The Tamil Brahmin wedding has one of the most recognisable dress codes in the country. White and gold, and very little else. A silk veshti with a kasavu border, a white jubba or fine kurta above it, the angavastram over one shoulder, and for the muhurtham the veshti tied panchakacham style. That's the groom, and broadly the men of both families as well. At Sellers we make the fine white and cream jubbas, kurtas and formal shirts that go with the silk veshti families source from their own weavers, cut to fit properly across the shoulder where a white garment shows every fault.
The veshti, the angavastram and the jubba explained
The groom wears a silk veshti with a gold kasavu border, tied at the waist and, for the muhurtham itself, usually in the panchakacham style with the pleats drawn between the legs and tucked at the back. Above it goes a white silk jubba, the band-collar shirt that falls to the hip, or in some families a fine white kurta. The angavastram, a long silk stole, sits over one shoulder through the ceremony. Around all of this move the seer varisai gifts exchanged between the two families at fixed points in the proceedings.
Because the palette is almost entirely white and gold, everything comes down to the quality of the cloth and the making. The weight of the zari, the fall of the silk, the way the jubba sits across the shoulder: that's what separates a good outfit from an ordinary one here. There's nowhere to hide a bad shoulder line when the whole thing is white and the hall is bright.
For a reception outfit with more presence than the veshti, see our guide to the bespoke wedding sherwani in Chennai.
The Tamil Brahmin reception, where the dress rules finally loosen
The ceremony is strict; the reception, usually that evening or the following day, isn't. This is where the groom brings out the suit, the Jodhpuri, or a silk bandhgala with more work on it than the muhurtham would ever take. Plenty of the Tamil Brahmin grooms we dress do exactly that: veshti and jubba in the morning, a well-cut suit or bandhgala by night. It gives the two events their own character rather than blurring them together.
Guests going to the ceremony should stay near the white-and-gold palette. It reads as respect and it costs you nothing. A cream or off-white kurta with a gold border, worn with a veshti or with formal trousers, is safe anywhere in the hall. At the reception, ordinary Indian formal or Western formal is fine and colour is welcome.