Indian outfits look the most flattering on curvy figures. But that does not mean that a curvy girl can wear whatever she wants at her wedding. By choosing the wrong outfit, curvy girls may end up looking plump or fat. Although this is true, curvy girls have a reason to celebrate as there a myriad of options for them to choose from. Today we will explore the best wedding dresses for curvy figures and give you 15 top tips towards choosing the best dress.
First of all, curvy brides should keep one thing in mind – you may be fuller figured or have curves at the right places – do not shy away from feeling confident and beautiful on your wedding day. Bollywood may be in the habit of showing zero-figured brides, but in reality, a curvy bride looks really attractive. So, curvy brides don’t worry and celebrate your femininity to the fullest.
The key to wearing a perfectly flattering outfit on the wedding day is meticulous prior planning and customization. The biggest mistake a bride makes, curvy or otherwise, is picking up a wedding outfit off the rack at a store. These dresses don’t fit well and the fitting is far away from what they look like in the catalogue or on the mannequin. Instead of doing this, a bride should approach a designer or a stylist who can customize and put together her wedding outfit.
Best Wedding Dresses for Curvy Figures
A wedding dress should ideally have a well-tailored, flawless look. Not only that, it should match up to the elaborateness of an Indian wedding with all its glitzy accessories and traditional styles. You may be wearing a saree or a lehenga or a lehenga-saree or even a gown, the attire needs to be perfect in terms of cut, color, work etc. This is no different in case of voluptuous brides. She should be confident and her spirit should dazzle through her wedding dress.
She is the centre of all the finery, the ceremonies, the rituals and all the partying. Thus, her outfit should be mesmerizing and gorgeous. At the same time, the wedding dress should be comfortable. Indian wedding rituals take very long throughout which the bride needs to feel comfortable along with looking like a million dollars.
With every passing day, new-age designers are developing cuts and styles for all kinds of figures. The domain of plus-size clothing is also expanding. So if you are a curvy bride you may also want to go for an unconventional or non-tradition wedding dress. You can also combine western and Indian styles together to arrive at the best wedding dress for your curvy figure.
15 Tips for Plus Size Brides
If you are a plus-size bride, you have been endowed with a beautiful figure. In order to look gorgeous on your wedding day, all you need to do is accentuate your curves and hide some cellulite here and there. In order to do so, you would need the help of an expert who will customize the best wedding dress for you. But in order to guide the expert on the size, design, fabric etc of your wedding dress you need to know a few things. The tips below will help you with that –
- There is no need for you to feel ashamed of your curves. Consider them to be your ‘X’ factor. So do not crash diet before your wedding in order to become thin. Far more important than your figure is the bridal glow on your face. If you crash diet before your wedding you will be losing all the radiance from your skin. Eat well, eat healthily, drink plenty of water and consume foods that detoxify your body. Stay fit and healthy for your wedding.
- The second thing the curvy bride needs to do is identify her body type. She may be top-heavy, she may be bottom-heavy or she may have a round body type. If you are confused about concluding on this yourself, approach a designer who would identify your body type and tailor the perfect bridal dress for you.
- Top-heavy brides should go for either for ‘U’ or ‘V’ shaped necklines. If you want to wear a dress go for an empire waistline one.
- Plus-size brides with a heavy bottom should always choose the A-line cut if they are planning to wear an indo-western gown. This goes for lehenga skirts too. The straight cut might end up looking too tight at her hips.
- If your tummy area remains bloated most of the time you should either go for a blouse that ends only a few centimetres above your waistline or a lehenga skirt with a high waist. If somehow you can manage to hide the area around your navel, your job will be done. Lehenga skirts with high waistlines look great with crop tops that hug your torso, making you look slimmer.
- If you are planning the details on your attire consider patterning. Patterning accentuates curvy figures and at the same time draws attention away from more sensitive areas.
- Most Indian women suffer from the problem of disproportionately heavy upper arms. Short sleeves accentuate the fat deposit there. So, here is the trick that will take the attention away from your arms – wear a blouse with full or three-quarter sleeves. The sleeves can also be made from a complementing sheer fabric.
- You may not realize it but fabric plays a very important role in making you look thin or plump. Some fabrics need to be tailored with lining. If the fabric is already thick, along with the lining it might add an extra inch on your skin. For example, raw silk or tussar looks flattering on thin brides but the stiffness and thickness of the fabrics may make curvy brides look fat. Even velvet is a bad choice for curvy brides. Instead, choose a fluid and smooth fabric like georgette, crepe, chiffon, net, soft silk, satin etc.
- Colour plays an important role in deciding how put-together and slim a bride is looking. Not only dark, but rich colours like red, maroon, royal blue etc look very flattering on curvy figures.
