For brides in Australia
Made in Vadodara, fitted over video, and sent to you — with the timing worked backwards from a summer wedding, not a winter one.
Your wedding season is our monsoon
Australia is the only market the studio ships to that sits on the other side of the equator, and it changes the one thing that matters most: when a piece has to be begun. An Indian wedding in Melbourne or Sydney is very often held in the Australian summer — December through February — which is the depth of the Indian winter, and it falls on the far side of a Gujarati calendar built around the opposite seasons.
A bride marrying in January is not ordering nine months ahead in the way a bride in Vadodara would. She is ordering across a Diwali and a Navratri, through the studio's busiest weeks of the year, with the making finishing while India is cold and the parcel arriving into an Australian summer. It is entirely doable, and it is the reason this page exists — the calendar is different enough that using the Indian one would leave you short.
What customs will cost you
Australia allows the most generous threshold of the four countries the studio ships to — though a bridal piece will exceed it. Above it, expect about 5% clothing duty plus 10% GST, and an import declaration at the border. A single chaniya choli may well stay under it.
All four countries side by side, and what we will and will not tell you: shipping & customs.
Counting backwards from an Australian summer
The making is about twelve weeks, and Navratri falls on the same dates worldwide — 11–19 October 2026 — which lands in an Australian spring rather than an autumn. For a December or January wedding, that means the conversation should be happening in the middle of the year, and a chaniya choli for garba should be ordered by the end of August at the latest, because the studio is making for Navratri in India at the same moment.
Where our Australian brides are
- Melbourne
- Sydney
- Perth
- Brisbane
- Adelaide
Melbourne and Sydney both hold large Gujarati communities and some of the biggest garba nights outside India. A chaniya choli sent for Navratri has to arrive into spring, not autumn — and it has to travel the furthest of anywhere the studio sends to.
Questions
Will I pay duty on a lehenga sent to Australia?
Australia allows AUD $1,000 before anything is charged, which is the most generous threshold of the four countries we ship to most — though a bridal piece will exceed it. Above that, expect about 5% clothing duty plus 10% GST and an import declaration at the border. A single chaniya choli may stay under the threshold entirely.
My wedding is in the Australian summer. When do I start?
Earlier than an Indian bride would, because your date sits on the other side of our calendar. The making is about twelve weeks, but a December or January wedding means that work happens across Navratri and Diwali, which are the studio's busiest weeks. Begin the conversation around the middle of the year and there is no pressure on either of us.
Can I order a chaniya choli for garba in Melbourne or Sydney?
Yes, and it is a large part of what we send to Australia. Navratri is 11–19 October 2026 wherever you are, so the deadline is the same as it is for a bride in Vadodara even though your season is not — order by the end of August so the piece is made and travelled with time to spare.
Can I be fitted without flying to India?
Yes, and given the distance almost every Australian bride is. Measurements are taken with you on a WhatsApp video call, in about twenty minutes, with Nirali watching where the tape sits rather than trusting a sheet of numbers.
How ordering from abroad works, start to finish: for overseas brides. Navratri is 11–19 October 2026 — chaniya cholis for garba.
Also written for brides in United Kingdom and Canada.