Anuradha Vakil is the name you’ve been hearing a lot these past few days, all thanks to #SonamKiShaadi. She’s the designer whose outfits Sonam Kapoor wore on her ghar ka mehendi function as well as the wedding. From dusty shades of pink to a bright red, Sonam’s choice of colour for the wedding lehenga, the style and the designer (to be honest) took us all by surprise!
And there’s one question we’re looking answers for – who is Anuradha Vakil? Why haven’t we heard about her before? Like you all, our first go-to was to Insta her but the lady of the hour is not there yet. All we could get from the hashtag #AnuradhaVakil are pictures of Sonam wearing her label (yes, Sonam and Anuradha go way back). So, here’s everything you need to know about the designer behind Sonam’s royal bridal look.
1. Based out of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, the hub of handcrafted everything, Anuradha Vakil is one of the few Indian designers to work with handwoven textiles and natural fibre fabrics.
2. Born in England, brought up in India and studied in Michigan in the USA, after returning to India with an MBA degree, she decided to take an unlikely turn towards fashion, purely for her love for Indian handlooms.
3. Noor, her design firm in Ahmedabad, came in to being almost a decade ago.
4. Her life beyond fashion includes an almost obsessive love for Indian classical music and theatre, thanks to her training in the arts.
5. She travels extensively in her search for the unusual and beautiful. India and local crafts remain the major source of inspiration though.
6. She knows that her clothes are not meant for everyone and she prefers it that way.
Sonam Kapoor wore the label before for the promotions of Prem Ratan Dhan Payo as well to Shahid and Mira’s wedding reception. Notice the boldly low plunging neckline? That’s a Vakil trademark.
Other celebrities to have worn Anuradha Vakil include Rani Mukerjee, Neetu Singh, Neeta Ambani and Shabana Azmi. In fact, they are some of her fiercely loyal clients.
“I see myself more as a revivalist of textile crafts than a ‘fashion designer’, simply because the base of my design is always traditional Indian textiles and in my own small way, I contribute towards their preservation.”
Her label, ‘Anuradha Vakil’, now is synonymous with artistic, one-of-a-kind Indian clothing and is available at prestigious design houses in India and abroad Here’s how you can reach the designer for your Big Day!
Address: Noor, 60/61 White House, Pachvati Corner Ellisbridge, Ahmedabad – 380006
Telephone: +91 79 26568091, +91 79 26578519
Website: www.anuradhavakil.com
She has retail outlets all over the country and abroad – Ogaan at Kolkata and New Delhi, Carma at Delhi, Melange at Mumbai, Anuradha Vakil at Ahmadabad, Cochin and Madras, and Ffolio at Bangladore.
Images: Instagram