These Indian royals embraced superfine tailoring long before the 2025 Met Gala

The first Monday of May is the equivalent of Christmas for fashion lovers, as New York's Metropolitan Museum opens its doors for the iconic Met Gala. The Met Gala 2025 theme is "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style". Focusing on the role of Black culture and dandyism, the theme is also focused on menswear after almost two decades. With this theme, we can expect finely tailored couture features like cravats, sharp lapels, and well-structured silhouettes. If there is someone who knows a thing or two about superfine tailoring, it has to be the Indian royals. Many maharajas from India's past and present made superfine tailoring a thing long before the Met Gala 2025.

While the theme's focus is on Black dandyism, many Indian maharajas; over the years, have taken to wearing finely tailored pieces and have had a sophisticated sense of style. This type of Indian dandyism has been a part of India's pre-colonial era, where Mughals had already embraced structured silhouettes and extravagant jewellery as part of menswear. 

Not unlike the Black community in the USA, Indians were also looked down upon by the colonisers. The Black Dandies usually used fashion as a form of self-expression, whereas the Indian royals used it as a showcase of their wealth and power; thus using their style to assert their dignity and individuality. 

When the British came to India, their menswear brought structure to the clothing but took ethnic flair out of it as their menswear featured simple clothing and lacked interesting patterns, the use of jewellery and more. Indian royals challenged this as they were decked in form-fitting suits paired with regal jewellery.  

Men like Maharaja Yeshwant Rao Holkar II of Indore usually preferred to dress in sack suits to complement their tall and lean frames. His fashion experimentation changed the Indian royal fashion scenario forever. The maharaj chose many European designers to make clothes for him; his personal jewellery was custom-made by Cartier. His style of sense was a mix of opulence, tradition and experimentation. He is being dubbed as 'the dandy maharaj of India', thanks to this year's Met Gala popularising him. 

The sixth Nizam of Hyderabad was another Indian fashion icon that did justice to this year's Met Gala theme. Nizam Mahboob Ali Khan was renowned for his avant-garde sense of style and never repeating the same outfit twice. His closet was full of exquisite jewellery that is beyond the imagination of a modern man's dreams. The Nizam played an important role in the evolution of a sherwani, the dandiest and most popular Indian menswear. Sherwanis are usually worn with fancy brooches and are one of the more structured garments in Indian wear. It is believed that it was Nizam Mahboob Ali Khan who blended the traditional Indian elements with Western frock coats. 

Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh, was known to wear an Angrakha made from the finest of brocades that left one of his nipples exposed. He was known to have an indulgent lifestyle, of which eclectic fashion was a big part. Such were the Indian maharajas and royals that made dandyism famous in India before it was a thing. 

Their legacies are being carried forward by modern Indian royals such as Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh, who incorporates a style that is a blend of traditional textiles and modern techniques tailored impeccably for him. His bandhgala sherwanis and kurta pajamas are the definition of Indian dandyism.