How WNW by Harsh and Ankesh preserves Regional Crafts in Bridal Couture

Every Indian bride carries the weight of tradition, culture and heritage. In every anklet’s chime, in every thread of her lehenga and in every weave of her dupatta, there lives a piece of her family’s history. Mothers and grandmothers often pull out wedding albums, reminiscing about the zari borders of their sarees, the Banarasi silks they once wore, and the heavy zardozi embroidery that adorned their trousseau. They wore heirlooms that were vessels of memory, culture and artistry.

Yet, the modern bride can’t help but want something more. She seeks individuality without losing her roots. She dreams of couture that respects her age-old traditions while also expressing her own personality. This delicate balance between the past and present is where WNW by Harsh and Ankesh shines.

As one of India’s most celebrated bridal houses, WNW has made its name not just for breathtaking designs but for its unwavering dedication to preserving traditional crafts. From Kolkata’s rich, cultural soil, Harsh Ji and Ankesh Ji have nurtured WNW into an Indian label that transforms hand embroidery, regional textiles and heritage crafts into modern bridal experiences. Their vision is to keep India’s artisanal heart beating while reimagining it for contemporary couture that salutes traditions long lived.

Celebrities like Vaani Kapoor, Yami Gautam, Nushrratt Bharuccha, Adah Sharma, Bharti Singh, famous influencers like Kusha Kapila, Megha Dasgupta and Harshita Kejriwal, and so many more renowned personalities have vouched for WNW as one of the best bridal couture brands to exist today.

Even the media has time and again proven how much they love to write about WNW.

As a couture bridal brand, WNW truly dedicates itself to serve it’s customers and make sure that it keeps traditional values alive in every piece they create, in every service they deliver and in ever handshake that cracks a deal.

Founders of WNW

The visionaries behind WNW, Mr. Harsh Bhotika and Mr. Ankesh Bhotika, bring a unique blend of creativity, knowledge, and leadership to the brand.

Mr. Harsh, an engineer by profession but an artist at heart, combines technical expertise with a passion for art. With his endless curiosity and wide-ranging experience, he dreams of taking the tradition of hand embroidery to a global stage. He strongly believes that possibilities are limitless and follows the principle that work is a form of worship.

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Mr. Ankesh Bhotika, on the other hand, comes from a business background. He heads the design, development, and production teams, ensuring every creation is both innovative and wearable. With over 15 years of deep involvement in craftsmanship, his knowledge and expertise drive WNW’s vision of modern yet timeless ensembles.

Heritage of Regional Crafts in Indian Bridal Wear

Indian bridal couture is inseparable from India’s craft heritage. Every state, every region brings its own vocabulary of weaves, motifs and embroidery, each carrying centuries of history. For a bride, wearing these is not just about beauty but it is also about embodying culture, wearing a legacy and also keeping alive the touch of countless unnamed artisans.

Zardozi, born in the Mughal courts is an intricate and dazzling form of embroidery work. Using fine gold and silver wires, zari threads, sequins and beads, artisans create different types of motif, like peacocks, florals and vines. In bridal wear, zardozi brings grandeur transforming fabrics info tapestries of luxury.

Banaras has long been the heartbeat of Indian weaving. The Banarasi saree with its lush silk and gold thread motifs, is synonymous with Indian weddings. When translated into lehengas, this brocade becomes a celebration of handloom artistry, rich in texture, heritage and bridal symbolism.

Phulkari work is Punjab’s signature embroidery. It’s bold and colourful threadwork, on odhnis and dupattas represents joy and fertility. In modern bridal wear, Phulkari infused dupattas and jackets bring vibrancy to pre wedding ensembles while keeping alive village traditions.

From kanchipuram silks of Tamil Nadu to Kasavu of Kerala, temple weaves have adorned brides for centuries. They carry not just beauty but also spiritual symbolism. The borders and motifs are inspired by temple architecture, deities and cosmic patterns.

WNW’s Vision: Original Designs with Artisanal Heart

When Harsh Ji and Ankesh Ji first started their journey in Kolkata, they knew that they weren’t just deigning lehengas, they were supposed to craft stories. Kolkata, with its colonial heritage, artistic spirit and deep rooted traditions gave them both inspiration and grounding. But they dreamt bigger, to create a brand that could stand as custodian of crafts across India while speaking the language of modern brides. Their vision was simple, yet profound. Originality over imitation, craftsmanship over mass production and emotion over trend.

Instead of treating embroidery as embellishment, they treat it as the soul of a garment. Each piece starts as a sketch but it only comes alive once master artisans lay their hands on it, for hours and sometimes even weeks or months of hardwork.

Today, WNW by Harsh and Ankesh is spoken about not just in Kolkata but across India as a bespoke bridal designer label, standing apart from its ability to fuse timeless craftsmanship with fresh originality. Brides stepping into their studios don’t just choose outfits but choose a vision where couture becomes art, heritage and identity, all in one.

Collaborating with Master Artisans

In every thread of fabric, there lives a story that are timeless, woven by the hands of master karigars. To collaborate with them is not merely a business act but a step into starting an ancient conversation between craft and culture, between heritage and modernity.

Artisans’ palms carry the wisdom of generations, they sit cross legged in workshops, under a fan with few bottles of water, like a family and develop new masterpieces every now and then. Their fingers move craftfully, not requiring a manual to perform such detailed actions. When a designer chooses to collaborate with such artisans, it is an act of reverence, a bow to the original story tellers.

The karigars of WNW are like family members, they work for hours and never get tired. It is not only their bread and butter, but it is the very soul of their being. The age old embroidery patterns, the zari work, writing something using a thread and needle of a piece of cloth, making figures inspired by Vrindavan, forests, jungles, courtrooms, Mughal era and so much more is just marvellous.

