The problem is, my mom doesn’t want my sister to wear a gown. She wants to get a proper lehenga made. If we change this into a lehenga by basically separating the top/bottom would it still look nice? Also, what if we get the lehenga like this and for the shirt we get rid of the purple coatie thingi and just leave it plain white with purple on the sleeves’ borders? We think it would look lovely but my sister thinks it would be a disaster …
is HSY making it? because he's probably the best person to figure this out without ruining the look of it. otherwise, i don't see why you couldn't keep the bottom as a lehenga and make a gold shirt to go with it. i'd get rid of the koti if you're doing a lehenga- it'll be too much with that, the shirt and the dupatta.
is HSY making it? because he's probably the best person to figure this out without ruining the look of it. otherwise, i don't see why you couldn't keep the bottom as a lehenga and make a gold shirt to go with it. i'd get rid of the koti if you're doing a lehenga- it'll be too much with that, the shirt and the dupatta.
No we are getting a copy made by Mohsin & Sons in Isb. I would rather spend 4-5 lakh on jewelry than a lehenga that she would probably just wear once. We have the close up pics of the kaam so I am sure the lehenga itself would turn out really pretty. We are just worried about the shirt. We want to keep it the same off white colour with same kaam and just get rid of the koti. My sister thinks that it would lose it's beauty if we change it into a lehenga and get rid of the koti ... I dont knoq if it's a good idea
The koti adds weight to the top in terms of colour to match the heavy border on the bottom, so if you take it off and just leave the small bordern on the sleeve edge's they won't have enough impact and might not look very nice. I think the way to go is to ask, what would HSY do? See if you can find two piece suits from the same collection. designers echo the same motifs and colours in more that one style in a collection, so he might already have an idea of how he would turn this piece into a lengha. I'm not sure what collection this is from, so I can't find any pictures that I think will suit, but I agree with SGC that a gold top without a koti won't look bad.
see, the plain ivory shirt works with the koti because of the koti. as asiya said, if you take that away, then its just a plain white shirt and not really bridal, i feel. so i would go with gold and i’d get work done on the neckline, sleeves, daaman and maybe some very small “chhan” all over the shirt to make it a bit heavier. i’d also opt for a pure silk jamavar shirt.
of course, your sister is right in that the beauty of the lehenga is the kaam, the long booties, coming up. you wouldn’t be able to see those as-is under a shirt unless you made a small fitted shirt, and the small fitted shirt with a lehenga is a very dated look. so either you keep it as-is, or you make the booties smaller lengthwise so that the shirt doesn’t cover them up if its longer than the shirt in the image you posted.
is this the outfit, or a variation of it? this outfit was shown at dubai fashion week in 2010.
Yup I think Ceyrun's images are good. what about going for a velvet shirt or something that is a bit heavier ?
In the fawn to golden black shades as shown above.Then if you have even a little bit of work and chan as SGC said it will look full and not pale.
We are short in height so my sister is like 5 feet tall. I am not sure if a long shirt would look nice. It may just end up making her look shorter than she is. Also I thought long shirts were going out of fashion?
We were thinking of keeping the big gala/sleeve work as it is and getting some work done on the bottom of the shirt. Like in this pic you can see that the top part does have a lot of kaam even after removing the koti
SGC brings up an important point though. If we keep the work as is on the lehenga then the shirt would hide the work on it. The one thing we can do is remove one of the pattis of work like this
This would bring the lehenga work down and making a shirt just past hips won’t cover the work. Do you think that is a good idea or is it better to just pick another outfit that was made as a lehenga to begin with?
