Rashmika Mandanna stepped out for Vogue World 2026: Milan in an off-the-runway Anamika Khanna look from the designer’s latest couture collection, Moonlit Palace, which she presented in Hyderabad this July this year. Mandanna wore a sculpted black lace corset dress that explored the tension between femininity and structure by juxtaposing lace and complex corsetry. This look is a sharp departure from Mandanna’s girl-next-door image; its dark romanticism feels both edgy and unconventional—perfect for Vogue World 2026.
A sharply-constructed and boned corset defines the waist of an otherwise elongated, asymmetric silhouette that perfectly envelops her. The dress’s body is inundated with embroidered appliqué over sheer lace and other surface ornamentation techniques that gives it that peekaboo effect. The continuous lace surface is visually broken by the exaggerated silver detailing around her waist that introduces an armour-like quality—a sharp contrast to the diaphanous lace—in the look. The dress’s trailing hem gives the outfit movement, allowing the black-on-black textures to reveal themselves through motion and light. Not only does the dress look ethereal, but it is also a work of art that took expert artisans in Anamika Khanna’s ateliers 350 hours to put together—from the intricate lace embroidery and sculpted corsetry to the hand-finished metal detailing and surface embellishment.
