The main options
Grooms usually arrive with a photo and a vague sense of budget. The useful first decision is silhouette, because everything else follows from it.
- Sherwani — long, structured, traditional, the standard ceremony choice
- Achkan — slightly shorter and cleaner, works well with a churidar
- Jodhpuri or bandhgala — tailored and formal, strong for a reception
- Indo-western sets — modern cuts, popular for sangeet and reception
- Kurta sets with a jacket — lighter, good for mehndi and daytime events
Accessories are not optional extras
The safa or pagg, the kalgi, the sehra, the mala, the stole, the brooch, the pocket square, the mojaris. These are what read as "groom" in photographs, and they are almost always the thing left until the last week.
Choose them against the actual outfit, in the same visit if you can. Colour matching a safa from memory rarely ends well.
Fitting a sherwani properly
A sherwani lives or dies on the shoulder line — it cannot be meaningfully fixed later, so get it right at the start. After that, sleeve length, body length and the taper through the waist are all adjustable.
Expect more than one fitting, and bring the footwear and churidar you will actually wear.
Coordinating with the bride and the party
Bring a photo of the bridal outfit. Not to match it exactly — matching too closely looks costume-like — but to make sure the two palettes sit together well in photographs. The same applies to brothers and groomsmen.
