GLAMOROUS ACCESSORIES: Zevar Jewellery at the British Museum Shop

I read recently about jewellery brand Zever Jewellery being selected by the British Museum to be sold in their official museum store, and thought it was great news.

Zevar comes from the Urdu word, which means “ornament “, and the brand itself emphasises "traditional Indian designs that are hand-made with silver and semi-precious stones", which can certainly be seen in their range of beautiful products.

The company's’s founder and creative director Shivani S. Mohinta is a Londoner, and her brand is a tribute to her home country – India, along with it’s beautiful flora, fauna, forts and palaces. Shivani works closely with a select group of artisans based in remote Indian villages to create her pieces

Zevar’s handcrafted silver jewellery adorned with semi-precious stones such as turquoise, carnelian, zirconia, marcasite and quartz, and their collections so far showcases various traditional techniques of engraving, filigree and setting that are unique to Indian jewellery. The jewellery is apparently inspired by the vibrant colours that are used in Indian folk art, colourful Indian textiles and prints, and hand painted tiles and pottery - I can certainly see this in the beautiful colours and shapes used in the jewellery.

I can see that there is a story behind each piece, and I like that there is a focus colour or stone in each one, rather than a mix of too many colours or pieces - making each piece look much more iconic and classical.

Photo credits - Shahid Malik

PR - Enigme Internationale

I'll be keeping an eye out for these during my next visit to the British Museum, but from the website alone, I love the workmanship and designs of the jewellery, and I think it's great that an Asian-lead brand has made it into the Western retail space.

You can also buy the jewellery online at from their official website, as well as leading online retailers such as Asos, Shopcade and Independent Boutique.

What do you think of these?

BOMBAY ISTYLE: Jazz and Glam in Bombay Velvet Niharika Khan

I recently watched Bombay Velvet, featuring Ranbir Kapoor as a mafia-wannabe and Anushka Sharma as a jazz singer, set in a fictionalised 60s' India where jazz music meets Prohibition, tommy guns and Bollywood jazz. Although there were scenes in the movie which weren't quite credible of Indian culture at this time, I loved this mish-mash of film-noir meets the ganster life and Roaring Twenties - basically a lot of themes I like!

Costumes designer by Niharika Khan took inspiration from the 40s, 50s and 60s for the outfits of this film, and it really shows - the pearls, feathers, elaborate headpieces and retro dresses are all beautifull made - such as the white pearl and feather dress below, whcih looks pretty fab.

The other outfit which was really striking is this emerald green maxi dress, which apparently weighed a staggering 35 kilos! Again, this is another outfit which reminds me of shimmering 60s dresses, jazz-lounge-singers-style, and Anushka pulls its off well.

Another outfit which struck my eye is this purple floral and ruffle dress, which has a lot of details and bolumous skirt - and completd by a matching floral head band.

The other extravagant piece which was made for this film is this one for Raveena Tandon in her cameo song as a sultry jazz singer. This is a very extravagant outfit, and one which must have taken the designer a while to create, as it's painstakingly made with peacock feathers and beading on a sumptious gown which really looks dramatic. Raveena really made this look her own, with her sultry poses and deep red lipstick!

I also really liked this black and white stripey dress worn by Anushka to the races in one scene, it's very 'Ascot' in its own way and very striking. There's also an echo of an Audrey Hepburn style to it, complete with the big sunglasses, which I quite liked!

There's also this outfit, a red and white floral dress which is a lot more girly and feels inspired from a later era - while I didn't love the dress, I liked the red floral hair piece!

I also noticed this beaded burgundy dress, which is not as extravagant as the feathered-and-pearls outfits from before but still works because it gives a very sultry style.

I also liked some of Rosie's more day-to-day outfits,which are a lot less glamorous but a little more sweeter, from the polka-dot flats and floral headband to the floral earrings, something I've seen from the 60s and looks very sweet on Anushka.

Another more casual piece was this outfit, I couldn't get a picture of the dress but it's a polka dot halter neck dress with a matching hairband, which Anushka finishes off with a classic beehive hairstyle and eyeliner flicks!

I thought this was a really adventurous take on the jazz-life and 60s India, with plenty of inspiration taken from different places. I also like the fact that the detail is so well done, with outfits not just limited to the women but tailored to the male characters, with double-breasted suits and broad lapels, as well as the costumes of those around them.

It's also really great to see a film which attempts to fuse Indian fashion with an older era, and for me a lot of it works because it's so well done - especially down to minor characters such as these two ladies below!

What did you think of the outfits in this film?

Images belong to producers/directors/distributors of Bombay Velvet

THE WEDDING POST: Mehndi Memories!

