Winter is peak wedding season across India for an obvious reason: it's the one stretch when the weather cooperates. It also opens up cloths that are unwearable the rest of the year. Velvet sherwanis, flannel suits, heavy brocade, worsted with some real weight to it. If your wedding falls in December or January, this is your one chance to commission the indulgent version of whatever you've chosen, and most grooms should take it.
The cloths that only work in December
Velvet for a sherwani or bandhgala is the winter garment. Deep jewel tones, burgundy, midnight navy, emerald, peacock, do something under event lighting that no other cloth manages: the pile drinks the light and gives photographs a depth that shifts with every angle. Velvet is warm, though. In Chennai that limits it to December and January. In Delhi or Jaipur in December it stays comfortable all evening.
Flannel gives a Western suit the richest surface in suiting. A charcoal flannel has a softness and depth no worsted can match, and it photographs beautifully in low light. It's heavy by suit standards, so even a Chennai December can feel warm in it. For a North Indian winter wedding it's superb and worth the commission.
Heavy brocade for the sherwani, the sort with real metallic zari content that would be punishing in April, is a December and January cloth. Nothing else gives a ceremony outfit quite that weight of presence.
Layering for cold outdoor evenings
Outdoor functions in the North Indian winter get seriously cold after dark, and Rajasthan drops hardest once the sun goes. Plan for it rather than shivering through the sangeet in a photograph you'll keep forever. A fine pashmina shawl over a sherwani, or a formal wool overcoat over a suit, keeps you warm without wrecking the line of the outfit underneath.
We make overcoats to go with specific wedding suits: a charcoal wool topcoat cut for a navy suit, a camel cashmere coat for a grey one. They earn their keep at outdoor evening events and on the walk between indoor and outdoor spaces, which at most winter venues you'll be doing all night.