Best Dressed 2012: Indian Ethnic

After a year of several high-profile Bollywood weddings, big ticket movie premieres and more awards shows than awards themselves, what Vogue took away was the stunning parade of red carpet-worthy ethnic Indian ensembles -- opulent lehengas, ornate anarkalis and shimmering saris.The year started off with a big Bollywood wedding as Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia D’Souza got married. Though all of D’Souza’s ensembles for her bridal extravaganza were beautiful, we particularly liked her pink and white Manish Malhotra lehenga. Shocking pink seemed to be the go to colour for Bollywood brides this year as Esha Deol too chose a blush pink Rocky S creation for her wedding reception.
As far as wedding guests go, the best dressed stood out in bright vibrant colours. Asin wowed us in a pink and yellow Nikasha outfit at the D’Souza-Deshmukh sangeet and Preeti Desai’s gorgeous blue Anita Dongre lehenga is a modern classic.
Though she’d been facing flak for her post-baby weight gain, at her father-in-law’s 70th birthday party Aishwarya Rai Bachchan looked fittingly regal in a heavily embellished white and gold Abu Sandeep floor-length kurta. We saw a bunch more interesting ethnic wear at the Big B’s birthday do including a classic black and gold Rohit Bal anarkali on Deepika Padukone, Sonakshi Sinha’s Manish Malhotra outfit with the dupatta pinned to her shoulder.
At the Marrakech International Film Festival, with a special Indian cinema segment Bollywood fashion was represented by Mehr Jessia Rampal in a Tarun Tahiliani and Priyanka Chopra trendy vintage lace sleeves by Ritu Kumar.
This year dark horse Sabyasachi had a successful run on the red carpet. Actress Sridevi especially was his biggest endorser, along with Vidya Balan as usual. Our favourite new Sabyasachi models were Kalki Koechlin and Kangna Ranaut. Both actresses chose dramatic black and gold ensembles paired with the runaway popularity of his embellished hair bands for the winter/festive 2012 season.
Designer duo Shivan and Narresh had a memorable moment when they dressed burlesque queen Dita Von Teese during her visit to India in a lace black sari.
Traditional choices aside, celebrities enthusiastically adopted newer, modern versions of the sari. Bipasha Basu in a sporty Shivan & Narresh sari, Pia Trivedi in Gaurav Gupta’s pleated drape, Hazel Keech in a pantone print by Arti Vijay Gupta, Nargis Fakhri in heavy metal blouse and a brand new sari and pants combo by Anamika Khanna on Sonam Kapoor this December closed the year on an promising note for ethnic Indian wear.