Can you believe that it's been a year since my wedding?! I really can't, it seems like only a few weeks ago that I got married and moved away from my parents, and yet I'm so settled and comfortable in my married life that weirdly enough, it feels like I've always been married!

So this time last year, on this day, I had my mehndi night. which was surprisingly an emotional day but a lovely one, surrounded by friends and family. There's a lot of things which I stressed about at the time but on that day, walking in under a curtain of flowers and looking at all of my friends, a lot of that stress and anxiety melted away (to the music of Ali Zafar's Jhoom, if anyone wanted to know!)

I thought I'd do a series of memories posts this week - what I remember from my events, including my mehndi day, the good, the bad and the funny, especially as it's amazing what sticks out in your mind afterwards!

So here's a few random things I remember from my mehndi night, in no particular order, although I'll try not to complain too much! I do remember wanting to do a hundred and one things and stressing about it, and I'm only mentioning them now because a year later looking back, I really don't know why I worried as much as I did.

Getting ready
I'm lucky enough to know a lot of make-up artists and henna artists, so naturally I got my sister-in-law to spend do my makeup, which I loved. We even managed to spend a little free time in the the day where she took me out for brunch before we got ready, which helped relax me a lot. She got the look even better than I thought, I wanted simple and glowy and she managed both without making my face look too heavy or busy, and I loved the result.

It made me happy that I was able to save so much money by booking a makeup artist for my main wedding day, as it can really add up with the more functions you have. I was also glad that it looked the way I wanted without having to compromise - I've met so many women who have opted to do their own makeup or ask a friend to do it, for one or more of their wedding functions and they've looked great, so I'd definitely encourage that options for brides who are thinking about it.

My hair and the mess at the end of the day!

My jasmine flowers (which were such a headache to buy, because I wanted fresh ones!) came loose half-way through the mehndi and basically looked a mess by the end of the day - you can see them unravelling in pictures below, and the before/after of the flowers! This isn't to criticise the hair-stylist at all - I got my hair and dupatta setting done by Shamalah Hairstylist and LOVED what she did, the flowers themselves just wilted and were bound to fall down after a lot of dancing and moving around! The hair looks not so bad in the second picture, but by the time I got home the flowers had dried and my hair was all over the place!

Also, if any Londoners wants to know where I got the flowers, Vallis in East Ham, East London do them at an amazing price of £1 per string meter and they smell beautiful! A tip for any brides using flowers though, keeping them in the fridge really helped me in keeping them fresh overnight.

Even worse, when I got home, it took me ages to undo my hair and get my hair sorted out. It was actually more painful than my wedding hair was because there was a lot more extensions and back-combing involved, and worse for me because I didn't realise it would be this difficult! 

Non-attendees

A few of my friends didn’t turn up to the mehndi, which I was a little upset about at the time, although I did get over it 15 minutes into the mehndi, once the dancing started! I only mentioned this because it's inevitable that someone can't make it, or something can happen which can be really annoying - try not to let it get to you too much. A friend of mine who got married around the same time I did told me that she was pretty upset that a some of her friends and family didn't make it to her mehndi, enough that when she went home she was upset and even cried a little. You're bound to be emotional but don't let these be the last and defining moments of your Big Days, the last thing you would want to remember about your events is being upset for the wrong reasons.

It's also easy to get annoyed at the little things like these, when it's so much better to appreciate people who DID turn up and make the effort, which can really make a difference on the night! It's fair to say all of the right people turned up and it was really warming to see that they made the effort, not to mention all of the hard work from my mum, sisters and sister-in-law!

Asian Timings

I got to my mehndi venue really early, and was a bit annoyed that I turned up before the guests, particularly as it meant my brother, who was my chauffeur for the night, and I had to wait because I didn't want to talk into an empty hall. Thankfully, my photographer was already at the venue, and used this time for a quiet photo-shoot which I loved – some of my favourite pictures are from this shoot. I was also glad to be punctual because it meant I had some quiet time to myself beforehand.

Sweets and Favours

I barely saw the beautiful sweet table my sisters made and set up. I sure as heck didn’t get to eat anything from it. At least I had lots of photos of it afterwards! Similarly I had spent a lot of time with my sisters making up favour bags, sweet cones and decor boxes in a peacock print theme, which kind of got lost in the hall decor, but admittedly on the day, it didn't matter as much to me anyway.

Ghagray

We’d bought lots of jasmine strings to make into bracelets (ghagray) for some of the guests, and some of them got forgotten. Two of my friends ended up putting dolly-mixture sweet bracelets on my wrists to make up for it because we forgot to get my best friends to put the flowers on my wrist! I don't know why I look so serious in the photo below because I remember laughing about it all!