I thought comparatively shorter shirts were back too and then I saw the lawn designs …they r the same length/flair as last year so I’M thinking that ppl don’t want to let this style go anytime soon. Aur phir ISB mein tu we change after lahore and khi
i think like ceyrun said, shorter shirts in bridal wear mean knee length or a couple of inches above knee length, not hip length. i also think hip length shirts can look ungraceful very quickly if the fitting is off or the kaam isn’t done well. i speak from experience- i had a short shirt with my wedding lehenga, the fitting wasn’t ideal, i wasn’t very pleased with the end result.
however, i do agree with reducing the borders at the bottom to bring down the booties. you just have to make sure you see a sample so you can be sure it doesn’t look unbalanced- i.e. giant booties with a very thin border at the bottom.
its ok to have a longer shirt if your sister is petite- the key is picking a no-volume fabric, even for the lehenga, and making sure its fitted very well. the baggier and poufier the outfit, the more overwhelmed she’ll be in it.
so:
see a sample of the lehenga kaam with maybe one bootie and then the borders you are keeping
see if you can maybe make the shirt a bit longer, down to mid-thigh rather than hip length, by reducing the height of the booties.
make sure everything is fitted well - shirt and lehenga
what fabric will you be using?
of course, the easiest and most fail safe thing to do would be to pick an outfit that is already a lehenga and get it copied. that way there are no surprise, but if your heart is set on this one, its possible to rework it- you just have to play around with the concept a little bit before you commit to it.
you know who used to do chiffon shirts very well? karma. this is from a few years ago so i’m not sure if they’d still have the style in stores. i can’t find a picture now- can someone help please? they were the chiffon shirts with kaam going down the side seams too and with the rounded corner daaman’s? they were paired with their wide legged chiffon pants or with lehengas. i can totally see a shorter version of that working with this lehenga too. kind of along these lines but there was a picture where a group of models was posing on the lawn in various pastel lehengas- http://www.apnimarzi.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/karma-collection-2009-14.jpg
After much arguing we have finally decided to get a gown. Since my sister is in Canada she does not trust the darzis to do proper fitting, and of course she refuses to take a long flight back home. Now the idea is to get my khala to get the kaam done in Pakistan using this HSY photo as reference. There are bridal shops here and once the kaam is done and the kapra sent back, my sister will take it to one of the bridal shops her friend got her dress made from and get them to make a gown for her. We were looking at something like this …
A western gown with the heavy embroidery with a light dupatta just for the heck of it. We are still debating the train because it’s freaking my mom out. We think it would look beautiful with the train like this but my mom thinks it’ll be too much … But overall we have agreed on a gown in this style made here in Canada so that the fitting is perfect as well …
have you researched the cost of having the dress made here? custom dresses can run upwards of $2000 easily.
if you do get a train, make sure you also get a bustle for the dress so she can pin it up and wear it afterwards.
before you get the kaam made, it might also be a good idea to visit the bridal shop your sister wants to use and ask them for advice on her choice of fabric, how much fabric, if it should be pre-cut in a special way, if they can sew it with the kaam, etc.
the worst would be to get all this work done, bring it here and find out either they can't do it or they'll charge you an arm and a leg for it! involve them in the process from the beginning so you cover all of your bases and can get the kaam done according to the specs required to create the gown.
It might sound long route but if you have time, PLEASE get the fabric from there because big width fabric used to make these gowns are not available here in pakistan,max width is 1.5m which will need lots of panels to make something like above or make your khala post the fabric to you if you cannot buy the fabric in canada, get it marked/semi-stitched with panels,tail,etc from the tailor your sister wants to get it stitched by and send it back to khala for kaam. It NEVER turns out fine if one tailor in pindi marks the dresses for kaam (esp tailed gowns/anarkali borders) and another one in canada has to stitch it. kaam walay will just do their 'kaam' wali job, no matter if it is symmetrical or not. this sounds a hassle but it will be really helpful for you !
Tails look nice but imo their only use/beauty is ONLY while the bride walks down the aisle. it is useless otherwise and doesnt leave the outfit worth wearing in any other event.
Spoko your plan sounds very ambitious. Unfortunately, having dealt with tailors and karigars in Pakistan, I would not have the kaam done in one place and stitching in another. As SGC said, it can be VERY expensive. If you want to spend that kind of money, go to HSY. Realistically speaking, go to an experienced home based designer. This seems like one of those projects where a lot can go wrong.
…they r the same length/flair as last year so I’M thinking that ppl don’t want to let this style go anytime soon. Aur phir ISB mein tu we change after lahore and khi 