- Believe it or not, going monotone really works with curvy brides. Pick a dark and rich colour and wear it from top to bottom. You can play with the tone and try different shades of the same colour. Don’t go for a contrasting blouse or a contrasting dupatta. Bring in variations in the embellishments or the work on the fabric. Going monotone creates a visual illusion that makes you appear thin.
- Love the printed lehenga? Great! But choose smaller motifs. Large prints, in any case, look a bit quirky and may make a curvy bride look fat. Also, make sure that the motifs on the printed lehenga are not scattered haphazardly. This too looks bad! They should be placed in a pattern, close to each other, almost resembling brocade. Motifs like small buttis add more symmetry and elegance to the lehenga.
- Those who are not fans of the printed lehenga can opt for heavy detailed embroidery or embellishment. Meticulously done detail work on your wedding dress can make the curvy bride look slim and trim. But tell your designer not to use too many light-reflecting sequins on the lehenga. It will end up making you look wider than you are.
- If you are top-heavy, do not make the mistake of wearing a high-neck blouse. Make sure that your neckline is wide. If you feel that a wide and low neckline may expose some extra skin, use jewellery to cover it up.
- Those brides who will wear saree instead of lehenga, should be extra keen on draping it correctly. With a saree you can’t really play around with the cut hence all the pleats need to be even and pressed. This tip is particularly important for traditional heavy wedding sarees like the Kanjivaram saree or the Benarasi brocade saree. These sarees are made up of thick silk and zari. Their borders are stiff and bulky. So if the pleats are not done properly, especially at the midriff where one has to tuck in the pleats under the petticoat, it may end up looking bulky and bunched up.
- Ask your stylist to drape your lehenga dupatta like the pleats of a saree. This not only looks elegant but also makes the bride look more put-together and slimmer.
Best Indian Wedding Dress Options for Curvy Brides
The Saree
Though debatable, many ace designers opine that the saree is the best outfit for curvy women. Curvy-figured style icons like Vidya Balan or Huma Qureshi have reiterated this by wearing gorgeous sarees and appearing in front of media. Sarees also give you the opportunity to bring about variations in blouses through different cuts and shapes. If you are that curvy bride who loves to experiment you can go for a long designer blouse. But curvy brides with a wide midriff may want to stay away from a saree. This is because sarees look flattering on figures with a proportionately narrow waistline.
The Lehenga Saree
A lehenga saree is flattering like a saree and elegant like a lehenga. A lehenga saree is suave and minimalistic, thus creating an illusion of a leaner appearance. A lehenga saree perhaps is the most flattering wedding dress for brides who have a lot of curves as it accentuates the curves and creates an impressive silhouette. The lack of pleats makes the curvy bride look less bulky than in a saree and the designer pallu covers up the extra fat at the midriff.
The Lehenga
For some brides, the lehenga is the ultimate wedding outfit. But styling it properly can be a bit tricky for curvy brides. The cut of the lehenga plays a very important role. Whether to go for an A-line cut or a straight cut will depend entirely on the figure type of the bride. But if you are a curvy bride, do not go for traditional cholis with short sleeves. Instead, make sure that your choli has a wide neckline, three-quarter or long sleeves and is a few inches longer than the normal choli. Curvy brides, who can carry out-of-the-box outfits, can go for a jacket style choli.
The Floor Length Anarkali Suit
In many Indian traditions and customs, brides have to wear a salwar suit on their wedding day. Muslim or Punjabi brides, who are a bit on the heavier side and who have to wear a salwar suit on their D-days, stay away from the short kurti-patiala-dupatta style. Patialas and short kurtis can make you look fat, especially if you are bottom-heavy. Instead, you can go for an anarkali suit. Floor-length anarkalis have a regal look that makes a statement in itself. Choose a dark colour like royal blue or maroon. Just make sure that if you are top-heavy, the anarkali does not hug your torso too tightly. The pleats of the anarkali should also ideally start at the top of the midriff.
At the end of the day, what a curvy bride needs is a good designer or stylist who understands her figure and tailors the perfect wedding dress for her. Curvy figures do not fall under a singular body type. They come in all shapes and thus need to be addressed to in a customized manner. The key to the best wedding dress for the curvy figure is customization. If you are a curvy bride, make sure that your designer consults you at every step of the process – from selecting the colour to choosing the fabric to planning the embroidery. Make sure that you also go for enough number of trials and get alterations done accordingly. Always go for well-fitted dresses and stay away from unnecessary layers on your dress.
If you want customized wedding dresses for curvy brides, get in touch us. We, at Get Ethnic, work on the principle of customization for every bride – curvy or slim. Our team of designers, craftsmen, stylists etc work hard on every customer to create the best wedding outfit for her.
