The Art and Craft of Lehenga Making: Factors that Affect the Price
The timeless appeal and majesty of the lehenga make it the perfect dress for weddings, big family gets together, and even festival celebrations. The majesty and grace of the lehenga choli help to enhance the beauty and style of wearers and make them stand out in a crowd.
Why does a lehenga turn out to be so expensive?
Buying a lehenga is often a costly affair with even a half-decent piece priced in lakhs. This is because the cost of a lehenga is impacted by various factors, which include the following.
The Fabric Used
The type of fabric is what can make or break a lehenga, and hence it is the most important aspect impacting the price. In general, a lehenga dress made from more luxurious fabrics costs more than one made from regular fabrics. The most common choices of fabric for a lehenga include the following.
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Soft Cotton
Despite being an extremely versatile and budget-friendly fabric, pure cotton is rarely used to make a designer lehenga. However, a blend of cotton and silk or cotton and polyester provides the perfect fabric to create an exquisite lehenga. These lehengas can be designed and styled as exclusively as other luxury fabrics and yet they often cost way less.
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Satin And Silk
Both stain and silk fabrics offer a bright luxurious look and appeal which makes them the right choice for making a lehenga. While both these fabrics are more expensive than cotton blends, the style and grace they lend to lehenga choli design are unmatched. That is why they are the most popular choice for women looking for a graceful lehenga at a mid-range price.
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Brocade and Velvet
Brocade and velvet fabrics are known for their brilliance and grandeur and even a simple lehenga made from these fabrics is quite astonishing. However, these lehengas are often the costliest, and the cost increases with the complexity of design and the use of other styling elements.
Craftsmanship Of The Lehenga
Apart from the choice of fabric, the type and complexity of craftsmanship also play an important role in deciding the cost of the lehenga. Craftsmanship often varies as per the personal preferences of the wearer, the occasion, and even the weather and includes the following aspects.
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Styling
Styling defines the overall look of the lehenga and is mostly chosen according to the body type of the wearer. The most popular styling options include a lehenga with a flare, a paneled lehenga, and a half-saree lehenga choli for women. Skilled craftsmen are required for creating different styles and this can increase the cost of the lehenga.
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Manual Labour
Many times creating an exclusive lehenga involves the use of skilled artisans such as those experts in hand dyeing, block printing, or embroidery and zari work. Hiring such skilled professionals naturally costs more than machine printing the designs on the fabric. That is why such lehengas turn out to be way more expensive than the ones featuring similar designs incorporated using machines.
Involvement of Designer Label
Even a simple lehenga offered by a high-end clothing brand or a famous designer may cost a fortune compared to a local provider. This is because of the following reasons.
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The market reputation and stature of high-end brands and renowned designers are quite high. Hence, an opportunity to wear even a simple lacha dress designed by them enhances the prestige of most women. This makes them willing to pay a fortune for getting a lehenga designed by such brands and designers.
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These brands and designers use only premium-quality fabrics and materials to create their lehengas. They hire only the best craftsmen and artisans to maintain the finesse and distinctive appeal of their work. Thus their lehengas naturally come with a significantly higher price tag.
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Most renowned designers and brands pay a lot of attention to the smallest details and ensure that every single lehenga designed by them is unique. From choosing the perfect color scheme to ensuring high precision in the ghagra blouse design and artwork featured on the lehenga, they put in a lot of hard work and creativity to make the dress look trendy.
High Demand
Many times a specific color, style, or design of a lehenga becomes so popular that it creates an excessive demand for the dress. This might cause the prices to increase significantly within a short duration due to the unavailability of enough pieces of the dress to satisfy the demand. This is generally true in the case of women opting to buy a readymade lehenga online or offline. Most designers create only limited batches of lehengas in the same design both online and offline. If the batch becomes a hit, the designers find it difficult to meet the demand in time resulting in a shortage and a spike in the price of lehengas.
Final Thoughts
Being aware of the above-discussed aspects that impact the price of a lehenga can help you plan a realistic budget for buying the perfect lehenga that matches your style and your personality. After all, when it is about a lehenga the females can move the world to buy the best of the lot!
