to 20 lbs!  That's far more than the standard carry-on allowance and you may not be allowed to carry it in the overhead compartment.  It helps to call your travel agent or airline ahead of time to discuss special arrangements.

I've based my instructions on packing in a suitcase, but if you are travelling by car, bus or train, your options can include a cardboard box (I personally don't recommend this) or a plastic tote.

When you arrive at your destination, unpack and hang your dress immediately to allow it air and stretch out some of the wrinkles.

Don't for get to use the luggage tags or an information card to write down all the relevant details in case you and your dress are separated!  Pack one inside the garment bag with the dress as well.

Are you travelling to India or Pakistan to shop for your gown?  Will you be travelling for the wedding itself?  How do you plan on packing your lengha?  Any ideas or suggestions you have to share would be great!

Tricks of the Trade: Dealing with Melasma (Hyperpigmentation)

Melasma (hyperpigmentation) is discolouration of the skin which presents itself as dark or tan patches on the face and forearms, it can be brought on by pregnancy, hormonal changes, or even sun damage. If you have, or suspect you have melasma, you should consult a doctor for medical advice and/or diagnosis.  Along with the usual treatment regimen, you will have a few extra considerations to take into account for your wedding day makeup.

• Your makeup artist should be familiar with corrective colour foundations and be aware that you require something with higher than the usual amount of pigmentation. Two good brands to consider are Makeup Forever and Vichy.
• Concealer is your friend, and should be applied directly on each dark patch without going over its borders.  Stipple the edges of the concealer before applying foundation.
• As always, application is key. Do not settle for a lazy job, and look for a MUA who will devote consider amount of time to applying, blending and powdering your face before adding other products. Be picky, it's your wedding day, and you have as much right as anybody to look your best.
• If your complexion is fair go for yellow tones, if your complexion is dusky, go for an orangey-broze shade.  The intense colouration of your makeup will work to counteract the discolouration.

For more information on taking care of your skin if you have melasma, visit the American Association of Dermatology.

My Weekend: Getaway

Hello everyone, and happy Monday.  It's been relatively quiet on my end because my husband and I took an impromptu getaway over the weekend to a tourist spot called Niagara Falls.  For the uninitiated, this is the equivalent of Blackpool in England.  It's one of those places your parents force you to visit every year even though it's exactly the same and you can't help but get bored.  I was a bit reluctant to go, but my husband promised it would be fun, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had the best time I've ever had there.  I guess sometimes who you go with makes all the difference.  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend to make the work week more bearable.

Sunday Afternoon Pretty: The Sari goes Haute Couture by Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton stores will feature Sari-inspired displays this Christmas season, including limited edition versions of this Marc Jacobs design. To read more about the fashion house's collaboration with indian artisans and to see the other designs, click here.

The Zen Bride: Dealing with Curiousity

If you have announced your engagement, and are planning your wedding, you have probably noticed the increasingly curious enquiries and inquisitive eyes that follow you everytime you walk in to a room. And it only becomes more intense as the day draws nearer.  People who probably rarely spoke to you are all of a sudden taking an interest in your wedding planning, and everyone wants to know, what colour are you wearing, who is doing your makeup, your hair, your mehndi, where are your clothes from, your jewellery, your shoes?

Weddings are, through circumstance and tradition, a very public affair. And, as the figure at the centre of it all, you, the bride, are the centre of attention. Depending on your level of tolerance for the limelight, your mood, and the curious bystander in question, this can result in a whole array of emotions from annoyance to discomfort to excitement to just plain gushing.

If you can keep in mind that it's generally not personal (most people like weddings, and any wedding will do, it's not that they are particularly interested in you), and often well-meaning (people like to give advice and love to share their own memories), you will get on just fine.  As long as you set boundaries you can live with (if you don't want to tell everyone the colour of your lengha, just say you want to keep it a surprise) and can take things in stride (suggestions are just suggestions, and often what seems like pressure may really just be misjudged teasing), you will probably come out from the fray unscathed.

