From July 12 to 14, Anant Ambani married Radhika Merchant.
It would have been as genial an affair as any fun wedding in India — if he weren’t the son of Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s wealthiest man, and she the daughter of Viren Merchant, a pharmaceutical tycoon. The wedding events, which spanned five months in Mumbai (the engagement ceremony, where Rihanna performed, happened back in March), have all been an ostentatious, stomach-churning peacocking of opulence that reportedly cost $600 million.
For as long as the Ambanis have been celebrating these ceremonies, the rest of the world has been inundated with images of the world’s filthy rich — Bollywood and Hollywood A-listers, presidents and prime ministers, CEOs and moguls all in attendance. And if the wedding’s red carpet is any indication, this wedding was as much of a sartorial show as a celebration of a union.
Famed fashion designer Manish Malhotra was the creative director of the wedding, while Merchant and Ambani both wore one-of-a-kind Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla on the day of the Hindu ceremony. Falguni Shane Peacock, Sabyasachi, Anamika Khanna, and Tarun Tahiliani are among the dozens of high-fashion houses represented at the wedding.
Through the extensive coverage of the wedding both inside and outside of India, South Asian designers surfaced to global fame, designing some of their most intricate couture pieces to date, a meticulous blend of craftsmanship and tradition. (Though the jury’s out on whether it’s their best work.)
For the Haldi ceremony, Merchant donned a dupatta by Anamika Khanna made from 1,000 fresh jasmine flowers, while Falguni Shane Peacock crafted an ivory lehenga with hundreds of encrusted diamonds and pearls for Anant’s older sister, Isha Ambani.
The press and social media alike have ogled at the looks that have come out of the Ambani wedding, worn by both South Asian and non-South Asian guests. As they should, since the looks are set to influence wedding fashion trends in the…
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