WHO IS THE Masaba Bride? ANYONE, EVERYONE

Designer MASABA GUPTA talks to Ashwini Arun Kumar about letting go of her kitschy prints, relaunching House of Masaba as a bridalwear brand, and, most importantly, the women who are her brides

- Ashwini Arun Kumar

Sometime in October last year, House of Masaba’s Instagram account was wiped clean. The equivalent of a rebirth in recent times, images of models (of all shapes and sizes, of course) dressed in bridge-to-luxury silhouettes, bearing the label's signature kitschy 'Masaba prints and colours' - synonymous with the label itself - were replaced with the announcement of its new branding.

House of Masaba returned as a luxury label with a focus on bridal wear. What followed was a revolutionary campaign called Patiala Portraits starring the 43-year-old Kareena Kapoor Khan wearing some of the most exquisite-looking wedding lehengas and skirt sets and saris where Patiala-inspired bottoms replaced mundane petticoats. It was the actor's first time ever lending her face to an entire campaign, and marked designer Masaba Gupta's attempt to quash the ageism that shrouds the fashion industry, especially the bridal marketplace. You might wonder why, when you want to sell wedding wear to young, unmarried women, the brand did not choose someone more suitable to photograph. And that is the thing. Masaba wants you to ask this question: who is the authority who decides who gets to be a bride?

"The fact of the matter is that ageism will never go away from the industry," Masaba admits from behind a mahogany - coloured desk in her otherwise starkly white office. She was advised to choose one of the younger, trending female actors for a collection that had a lot riding on it. "But I will continue to shoot campaigns like this- and this is just the beginning because I feel like someone has to go against the norm. It's taken me 14 years to understand what women want." Making women feel seen, she shares, is her biggest objective. And someone classic and timeless such as Kareena, then, was the perfect embodiment of that vision.