Image Source: Cornflower Blue Sharara from Bargello

The Bride's Lookbook: Faces by Farah

Farah, the artist behind Faces by Farah makeup artistry.

As a blogger, I am obviously a huge believer in maintaining an online presence and a huge fan of vendors who use social media to build their brand and connect with their customer.  It also shows a passion for their art and a desire to communicate and share this with others.  A favourite blogger of mine who is also an editorial makeup artist, is Farah Balolia of Faces by Farah.  Farah, who is pictured above, emphasizes approachability and works hard to make her client's time in the makeup chair stress free. After all, makeup is all about fun and stress relief, so why should it be any different on your wedding day?

Right now, Farah is doing an awesome series of holiday gift ideas on her blog, and usually, I don't pay attention to gift lists because most people's lists, while probably great for them, don't seem like anything I'd hope to receive, or give.  Farah's suggestions have so far been on the money.

To read more about the experiences of Farah's clients, check out her testimonials page for a thorough review of her work and working style.  Her portfolio contains images of her work, including editorial and television experience; it's a good idea to check it out to get a fair picture of her style and background.

Farah also writes for Toronto Beauty Bloggers and Gallery Femme, where she is beauty and lifestyle editor.  She can be reached via her blog, her facebook page, or her twitter feed.  For more ideas on your wedding day makeup, click the link to the bride's lookbook in the menu bar at the top.

TGIF!

I die for this bride's gorgeous style, and don't you wish you knew who her makeup artist was? 

See the rest of this bride's stylish look on SAB blog. Image Source: SAB blog

Living in the world of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensiblity?  Yes Please.

I received this as an Eid gift two days ago...there's none left.

Looking for a reason to get married?  My point exactly.

My daughter is willing to accept that Catherine Middleton may actually be a real, live princess-in-waiting, even if she doesn't wear a pink poufy dresses and sparkly tiara.  "Well, she is pretty like a princess just like me."

Designer Bride: Blushing Bride by TanishQ, Photographed by Sharon Nayak

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope you had a good day yesterday; mine was actually quite wonderful, one of the nicest Eids in my recent memory. Just did some visiting and invited my parents over for a nice meal (if I do say so myself). Back to the grind today!

I wrote a few posts on Jodha Akbar a couple of weeks back, and they featured heavily on the jewellery stylings of Jodha Akbar. Neeta Lulla, who collaborated with TanishQ, pointed out that most of the pieces from the set were unreasonably expensive for a real bride.

 While that's true, I think his Blushing Bride collection is actually quite beautiful and seems to be traditionally inspired.  They would be perfect for a bride going for a Mughal theme. This photoshoot is beautifully directed by photographer Sharon Nayak, of whose work I am quickly becoming a huge fan. To see the rest of the pictures from this series, I highly recommend you check them out by clicking here.

Wishing you...

I will be taking today off to cook, clean, and shop for Eid clothes.  Here's to hoping (those of you who are celebrating) you and yours have a lovely day tomorrow.  See you all on Wednesday!

Sunday Afternoon Pretty: Flowers in her Hair

These looks were inspired by the jasmine garlands worn by Southern Indian women.  You can see the commercial that went with this jewellery campaign by clicking here.  Image Source: Fashion Bride Blog

TGIF!

LOVE this bouquet for a winter bride.  You can check out the rest of the wedding here.

Yay for Friday!  I was going to do one extra post today, but it's been a long week, and I think I'll save it for next week, when I can give it my best.  This weekend, I'm winding down by catching up on 30 Rock and The Office reruns, and watching Toy Story 3 for movie night with my kids.

Here are some links for my (and your) weekend:

And you thought we take wedding pictures seriously?  Not like they do in China.

Only this guy can get me to sit through a video that's longer than two minutes.  India, Conan-style. I'm watching it again right now.

I love embroidery, and traditional techniques are great inspiration.

