This weekend, we were all in Jamnagar, Gujarat in spirit (unless you’re a celebrity reading this who was there in person, in which case our newsletter has definitely reached a new audience hello?) and there’s no point denying it. By now the who, what, where and when of the most lavish pre-wedding party known to mankind is all over our feeds, but what’s missing is ~our~ take on it. Here it is.
Tango with Darshita
This substack is like a finsta that never stopped being fun, it’s always real, unfiltered, wholesome and confessional, like dear diary but better. True to the memo, here are *some* thoughts that won’t leave my brain atm:
that video of all the Bollywood celebs getting into a big bus for the Ambani wedding
what was the first email that they sent Rihanna? did they try for Taylor Swift?
this pre-wedding is actually the Ambani’s second coming: they’re finally styled right, all those museum refs (love the Ashish moment), pause for Isha Ambani - also why is her ig handle @ishmagish?
does Blake Lively know Radhika Merchant? did they invite Donatella Versace?
what did the wedding invite look like? what will my invite look like? no, what will Abhishek and Ayesha’s invite look like? oh that TikTok girl who makes custom wedding stationery!!!
stop doing what you’re doing: you’re typing on a moving bus, you WILL get sick
only Kareena Kapoor can make sequins look THAT good, why is Manish Malhotra dancing? These people are so random
what an absolute miss that there are no other Indians on this trip, literally no one knows what’s going on w the Ambanis
but hey, still grateful - my first big press trip, first time to Korea everything is good
um almost all good: no immigrants also means such a lack of awareness, the NRI asked if it was hard to learn english when I moved like come on…
anyway back to the billionaire wedding: what is it like to get married in a family where they will always be bigger than you? even at your wedding, you’re hardly the main character
speaking of main characters, Sydney Sweeney on SNL <3
leaving with you one last q: should I get bangs again? x
Tango with Avani
The Met Gala is still 2 months away but what Jamnagar witnessed this weekend was my Met Gala. We love to hate the rich and their excesses but there’s no denying that the Ambani pre-wedding celebrations supplied us with top-notch fashion, entertainment and *moments* that will have the Internet in a chokehold for months to come. They even managed to pull Rihanna out of hibernation for a private concert (we’re not going to talk about her outfit because what was that?) who later twerked with Janhvi Kapoor on a Bollywood song at the after-party which makes for a weird crossover that I couldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams. And neither was Ivanka Trump playing dandiya, Bill Gates drinking chai or Akon vibing with SRK and Salman Khan - but this all happened in the same breath?
So while we’re yet to see how the Ambanis could possibly top this off at the ACTUAL wedding scheduled for July, here’s my two cents on what went down over the last three days:
A masterclass in couture: taught by ASA and studied by Isha Ambani
A bedazzling Chanel dress from the Karl Lagerfeld era, a custom Manish Malhotra lehenga with a matching fur cape (faux I hope?) and my personal fav, a Miss Sohee gown fresh off the press from their Spring 2024 Couture collection - stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania pulled all the stops and how. It would have been so easy to simply style Isha Ambani in an expensive outfit that looks beautiful and does all the work per say, but ASA succeeded in giving us a sartorial story, each vastly different from the one before. Much like Law Roach does with Zendaya, I hope that this is the way forward for Indian stylists! Dare I even say, Isha’s couture choices slightly overshadowed those of the bride, Radhika Merchant?
Leaving you with a comment I read under the first photo (from the left) because I know we’re all gawking at those diamonds: yeh haath mujhe dede Thakur.
Gen Z gave us nothing
For all this talk about Gen Z revolutionising personal style, B-town kids fed us with crumbs at the most. While they all look amazing and the clothes themselves are immaculate, it’s as if I’m glancing through a designer’s look-book, the only difference being that a known name is wearing the design instead of a model. There is a dearth of bold styling moves from Gen Z who are content with bare-minimum looks and need to show some personality. For inspiration, please look at the Swarovski-cladded monkey perched atop designer Sandeep Khosla who was in attendance - brought to my notice by none other than Diet Sabya.
OOPS we did it again! (Random recommendations to tango with, curated 4U)
I’m getting back into painting rather aggressively and I love these YouTube tutorials which feed my delusion that I too can paint a gondola in Venice city.
Neck pillows are so 2018, maybe get a turtle instead
Jet lag sucks but try time shifter: it’s an app that tells you when to eat, sleep and have coffee so your body adjusts better post a flight
Stop everything and watch A Shop for Killers: an 8-episode drama revolving around 21-year old Jian whose uncle, her only family, just died suspiciously and turns out he was an illegal arms dealer and an ex-mercenary who shared bad blood with a bunch of people. And now, they’re all out to kill her - but there’s more to the story than meets the eye!
Eat flaming hot cheetos, this is the hill I’ll die on
If you live in BLR and want to try your hand at pottery for 2 hours on a lovely leafy rooftop, then look no further than Mud Effects Pottery Studio!