Designer Tarun Tahiliani celebrated his 30th year in fashion at the Hyundai India Couture Week (ICW) 2025 by showcasing his latest couture collection that blended Indian craftsmanship with contemporary design.

Tahiliani, one of the top designers of India and a celebrity favourite, presented "Quintessence", a bridal collection that reinterpreted India's rich heritage with a modern, personal touch, at the Oberoi Hotel on Saturday evening.

During the showcase, the runway came alive with a regal palette of ivories, golds, deep reds, and soft pastels, brought to life through intricately embroidered sherwanis, structured lehengas, and delicately layered drapes.

The womenswear reflected a masterful fusion of tradition and modernity -- a blush-toned saree embroidered with 3D floral motifs draped over a corset-style blouse.

Another ensemble featured a muted grey lehenga styled with a cropped blouse and a long, intricately embellished jacket.

While the menswear, exemplified by a sharply tailored black sherwani with tonal embroidery, channelled royalty, The collection as a whole resonated with Tahiliani’s hallmark "India Modern" aesthetic.

Each look was a marriage between opulence and lightness, heritage and innovation.

The backdrop was designed to evoke a sense of heritage, grandeur and nostalgic Indian royalty, enhancing the overall storytelling of the showcase.

The show ended on a powerful note with models walking out for the final time to the beats of the iconic 1995 pop track "Made in India" by Alisha Chinai, a song that captured the spirit of the collection.

"It's a great track. It's a very visceral process and we kept going back and forth... I thought that after all of this we got to slam it with something Indian core.

"And I love this song 'Made in India', like this line 'Japan se Russia'. And I said it's such a great contrast but it's so relevant and fantastic. We are who we are and why should we be anything else," Tahiliani told PTI after the show.

Recalling his journey in the fashion industry, Tahiliani said he forayed into the world of design intuitively and passionately.

"I just dived into it like I always do and tried to survive. I have always been hungry to learn because I looked at the work of great designers abroad like Christian Dior, who I love. I love Karl Lagerfeld, what he did for Chanel, and John Galliano, there were many others," the designer said, adding that he wanted to achieve the same level of excellence.

"But it takes a long time because I had to learn embroidery, I had to learn tailoring and I couldn't be that. I had to be my own thing, you have to develop your own voice. And that's where the fun is, that's the journey," he said.

Tahiliani, a business management graduate from the prestigious Wharton School in the US, recounted the moment he first told his father he wanted to become a fashion designer.

The news came as a huge surprise to his father, Admiral R H Tahiliani, who served as the 11th Chief of the Naval Staff and later as the governor of Sikkim.

"My father used to say, 'I sent you to Wharton and you want to become a tailor?' And I said, 'Now dad, don't be ridiculous. We are starting a multi-brand store.' "Then 20 years later, he said that everyone asks him 'Are you Tarun Tihiliani's dad?' And I said, 'Tell them that you are the dad of a tailor'. He didn't find that funny, but it was cute," the designer recalled.

Asked about his new collection "Quintessence" and the inspiration behind it, Tahiliani said it is always an "evolutionary thing".

"It's just building on myself. I hope when I come next year, it should be better than it is this year. We work on ourselves. I learn from real brides, I see the world, I have got multiple cultural references. It's all visceral, it's never one thing," he said.

Will there be a shift in the kind of bridalwear Tahiliani designs as Gen Z brides come of age? "Millennial or Gen Z, all this I don't know. I just decide what feels right," he replied.

The ICW 2025, an initiative of the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), will come to a close on July 30.

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