The shirt from ASOS came today! I got it in the orangey-shade, and I'm pairing it with dark jeans (gift from my guy, and the best fitting I've ever owned!) and some stretchy bracelets from H&M.  Will wear on Eid.

This sweet, romantic bedroom is inspiring me to start on my own bedroom decor projects.

Have a lovely weekend, and see you all next week.

Designs On Love: Mehndi Artistry by Fresh Inc Mehndi

Bridal henna is a custom with thousands of years of history and bearing a lot of cultural significance, so chances are that you will be wearing it on your wedding day.  Still, every bride wants to be unique and create a look that is memorable and sets trends.  How do you come up with a new twist to such an old tradition?  Henna artists like the girls are Fresh Inc. Mehndi are hard at work coming up with great designs incorporating new tools and taking into account the modern bride's desire for simplicity and a design conscious, personalized look.

Nisreen, Zaynab, and their team of henna artists have backgrounds in creative industries and many have formal arts training.  They are one of Toronto's top professional team of mehndi (henna) artists. Based in Mississauga, the staff of Fresh Inc. are a hard working team of talented individuals who our goal is to offer our clients only the highest level of customer service.

They work hard to maintain their commitment to customer service by remaining up front about all costs. They are careful to include all details about the mehndi at your event is listed in a contract, so there will be no surprise price increases or opportunity for mis-communication. They serve Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton and the GTA.  To view more of their work or contact them for a consultation, you can visit their website by clicking here.

Bollywood Bride: Aishwarya Rai in Jodha Akbar

Well, we have finally arrived at the last installment of my series on Jodha Akbar. I'm sorry that it took so many posts, but this movie was over 3 hours long (the intermission came after 2 hours!!!), and there was lot to cover.  To see parts one and two of this post, click here and here.

The Mughal era is possibly the most affluent and resplendent period of Indian history.  The Moghuls were very fond of the finer things in life, and as great patrons of the arts, their influence on fashion has left a permanent imprint on our heritage.  The wealth they created gave rise to demands for better fabrics, more detailed embroidery, and more elaborate garments; even for the men.  Hrithik Roshan was uncomfortable with some of his more fancy costumes in this movie, but they certainly left their mark, giving us at least two or three seasons of bejewelled and bedecked menswear.

The director, Ashutosh Gowariker, collaborated with some of the best minds in the fields of history, literature, arts, fashion and architecture to bring the era to life. All the jewels for this film were designed by Tanish Q, and I believe that they were available for purchase.  I know that he has several mughal-inspired collections for the retail market.  Unfortunately, most of the actual designs from the film would be beyond the pale of normal budgets.  As I've mentioned in other posts, this period featured a lot of stonework and the jewelsmiths of the time are credited with one of the world's most unique stone-setting techniques, kundan work.

Jodha Akbar is the story of the marriage of a Rajput Hindu Princess to a Muslim Emperor.  The storyline resulted in some controversy in India after its release, but the truth is that such alliances were common back then, to secure the mutual interest of both kingdoms in spite of the fact that both religions and cultures frowned upon these unions. The movie dialogue is in higher levels of both the Hindi and Urdu language, reflecting the language traditions of that period.  I found both difficult to understand on the first viewing, but after watching it a second time, it was easier.  I'll leave you with some more pictures from my favourite scenes of the movie.  All images are screenshots from my copy of Jodha Akbar (2008), directed by Ashutosh Gowariker and distributed by UTV Motion Pictures.

Bollywood Bride: Aishwarya in Jodha Akbar

Hi everyone, and happy Monday. Last week, I started covering the costumes of the very long movie, Jodha Akbar, and unfortunately there were just too many to cover in just one post. In fact, there are too many to cover in just two posts, so I'll be posting one more time tomorrow with the rest of the costumes from this movie. Incidentally, if you are just joining me today, you can check out part one of this post by clicking here.

