A rosy affair

With its gilded rooms and rigorously geometric gardens, Versailles has long been shorthand for a particular kind of grandeur-ornate, romantic and seemingly untouched by time.

Key points

• The palette-dusty blue-greys, warm champagne and deep rose-mauve-evokes the patina of an old European drawing room.
• Hand embroidery takes centre stage, with florals, feather detailing and lacework lending texture and emotion to the silhouettes.
• Today's bride is increasingly less interested in constructing a perfect "look" than in inhabiting a feeling.

What happened

Meanwhile, the palette-dusty blue-greys, warm champagne and deep rose-mauve-evokes the patina of an old European drawing room. The effect is less confectionery pink and more the soft, faded romance of a rose garden. "I kept returning to this image of a bride caught somewhere between a French palace and a Regency ballroom, half-hidden behind lace, about to be seen, " notes Chakraborty.

Craft is the collection's protagonist. Hand embroidery takes centre stage, with florals, feather detailing and lacework lending texture and emotion to the silhouettes. Roses are painstakingly built through threadwork and beadwork, becoming almost sculptural against the fabric rather than simply decorative motifs. Structured couture gowns sit alongside lighter, fluid fish-cut silhouettes, allowing the bride to choose her own degree of drama.

It reflects a broader shift in bridal dressing. Today's bride is increasingly less interested in constructing a perfect "look" than in inhabiting a feeling. The aspiration is not to become a heightened, camera-ready version of herself, but to recognise herself in the mirror. "I am also seeing a real return to old-world craft-hand embroidery and heirloom silhouettes reimagined with enough lightness that today's bride can actually move and laugh in them, " notes Chakraborty. And perhaps that is the real allure of Veiled in Versailles. As though the embroidery, lace and faded roses have been waiting patiently in some candlelit room to be rediscovered, it feels inherited rather than invented.

The bottom line

Taken together, the developments around a rosy affair point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.