Marking 25 years of Asia’s first bridal show, founder Divya Gurwara recalls famous debuts, curating the business of trousseaus and the complexities of India’s insatiable weddings.

Divya Gurwara, whose Instagram handle is an enviable example of how to look good even when you are in the business of making brides and weddings look good, walks in on pointy black high heels wearing her signature vibe of glamourous freshness. Her faux leather slim fitted trousers and a black jacket worn over a lace camisole make her all-black ensemble ready for work and play. We are at the flower-decked corridor at Delhi’s Ashoka Hotel, which, for years, has been the venue of Bridal Asia, the continent’s first bridal exhibition-show. The prequel, really, to India’s fashion weeks.

As Lakmē Fashion Week celebrates 25 years this month, it may be in order to mark Bridal Asia’s ongoing 25th year—it launched in late 1999 with 40 participants. It is here that Indian consumers first found wedding wear from Pakistan as well as saris and ensembles from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It is here that designers like Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Gaurav Gupta first showed. It is here, many years later, that fashion labels as diverse in style DNA as Bobo Calcutta and Torani would first make an appearance. From Rina Dhaka to Varun Bahl, Suneet Varma to Falguni Shane, Bridal Asia is where the business of designer weddings began to emerge before it would go on to become a consolidated industry, which now is irrefutably the mainstay of fashion in India.

Gurwara, a trained gemologist, says she sensed an opportunity in India’s spending ambitions a quarter century back, perhaps the rightest of times. She now wears her grand-mum role and Bridal Asia boss status like the multi-tiered necklaces you see her wearing. Her responses are punctuated by references to her son, Dhruv Gurwara, who began to learn the ropes from 2011 and formally joined the business in 2015. The mild-mannered, bearded and smiling Dhruv, is now the CEO. She makes it clear that Dhruv joining the business has given it a fillip in the last decade. He minds the systematic expansion and she, the curation.

“Bridal Asia business has grown by eight to ten times in 25 years,” says Dhruv cautiously agreeing that the business is “almost recession proof”.

“Bridal Asia business has grown by eight to ten times in 25 years.”

Symphony of Jewels, a show that concluded ten days ago, is an additional property devoted to wedding jewellery—a tightly curated ensemble of ten brands. Introduced in 2022 in Hyderabad, it is now a stand-alone annual event. The complete Bridal Asia shows held every August-September, however have clothes, accessories, home linen, silverware and other ancillary categories that go into the making of what usually ends up as ostentatious, attention-seeking, plus-sized weddings.

While Mumbai was the first addition to the now multi-city event, over the years, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad were added, with visiting shows in Pakistan, London and Ludhiana.

Today, India has several competitive wedding exhibition consortiums.

Bridalwear is included even into prêt fashion weeks to lure insatiable customers addicted to the more-is-more matrix. Then there are destination events, shopping galas sponsored by wedding brands, travelling shows organised by individual designers to attract shoppers in Tier 2 cities. Not to mention investments made in the sector by fashion magazines.

According to a report by the India Brand Equity Foundation, the country hosts around ten million weddings annually. The Indian wedding industry ranks second globally while in India it is the fourth largest across industries. Last year, The Economist put the spending on Indian weddings at US$ 130 billion per year, adding that it opened up large-scale employment opportunities.

What’s grown clearly in muscle has also grown in conspicuous competition—the world watched and learnt this after the wedding of Akash Ambani and Radhika Merchant last year.

Exploring jewellery stalls at Bridal Asia’s Symphony of Jewels to find Kundan-polki sets with uncut stones the size of jamun plums and dazzlingly huge diamonds and rubies elsewhere, the prices could knock you down with a feather. Or not. Jewellery in the range of more than ₹30 crore for sets was also on display. Used to ostentation by size and value, Divya smiles gently, then laughs. She is not surprised at what wealthy Indians will pay for jewels, she is surprised when they don’t.

Here, she speaks about her intuitive sense for bringing in unseen, unspotted brands which has put Bridal Asia on the continuum of success.

Let’s start with numbers. How much has the business grown?

We started with 40 participants in 1999. I travelled to Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and reached out to Indian designers who had wedding wear interests to curate the first edition. Today, Bridal Asia has roughly 90-100 participants in the peak season of September every year. We can no longer include Pakistan but on the other hand, home accessories and décor pieces by international brands including those like Versace, Lladró and others are brought in by representatives.

Twenty-five years back, what made you sense the potential to build a bridal business? The spending ambitions of the country’s rich?

As a gemologist who got married, going on to have two children, my training gave me insights into the mindsets of brides. I thought I could help them make big decisions about what to buy, what to wear for weddings and simplify the overwhelming landscape. I could bring in curated ideas, products, people and make wedding shopping fun and simple.

What about money, investments, profitability?

The first year was about investing in quality, in travel to find what I thought could work, in building aesthetic distinction and networks. But then yes, it has been profitable from the second year itself. As Dhruv says, the wedding business is recession-proof. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no slowing down in spending, even when big celebrations had been toned down. People were still buying for weddings as a majority save for it their entire lives.

How do you keep the footfalls going and growing?

Given the competition, I would say our single biggest win is curation and a personal touch that never compromises on quality. Many brands who now show here only had small beautiful creations tucked away in towns and cities that needed an excavation. Bringing them out with the right kind of product for the growing market, from brass Pichhwais to intricate gota patti, from silverware to wedding invites, has given Bridal Asia a definition. Fashion labels like Ritika Mirchandani or Bobo Calcutta, for instance, were not promoting themselves as typical wedding brands. But weddings these days include so many occasions and ideas that only diverse styles can fill the need gaps. In jewellery, for instance, Birdhichand Ghanshyamdas Jewellers, Jaipur’s Sunita Shekhawat or Rambhajo who specialise in kundan, were not in the retail space until they began showing at Bridal Asia.

Today, we have a waitlist of couture, jewellery and ancillary wedding services wanting to participate. Every participation is strictly by invitation. We also publish a bridal magazine once a year. It has style tips, shopping ideas and everything a family hosting a wedding wants to know. Khushi Kapoor was on the cover of our 25th anniversary edition.

How nostalgic do you feel now that India’s fashion week is poised to celebrate 25 years as well?

It has sent me back to recalling with warmth and joy that we were the first to organise bridal fashion shows (jointly presented by a group of designers), in hotel driveways and corridors. Sabyasachi and Gaurav Gupta, among several other names, showed here and remained a big pull for many years. Other big names came too—Tarun Tahiliani, Anamika Khanna, Varun Bahl and Anita Dongre, to name a few. You must see our archival videos with a young Sabya (Sabyasachi) and GG (Gupta) taking a bow on the ramp with us.