twinkle, i think when you got to bunto for a dress and she says swarovski kaam, she means swarovski kaam. its her integrity as a designer, outside of her apparent skill and taste, that you trust and pay for, you know? although i make jewellery for fun, and i know swarovski's are not that pricey when you buy them wholesale, but perhaps its tough to acquire them in pakistan and thats why its so expensive. here, its $90 for about 500 crystals, if i remember correctly. if you trust your designer, you might as well buy them from here and then have the kaam wala's embellish your dress with them. swarovski sparkle is very unique from other crystals- it'd be easy to spot fakes.
i'm sure french net and chiffon cost an arm and a leg on their own, and then you top that with intricate kaam and there you go, 8 lakhs before you know it.
as an aside, has anyone seen french Alencon lace used in a paki wedding dress before? i've always wanted a lace gharara or lehenga, or even just a dupatta in lace - i think it would be gorgeous with tone on tone kaam with pearls and crystals drool alencon lace is handmade in france so its really, really expensive... zigs, did you see anything similar, by any chance, while you were researching in pakistan?
I love alencon lace !!!!
My walima outfit has some alencon lace on it. I actually wanted the entire thing to be on that lace but it became to costly. My Dupatta has an border of alencon lace with a few scattered swarovski crystals