Neeta Lulla relied heavily on the mughal art which remains from that era for inspiration and guidance on the dress and style of the women of that time. To make the looks accessible to the modern viewer, she kept her colour palette quite neutral, as I mentioned previously. As I watch this movie, I'm struck by how faithful she's been to the style of that time. So many scenes from that movie remind me of a mughal painting I've seen previously. So much so that I see it in every last detail, down to Hrithik Roshan's makeup, and if you look closely during certain scenes, you can see where they've used stage makeup to deepen and extend the line of his nostrils to mimic the paintings we have of Emperor Akbar today.



Speaking of makeup, I love the light touch the stylists kept in creating Aishwarya's look for this movie. With extravagant costumes, it can be easy to get tempted into incorporating heavy makeup as well. But the makeup artists in the movie concentrated on giving Aishwarya and flawless, almost painting-like complexion. The heaviest her eye makeup ever got was a line of dark brown eyeshadow on her top lid. Her lips are mostly neutral tones and matte. I think she maybe wearing contacts because there are some scenes where her eyes are so limpid as to appear glass-like, again, like a painting.

On the one hand, cosistency in style, colour and design, helps to create flow in the visual narrative.  On the other, it runs into the danger of becoming monotonous, but the cinematographers really break it up with different details and perspectives. That's all for today, lots more to come tomorrow!

Sunday Afternoon Pretty: Those Eyes...

I love everything about this picture, the clothes, the jewellery, and most especially, Rani's signature eyeliner look.  No one wears it quite like her.  To see the rest of the pictures from Salman Khan's benefit fashion show for his organization Being Human (huh?  I find the name oddly pretentious, but whatever), click here.

TGIF!

Pretty bangles in a Hyderabad shop.  See the rest of the pictures here at artnlight blog.

I saw these links during the week, and I bookmarked them to go back and look at them over the weekend:

I do not have the attention span required to sit through a four minute makeup tutorial video, so I like this pictorial breakdown of two gold eyeshadow looks.

I have blogging envy.  As in, I wish I posted these first.  A very stylish and pretty marie-antoinette fashion shoot.

What could be better than flowers?  Giant paper flowers.

Bollywood Bride: Aishwarya Rai in Jodha Akbar

For me, one of the unexpected side effects of writing this blog has been a growing appreciation for Bollywood cinema.  Growing up in North America has instilled in me a sense of cynicism that made it difficult to relate to the melodrama and over-the-top style of Bollywood movies. Or so I thought.  The truth is that the popularity and worldwide audience of Bollywood is testament to the fact that no matter who you are, there's something in it for everyone.  For me, it's the clothes.

I realized recently, that I never devoted a decent amount of time to covering the costumes of Jodha Akbar, which is a major oversight, considering the influence the movie has had over South Asian fashion, bridal fashion particularly, over the past two years. The movie, starring Aishwarya Rai opposite Hrithik Roshan as Jodha and Emperor Akbar, respectively is a narrative of the marriage of a Rajput princess and Mughal prince based loosely on actual events.

As is always the case with a production starring Aishwarya, no detail is spared in making sure it is a cinematographic marvel and the whole film is a joy to watch if you are a fashion spectator. The entire costume design was left in the very capable of hands of Neeta Lulla. Lulla was instructed to create a look that would be believable to the audience. Based on the reception of the movie, and a the successive influence on fashion, she more than accomplished her aims.

To counter the elaborate embroidery, fabrics, beadwork and embroidery called for in the making of these costumes, the colours used were warm tones of saffron, emerald, copper, brown, and henna red. The jewels too, were ornate and very heavy, admittedly unaffordable in real life. Even the male cast of this movie wore lots of jewellery, and if you have recently seen a groom wearing a jewelled turban, or embroidered sherwani, his outfit was influenced by the movie.

Because this a three hour movie, there were loads of costumes, and a lot of inspiration.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get to it all this week, and I'm gonna have to post it next week.  I just didn't want to end the week with nothing, you know?