Kiran: Glassy style

Calcutta, Dec. 30: With those black thick-rimmed Jassi glasses being her strongest style statement, she could just as well have been a model parading designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s Nair Sisters collection. And that’s the design mood dominating Kiran Rao’s wedding wardrobe.

Kiran tied the knot with Aamir Khan in Mumbai on Wednesday in a private ceremony. A series of high-profile receptions have been lined up from New Year’s Eve.

For the biggest week of her life, Kiran has picked up a whole host of outfits from Sabyasachi’s last India Fashion Week line ? Nair Sisters ? as wel as 2004’s Frog Princess series. She also chose some of his signature saris.

The Calcutta connection in the bridal couture of the big Bollywood wedding doesn’t end at that. The jewels adorning Kiran’s neck, ears and wrists have been designed by Park Street-based couture jeweller Raj Mahtani.

“Kiran came to me through a friend of hers and picked up about 20 pieces for her trousseau. She plans to wear them throughout the wedding functions. It includes some of my actual show clothes from the two fashion week collections,” says Sabyasachi.

Embroidered jackets and saris form the mainstay of the collection the city’s style guru has put together for the lady who went to school in Calcutta. “I’ve also converted some of her own saris into new ones and designed some blouses for her. For instance, I have remodelled a Kerala sari into a beautiful new sari.”

A particular favourite with the designer is a pale blue sari with old rose print and a sequinned, antique border.

The trousseau jewels Kiran picked up from Raj’s store Satramdas Dhalamal include a gold bracelet, a pair of earrings with uncut diamonds, emeralds and rubilites, and a vibrant pendant with polki diamonds and stones.

“She likes her jewellery to be delicate and small, nothing big and large for her. She believes that jewellery is not meant to overpower your personality,” says Raj.

Subtlety seems to be the key to Kiran’s style sensibility. “She likes subtle colours like neutrals, but is also largely partial towards dark red and pinks,” says Sabyasachi, impressed by her “strong understanding” of fashion.

“Kiran has a nice body and an intelligent face with a lot of character. Most important, she knows exactly what she wants and hence it was a great experience working for her.”

Then there’s the appeal of those glasses. “The glasses fit in perfectly with my kind of look. Hence I was elated to know she would keep them on throughout the wedding,” smiles Sabyasachi.