India Couture Week 2018 Day 1 highlights: Aditi Rao Hydari looks like a princess, but Tarun Tahiliani fails to impress

In shimmering florals and weightless drapes, fashion designer Tarun Tahiliani showcased classic Indian styles and embroideries at Indian Couture Week 2018 at the Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi. The showstopper for Tahiliani was the Padmaavat actor Aditi Rao Hydari who looked like a princess just out of fairy tale in a shimmering, off-shoulder peach lehenga with a train adorned with bright embroidered flowers. (Express Photo by Sristi Keshri)

Juxtaposing iconic European construction with classic Indian styles and embroideries, this collection exemplifies a modern India aesthetic. In the structured lightness of every drape is the embodiment of a new voice of tradition, one that proudly carries a rich heritage into a modern way of life.(Express Photo by Sristi Keshri)

A soft, ethereal palette is crafted with resplendent layers of Swarovski-encrusted embellishment on the innate buoyancy of crinoline that finds itself raised to new heights of structural engineering. Its form perfected to define an accentuated Indian silhouette that hugs the waist and cascades into structured gathers that settle intuitively into collapsible, concentric rings. (Express Photo by Sristi Keshri)

The whole ramp evoked images of paradise and angelic gardens, where gods and goddesses wander, gossamer panels are rendered in an ethereal lightness of being. (Express Photo by Sristi Keshri)

The menswear line shares a similar ethereal lightness, rooted in Tahiliani’s quintessential sartorial finesse. Seamless constructions of fit and fall translate throughout the line of hand-embroidered muted monotones. (Express Photo by Sristi Keshri)

It is a couture and occasion wear collection that celebrates the modern Indian goddess. (Express Photo by Sristi Keshri)

Luxurious Swarovski gems are woven into traditional embroidery techniques of chikankari, zardozi, ari and shadow-work. (Express Photo by Sristi Keshri)

“And finally after months of work, we unveil the occasion, bridal and couture collection. The key has been to achieve lightness, after hearing thousands of women complain about being tortured in clothes they could not move in, or weighed them down. So, the new lightness, in Elysium, for modern day glamour and ease of wear. The new voice of tradition at last,” says Tarun Tahiliani. (Express Photo by Sristi Keshri)