This fusion is only possible when they lend their authenticity, their show, their deliberate craft to a designer’s dream.

Working with artisans shows us that while machines hum and finish task within seconds, true beauty takes hours to unfold and is the creation of hands.

But beyond the art, lies a story.

Collaborating with artisans ensures that their livelihood is protected, their skills are valued and their legacy is taken forward.

The most beautiful part is that they know the story they are weaving, which adds all the more depth and emotion to what they create.

Signature Collections Showcasing Indian Crafts

Every lehenga at WNW begins as a story handed to the karigars who patiently translate visions into threads of different colours. In a world where bridal trend is often borrowed from fleeting trends, WNW stands apart, preserving originality, like a sacred heirloom. Their deigns are not limitations but inventions that are deeply rooted in tradition yet fiercely alive in the present.

Our ivory lehenga for instance, at first glance it seems almost shy, a canvas washed in the purity of white. But as one steps closer, a garden unfurls of vines, droplets of pearls and sequins.

Our Best seller lehenga, Raja Rani is a masterpiece where mythology breathes through stitches. Here, fabric turns into a shine, each border narrating the eternal tale of Radha and Krishna. Elephants march, peacocks dance, temple windows seem to be open inviting attention, floral vases and pots bloom. That is how WNW literally and metaphorically writes stories on pieces of cloth.

Our rust orange lehengas take scenes from Mughal and Rajasthani painting, pagodas, birds, trees, vignettes from forgotten folklores.

Other beautiful and charming collections like Virasat stand bold and unyielding in red. Madhuban sings of enchanted forests and Radha Krishna’s eternal live. Darpan mirrors inner beauty through reflective motifs, while Dehjoor borrows from Kashmiri traditions, with vermillion tones and phulkari echoes. Calcutta 1970 celebrates the nostalgia of a city stitched into couture. Dastaan transforms lehengas into storybooks of Mughal and Persian legacies and Saddeeq speaks of nobility, loyalty and the grandeur of brotherhood.

Each collection is an archival of artistry yet with fresh imagination.

What sets WNW apart is not just the grandeur of their lehengas but also their philosophy, that every design must be original, every stitch must honour the karigar’s hands, and every bride must feel that she is wrapped in a story only she can narrate.

Reviving Traditions & Empowering Communities

At the heart of WNW lies not only the dream of dressing brides, but the deeper responsibility of reviving traditions that risk being forgotten. In the lanes of Kolkata and beyond, countless artisans hold skills that are centuries old, the way zari catches the light, the rhythm of resham embroidery, the quiet dignity of handloom weaves. Yet, in the fast rush of machine-made fashion, many of these crafts could have faded into silence.

WNW steps in like a guardian of memory. By collaborating with these master artisans, they preserve livelihoods. Every lehenga that leaves their atelier carries with it the imprint of a community, women and men who have poured their hours, their devotion, their ancestral knowledge into each stitch. In empowering them, WNW gives voice to workshops where tradition is a nostalgia.

Through this, the brand becomes more than a couture house, it becomes a lifeline. When a bride twirls in her WNW lehenga, she is unknowingly twirling with history, spinning with generations of artisans whose work continues to thrive because someone believed in them. This is how WNW revives traditions, by weaving them into the future.

What Makes WNW Unique

In a sea of bridal couture, where sparkle often overshadows soul, WNW stands apart. What makes them unique is not just the finesse of their lehengas but the philosophy behind them.

Each WNW creation is an ode to originality. Instead of following fleeting trends, the brand dares to listen to the whispers of heritage and transform them into wearable poetry. Their lehengas are not costumes but characters in a story. Some sing of old-world opulence with heavy zari and velvet, while others dance with delicate pastel hues kissed by modern cuts. Every ensemble carries duality, rooted in tradition, yet alive with contemporary elegance.

WNW also bridges worlds. They are not confined to the drawing boards of designers alone but share their canvas with artisans. This dialogue between modern imagination and age-old skill creates pieces that cannot be replicated by machines or mass markets.

Each lehenga is unique because it carries a fingerprint of humanity, the artisan’s hand, the designer’s vision, and the bride’s dream. As we truly believe in tradition ceremonies like Pehla Dhaaga are performed by the bride’s mother and truly make something as simple as buying a lehenga into something memorable.

It is this blend of authenticity, artistry, and heart that makes WNW more than a label, it makes them a storyteller of legacies.

What sets WNW apart is its ability to bridge heritage and modernity with purpose. Unlike fast-moving bridal trends, WNW’s focus has always been on building a design language rooted in authenticity. Their work is not about replicating what exists but about preserving what is original. Techniques like hand-embroidery, zardozi, resham work, and intricate embellishments are approached with the same seriousness as their forefathers in craft once did, ensuring that every piece maintains the integrity of its design.

Equally important is WNW’s commitment to the communities that keep these crafts alive. By collaborating directly with master artisans and their families, they not only protect the continuity of age-old skills but also create sustainable livelihoods. This dual approach, design excellence coupled with social responsibility, makes WNW unique in the Indian bridal couture space.

For today’s bride, WNW offers more than an outfit, it offers confidence that she is wearing something rare, something carefully preserved, and something that honors both tradition and individuality. And for the larger industry, WNW stands as proof that Indian couture can be both globally relevant and deeply responsible.

WNW’s growing presence on fashion week runways further cements this reputation. Their participation in events like FDCI Lotus India Fashion Week 2018, where actress Yami Gautam turned showstopper, and Kolkata Fashion Week 2019, with Vaani Kapoor dazzling in a WNW ensemble, showcased not only their design excellence but also their ability to capture the attention of both industry insiders and wider audiences. These milestones reflect WNW’s evolving journey, where heritage, craftsmanship, and contemporary relevance come together seamlessly.