Ruhani Designer Lehenga For Wedding Wear

RaiR Ruhani — Hand-Embroidered Lehengas and Sarees for the Bride

Ruhani is RaiR's bridal-weight edit: 34 pieces, and the one thing they share is hand work. Twenty-one of the designs carry hand embroidery rather than machine work, which is unusual at any price and very unusual at these prices. The collection is lehenga-led. Umbrella and A-line silhouettes dominate, with long-choli sets, an anarkali lehenga and a mermaid cut for brides wanting something more sculpted. The work is dense and layered hand embroidery combined with zari, sequins, cutdana, stones, beads, resham and gota, on faux georgette, art silk, net, organza and chinon. There are also four sarees in the line, including pre-draped styles with hand-embroidered embellished blouses, which are worth looking at if you want the drape without the pinning.

Colour is where Ruhani earns the bridal label honestly. Maroon and wine for the ceremony, but also the full modern bridal palette: pista and light green, lilac, peach, pastel, off-white, mustard, midnight blue and rani pink. Several designs come in three or four colourways at the same price, so a bride and her sisters can coordinate without matching exactly. Nearly everything is made to measure. One piece in the entire collection is readymade, and that is the point of the line a hand-embroidered lehenga only hangs correctly when it's cut for the person wearing it, not altered from a standard size. Sizing runs 32 to 60, and prices span from the low eighties to the low three hundreds depending on how much hand work a piece carries. Cbazaar manufactures in India and works directly with the karigars doing this embroidery, which is why hand-worked bridal pieces here sit far below UK designer boutique prices.