Formal Shirts

The piece most people actually wear most often. An embroidered shirt or kurta pairs with straight trousers, a sharara, a gharara or culottes, which makes it the single most useful commission in a wardrobe already full of once-worn bridal pieces.

It is also the fastest. A lighter formal shirt runs to about four weeks rather than the eight to twelve a bridal piece needs, because the embroidery is the long pole and there is simply less of it.

This is the category where we are most likely to tell you that machine work is the better answer. On some repeating patterns and some fabrics it is more even, more durable and a better use of your budget than hand work — and on a piece you intend to wear repeatedly, durability is the point.