Food!
Our food got served late, which was very frustrating, as the caterers had been calling me all afternoon while I was getting ready to ask me about venue access and set-up. I actually got up from my stage at one point during a break when the guests managed to eat, to go into the kitchens and tell off the caterers. They learned their lesson and served the food on time on the wedding day though, so at least I told them off effectively!

Dancing the night away!
We managed to get some of the older ladies, the mums and aunties, up for a Beyonce dance which was fun, and it was even better when my sisters and friends joined in too. One of my friends is an amazing (and enthusiastic!) dancer so she stole the show with her moves and got me to join in as well, although I'll admit I was a lot more embarassed!

My niece and I doing twirls!

It feels pretty strange to look through some of these now and see myself all dressed up, especially because I looked pretty calm in a lot of photos and I know I was quite nervous!
A friend of mine got married a few days ago and told me she felt the same - I think it was that point after months of stressing that she walked in and decided to just enjoy herself rather than look for things that had gone wrong.

I know there were a lot of things which were missing, didn't look the way I thought or just general things I thought were needed - looking back I now know that as much as we brides love the little details. the beautiful decor, the amazing dances, it's more important to enjoy the night and being with your close ones. Above all, just sit back, relax and focus on looking good!

My Mehndi Night!

I finally got (some!) of the professional pictures from my mehndi and wedding day, so I thought I'd kick off this Monday with a post about my mehndi (finally!). I've been sifting though hundreds of photos and trying to pick out the best ones (even as I was typing away I kept finding more to add in!)

Just a quick note to ask anyone who does share these images, please do credit me back to my blog.

First off (and most exciting for me), here's what I look like. I debated for quite some time about showing my face, especially as I never really do in my blog. I've decided not to because I don't want this to be about how I look, so much as what I wore. I did want to show my face to show the amazing make-up I had done by my sister-in-law, which I was really, really  happy with, but in the long run I think I'll stick to my decision (although you can have a quick peek of my eyes!)

So here's me doing twirlies in the town square as directed by my photographer! This is my mehndi outfit, which I designed myself over a course of a few months and got made from Pakistan. I will be doing a fuller post about my outfit soon, so don't worry, more details coming! Overall I kept my mehndi look simple because the outfit was so heavy - I wore a simple teeka and a ring, and some bangles, plus some jasmine flowers in my hair. Even now when I look at my mehndi outfit, I want to wear it again because I enjoyed wearing it so much, and because it came out so beautifully!

 

My decor was mainly done by the caterers we had booked, although all of the small touches were done by my sisters and sister-in-law. The mehndi itself took place in a local Town Hall which was perfect because it was intimate and pretty sound-proof for our function, and also ideal since the event was ladies-only and the venue protected our privacy.

Here's some of the decor from the caterers and also some that we did - initially I had wanted to go for a peacock theme which we mainly kept to. We did also end up adding a lot of marigolds and gold touches with fresh flowers which didn't go with the peacock theme, but overall it was a beautiful, colourful look and it worked. Here's some just of the images below, again there were so many, I didn't know which ones to post!

My favourite part of all the decor was the candy bar, the fruit table and the smaller touches which were all done by my sisters and sister-in-law. The henna biscuits, the cupcakes, the sweet trees and the candy bar were ALL made by hand by my sisters and sister-in-law - looking back I'm still amazed at how much they managed to put together and make it all look so amazing.

Here's me being walked in by all the girls and women in the family, while my mum stood next to me underneath. I was meant to walk under a deep red dupatta we had, but my sister-in-law thoughtfully got me this beautiful curtain of flowers to walk under instead. It was a really pretty effect (although it really made my sisters and sis-in-law's arms tired because of the heavy poles!) - it was also really nice to walk in and see all my family, friends and neighbours smiling at me while I peeked through the flowers.

Once I walked in, we did all the rasms (cultural traditions) which usually take place at our mehndis - putting dabs of mehndi on my hand, being fed fruit and mithai, while some of the guests sat in the cushioned area and sang folk songs with the dholki, and some put mehndi on their hands.

After this was dinner, which my photographer and I took as an opportunity to take some silly photographs, before we cleared everything away. We ended the night with a LOT of dancing and some games - we tried to get the older women up to join the fun as well but some were more stubborn than others!

I won't post pictures of the dancing because a lot of them are pictures of friends and family who want to remain private, but I will post this picture of me dancing and twirling with my friends which we couldn't stop laughing at!

I'll be posting more pictures about some things from my mehndi soon, and also about my outfit, so watch this space!

- Curly Fries x