Karan Johar Dresses In Black, And The Embroidery Does The Rest

When you’ve nicknamed your friend’s Diwali party the “Manish Met Gala”, a good kurta is probably only the beginning. Karan Johar wore custom Manish Malhotra to the designer’s bash, styled by Eka Lakhani with pieces from Tyaani Jewellery. His choice of colour was the one thing you might reasonably call understated.

At first glance, it’s a black outfit with a long jacket and a neatly defined waist. Then your eye travels down to the embroidery and back up to the necklaces. For anyone who associates an invitation to wear black with playing it safe, Johar makes a rather convincing case for having a little more fun with it.

A Dramatic Black Silhouette

The waist is what makes this work. Beneath the jacket, the inner layer falls into a deep V, its narrow folds meeting a broad band around the middle. Below that, the shape opens out again, falling loose almost to the floor. You can follow the line from collar to hem even where one dark layer meets another.

Karan Johar leaves the jacket open, which is a better choice here than fastening it. For one thing, you get to see the waist. For another, the two sides fall apart just enough to reveal the width of the lower half. It has some of the sweep of a gown with the shoulders of an evening jacket. For anyone whose idea of festive menswear style starts and ends with a change of kurta colour, the proportions alone are worth a second look.

Embroidered Layers Worth A Closer Look

The surprise in the embroidered jacket is where Malhotra puts the busiest stretch of pattern. A small flourish sits high on one shoulder, but most of the colour begins well below the waist. Warm reds and gold tones run through the lower panels, with touches of green and blue along the edges. There’s plenty to look at down there, which makes those plain black sleeves a particularly good decision.

It also changes how you take in an ethnic outfit like this one. Across a dinner table, you’d see the shoulder detail, the lapels and the jewellery. Standing up, Karan Johar has an entirely different expanse of embroidery on show. The extra length of the jacket gives the pattern somewhere to unfold.

Statement Jewellery, Worn Without Apology

The usual advice with a heavily embroidered jacket would be to choose one piece of jewellery. Karan Johar wears several, and the open neckline explains why he can. The necklaces sit between the lapels, each falling a little lower than the last. They have a patch of the outfit to themselves, well away from the colour at the hem.

His rings are a less expected pleasure. With his hands resting one over the other, you notice how substantial the settings are and how well a hint of green sits against a black sleeve. It’s an idea worth borrowing from maximalist fashion: if you love a handful of rings, try them with a plain cuff. You’ll see exactly why you wanted to wear them all in the first place.

Tinted Glasses And A Sharp Finish

For all the decisions that went into the clothes, the tinted glasses might be the most recognisably Johar thing about this look. The narrow frames leave his face visible, while the amber tint picks up the warmer colours in the embroidery. There’s even a nice contrast in scale: a jacket that sweeps out around him, and glasses just wide enough to frame his eyes.

What makes Karan Johar an enjoyable presence in celebrity fashion is that even the grandest outfit leaves room for something familiar. The jacket belongs to the occasion; the glasses look like something he’d reach for on his way out of the house. For a man who has already renamed the party, turning up in the host’s design and making it unmistakably his own feels entirely in character.