Some evenings rearrange something inside you. You carry them home in your chest and find yourself still turning them over in the quiet days after, certain they happened exactly the way you remember.
What NOT SO SERIOUS by Pallavi Mohan did on the night of May 8th at Ambawatta One, Mehrauli was precisely that kind of evening. A store opening it was called. A return it was.
A Store That Feels Like a Presidential Suite in Paris
The store itself deserves its own sentence, its own paragraph, its own standing ovation. Walk in, and you understand immediately that Pallavi Mohan does things completely. The new NOT SO SERIOUS flagship at Ambawatta One is the kind of space that stops you mid-step. It is layered, deliberate, and almost unreasonably beautiful, a room that feels like a love letter to Paris written by someone who understood Paris fully and then made it entirely her own. Think the warmth of a presidential suite at a grand hotel on the Rive Gauche. Plush interiors, vintage warmth, grand French-salon energy, and the full universe of a brand that has, quietly and then very loudly, earned its place among Indian fashion’s most beloved signatures.
Every corner has been considered. Every surface speaks. The visual merchandising, and I say this having stood in some of the world’s finest retail spaces, holds its own anywhere on earth. This is world-building. Full stop.
And the outfits. Oh, the outfits!
Feathers at the sleeve. Capes that cascade. Shimmer that catches the light and holds it. Structures that are at once architectural and deeply, movingly feminine. A NOT SO SERIOUS piece does something to the woman wearing it. She walks differently. She occupies space differently. She becomes, for the duration of wearing it, a more expanded version of herself.
Oh la la is where we begin. It is also where we stay.
The Speakeasy, the Ballroom, the Fashion Show
The evening began in a speakeasy. Intimate, candlelit, and quietly electric. Then, because this is Not So Serious and nothing stays ordinary for long, the room transformed. The walls gave way to a full vintage ballroom, draped in ivory and lit like something out of another century. The models arrived among the guests, moving through the room in waves of feathers, shimmer, and structured drama. The collection unfolded around you, beside you, walking past your glass of Grey Goose. The room responded the way rooms do when something genuinely beautiful moves through them: phones went up, conversations stopped mid-sentence, and people were spotted reaching out to touch a hem.
On a crimson carpet, under a ceiling draped in cascading ivory organza and chandelier light, the full NSS world walked. Each look was a distillation of what Pallavi Mohan has spent years building: unapologetic femininity, obsessive craft, and a conviction that clothes should feel like the best possible version of yourself.
The Crystal Feather Mini arrived first and the room felt it. An all-over crystal-and-bead-embellished mini with a voluminous white feather skirt and a matching feathered cape collar, worn with sheer gloves and silver heels. Phones stayed up. The Silver Tiered Gown followed, floor-length, dramatically open at the back, the tiers catching light with every step, the kind of gown that speaks for itself and keeps speaking. The back alone was worth the evening. The Blush Crystal Mini came next, heavily embellished, feathered hem, crystal-embellished gloves, quintessential NSS, the kind of dress that photographs beautifully from every angle.
The debut lehenga line arrived and the room held its breath.
The Debut Lehenga: a champagne-gold embellished mermaid silhouette, layered with tiers of hand-embroidered feather-appliqué organza, paired with a crystal triangle blouse and dramatic full-length feathered sleeves. A pearl-and-crystal necklace at the hem. A jewelled masquerade eye-mask for the finale walk. A declaration, dressed as a lehenga. The gowns arrived, they spoke, and the room listened.
The Great Gatsby Came to Mehrauli
Let me say it plainly: in the period of covering Indian fashion, very few evenings match what Pallavi Mohan delivered on May 8th. The ballroom, the feathers, the ivory organza ceiling, Grey Goose in hand, models moving among guests draped in shimmer and crystal: at a certain point in the evening, you surrendered entirely to the moment. You were inside something. Transported, fully and without negotiation, into a universe that bore a striking and rather glorious resemblance to a scene from The Great Gatsby, the part where the party is so beautiful it feels almost too good to sustain.
Guests told me the evening reminded them of what fashion used to feel like: aspirational, genuinely theatrical, high on glamour and the conviction that an extraordinary night was worth engineering. That reminder matters. People flew in from Mumbai and from across the country in solidarity with Not So Serious. The fashionistas, the leading stylists, the journalists, the ultra-high-net-worth individuals, the key opinion leaders, the names that constitute India Incorporated’s conversation: they all came. They came overdressed, as requested. They came ready. When the room transformed around them, they rose to meet it completely.
Fashion, for one evening, chose spectacle. It was magnificent.
Pallavi. Anshika. The Team That Delivered.
Pallavi Mohan worked with the kind of singular focus that belongs to founders who believe completely in what they are building. She showed up for every detail, every decision, every creative call. The result is hers. When the cameras caught her post-show, visibly moved by the response to both the flagship and the debut lehenga line, the evening’s meaning was written plainly on her face.
Anshika Karbanda is the woman because of whom Pallavi Mohan ticks. She is the closest person to Pallavi in this work, and she delivered everything this ball required while pregnant, looking like an absolute doll, with a steadiness that the rest of us quietly leaned on. Her contribution to this evening, to this brand, to everything Pallavi has built, is its own story.
Lakshmi Rana and Sonal’s team executed the fashion show with oomph. The grazing table, the food, the layout, the production, the visual merchandising: every element was considered and every element landed. This is what teams that care deeply produce when they are given the brief they deserve.
Designers showed up in solidarity. The energy in the room was something you earn, and they had all earned it together.
The Partners Who Made It Possible
Izzari by Aanchal Jain, the jewellery sponsors for the evening and a brand that shares their home at Ambawatta One, brought jewellery with meaning, modern heirlooms, a house that understood the occasion completely.
Grey Goose India - celebration partners, present in the spirit of the evening. To Bacardi India: the support was felt, and this evening was richer for it.
A Note on Vested Interests, Since We Are Being Honest
Full disclosure, offered freely and without shame: yes, Maison French Press is the brand architecture and custodianship arm behind NOT SO SERIOUS by Pallavi Mohan. Yes, I am writing this with a vested interest so visible it could have walked the crimson carpet and taken its own post-show interview. And yes, I am doing so in a dual capacity: as Editor-in-Chief of French Press Global Mag and as brand custodian of NSS through Maison French Press, which means the thank yous in this piece are very much an occupational feature rather than a journalistic one.
Would this article read any differently had I written it purely as Editor-in-Chief, with no association to the brand whatsoever Categorically, completely, hand-on-heart: no. Every word about the store, the collection, the ball, the room, the lehengas, and the evening stands exactly as written. The only section that would have looked rather different is the thank yous, because without the brand custodianship, I would have had considerably less professional obligation to be quite so thorough about gratitude. The rest? The rest is just the truth.
The Flagship Is Open. The Collection Is Served.
The NOT SO SERIOUS flagship at Ambawatta One, Mehrauli, New Delhi, is open. The full collection, including the debut lehenga line, is available in-store and online at pallavimohan.com.
Go. Try something on. Let the feathers do what feathers do. Pallavi Mohan is back with a bang. She brought feathers, fur, drama, and an entire ballroom’s worth of joy.