Opulent is what best describes the design, colour and brilliance of Ankur Batra and Amita Shukla’s line – ECRU. Nearly a decade old, ECRU has carved for itself an identity synonymous with luxurious and inimitable couture. Today, the brand stands as one of the most distinguished and renowned couture lines in the industry.

Operating out of Delhi’s prominent Chattarpur Road, ECRU caters to the who’s who of the Indian corporate world and select Bollywood stars. Constructing designs around a client’s vision, ECRU’s creations are truly unique. The farbrics, sourced from different parts of the world, add to the allure of ECRU’s creations.

After wowing scores of clients in the northern and western parts of the country, ECRU makes its way to the south, bringing their creations to the elite and fashionable here. Chennai will see the design label participating for the first time at the Bridal Mantra show.

Ritu Kumar is one of India’s leading designers, who have created a distinct style of designing, giving ample focus on the ancient traditions of Indian craftsmanship in contemporary terms. Ritu Kumar has a solid background in art history and musicology, which has enriched her prospects, understanding of ancient designs and the innovative use of traditional crafts by Ritu Kumar has created a new controlled form of expressions. Ritu distinctively holds the status of an advocate of the heritage in the Indian fashion industry, and she has successfully bridged the gap between traditionalism and modernity.

Ritu began her venture with four hand-block printers and two tablets; in a small village near Kolkata in the late 60s was incidentally the first woman to introduce the boutique culture in India under the brand name ‘Ritu’. Today she has thirty four outlets in all major cities in India and one outlet in America. Ritu Kumar’s boutiques usually presents you with a comprehensive platform surrounding the top quality of Indian design that includes specially produced range of high fashion garments and accessories using silk, leather and cotton.

In 2003, Ashish & Viral Parikh of Ahmedabad launched their label 'Virtues' and at the moment the label is sold at major designer stores across the country and abroad. Viral graduated from NIFT and she joined her hands with her husband Ashish, who is a qualified MBA, to give birth to Studio Virtues, Ahmedabad. Vikrant Mehta joined the team to add more flavour to the label. Virtues offer a range of clothing options for both men and women. The designers showcase their new collection 'forever' for Indian Brides. The Spring Summer collection focuses on soft pastel colors to accentuate feminity. Embroidery techniques as cutwork and gota are enhanced. Keeping in mind the changing global trends, a fusion line is introduced herewith. .

Weaving has always been their passion and they have a set of weavers in Varanasi exclusively weaving on handlooms and powerlooms for them .Vintage Indian textiles have remained their inspiration. Experimenting with yarn and weavers have always been a passion. Each fabric they work on reflects a period and represents a particular region from the vast Indian Heritage. They lay emphasis on fabric texturing and yarn dyeing. Playing around with fabric right from the yarn stage is what makes any design stand out distinctively and that is what they believe is their design credo.

They love to dress their women in ultra-feminine and glamourous clothes. The brand is synonymous to high luxury pret, resort and evening wear. The peacock label focusses on dresses that are dreamy, romantic, youthful with a strong sense of colour, drama, and makes a style statement. The designers like to wrap the female form with fluid silks that blend into animal prints with complex textures, in a few words slick, chic and glamorous. Embroidery is an integral part of peacock and the duo use it lavishly and often incorporate gems and crystals into the extravagant use of diamantes to accentuate necklines with feathers and semiprecious stones. The peacock label experiments on different fabrics like tweeds, knit, leather, cottons, velvet, tapestry, crepes, satins and chiffons. The label is also known for its unique and exotic prints; their silhouette should be in harmony, assymetric, or subtle yet restrained and are usually graphically created in strong shapes and bright colours, gentle to senses, classic yet very modern. Motifs of flowers, leaves splashed on animal prints detailed with ostrich feathers and ornate beading for that ultra luxurious peacock look.

Nikasha set out to be a psychoanalyst but her creative urges saw her designing clothes for the famous. After completing her education in Delhi with Honors in Psychology, Nikasha set out to study psychoanalysis at the Tavistock School in Mumbai. During this course, she dabbled into fashion designing and year 2003 saw the well known designers Abu Jani & Sandeep Khosla approach her to retail her line at Selfridges (London). The year 2004 saw the birth of her label "Nikasha". Today Nikasha is the only Indian designer retailing her exclusive Spring Summer collection at Macy's ( San Francisco ) under her brand name "Nikasha".

Nikasha`s collection embodies a vintage feel with a rhapsody of colours coming alive through the interplay of fabrics and prints. The use of light silks, chiffons, muls in combination with turquoise, coral, glass, wooden beads all interlaced with lace, satin, ribbon, splashed with a hint of embroidery make every garment look sexy. Simple silhouettes with classic cuts; the collection is meticulously styled with eye-catching details.

The deep rooted designers have always taken inspiration from the vintage India and contemporized it with modern usage of surgaces and techniques which make the perfect combination of emotions and style.

Culling the essence and emotions of Indian culture and marrying it with a modern western sensibility, S &N have a deeper, less obvious take on this new exotic fusion. Their ensembles present eternal femininity draped in lush classicism.

With their unique subtext of delicate details simple harmonies and rich textural formats the brand has come to epitomize refinement and luxury in fashion. While keeping the handwriting essentially subtle and Indian.

Born and brought up in the epicenter of heritage and tradition in the ancient city of Jodhpur, designer Raghavendra Rathore knows only too well the value of ‘Brand India’. His traditional upbringing and training of his craft at the Parsons School of Design in New York gave him the international edge, the experience and the insight to create the right mix of aesthetics, craft and heritage in the products that he designs that work globally.

Mixing old-fashioned workmanship with modern aplomb, Rathore finds newer, subtler ways to evoke the spirit of a by-gone age with a fresher approach. Splitting time between home in Jodhpur and work, he is always on the move working on assignments and projects all around the globe. Working in various mediums such as Lifestyle and Home, Interior and furnishing design, Outdoor Iron and Wood Furniture Design, Fashion Design and now gourmet products, he works towards setting newer standards in the design frontier.