Nicholas Daley and Nabihah Iqbal’s London Wedding Was a Joyous Ode to Their Cultural Heritage
Given the creative backgrounds of both Nicholas Daley and Nabihah Iqbal—Daley is an award-winning menswear designer whose fashion shows are known for their thrilling live performances, while Iqbal is a respected experimental musician, DJ, and broadcaster—it comes as little surprise that they first struck up a conversation over the subject of music.
The pair crossed paths all the way back in 2013 at the former Le Baron nightclub in London, when Daley plucked up the courage to chat to Iqbal after she finished her DJ set. And seven years later, on a winter evening on Waterloo Bridge—one of Iqbal’s favorite spots in London— Daley decided to pop the question. “He read me a very sweet letter that he’d written and then got down on one knee,” Iqbal remembers. “It was very emotional, and we probably caught the attention of people going by on the bus, but we were totally in our own world at that moment.”
While it would take another 18 months before the pair finally celebrated their wedding on August 20 at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in the heart of London, they began planning their nuptials right away. “It really took up a lot of time trying to organize everything and making sure we got what we envisioned,” says Iqbal, noting that the extensive help of their wedding planner, Antony Waller, and the ICA staff ensured that everything ran smoothly. “We decided on the venue first, as we thought it would be nice to keep things local and do it in London where we both live and work and where most of our friends are.”
Of course, given Daley’s talents as a fashion designer and Iqbal’s own keen eye for style, planning their outfits quickly became the first order of the day. “I wanted to go for a traditional Pakistani bridal look, so I went on a research trip to Pakistan to visit different bridal boutiques and figure out what I wanted to wear,” says Iqbal. “I didn’t find anything that I really loved, so in the end, I decided to design my own looks. I found bridal tailors and embroiderers in Karachi and Lahore, and I explained my designs to them. For the day outfit, I wore a cherry-red sharara with a long kameez, made from pure silk. The kameez, sharara, and dupatta were all hand-embroidered with gold thread and beading.”
The final, breathtaking look took four months to create thanks to its lavish hand-crafted embroidery, but all that heavy embroidery wasn’t necessarily practical when it came to planning an outfit for the afterparty. “I knew I needed something lightweight to change into for the evening, otherwise I would not have survived on the dance floor,” Iqbal says, laughing. “My evening outfit was a gharara, made from pure silk banarsi brocade. I got the silk dyed to the exact shade of bright coral pink that I wanted, and I chose three different brocade patterns for the kameez, gharara pant, and the dupatta, because I wanted to have the different parts of the outfit contrasting with each other.” (The opulent jewelry, meanwhile, was a mix of bespoke handmade pieces crafted by the Lahore-based designer Amna Shariff and family heirloom jewelry that had been worn by Iqbal’s mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother.)
To put the finishing touches on her outfit, Iqbal enlisted the help of hairstylist Samina Hussain, who specializes in Asian bridal hairstyles. “I had my hair smoothed back in a bun and decorated with fresh flowers, then Samina did an amazing job of pinning my dupatta into my hair and placing my head jewelry—tikka and jhumer—so that I didn’t have to worry about it all day,” Iqbal explains. She also called on a former collaborator, makeup artist Carly Hart, for an elevated take on her everyday beauty routine, as well as the henna artist Para Manko, who decorated Iqbal’s hands and feet with intricate patterns a few days before the ceremony at a henna party. “I never realized how complicated that part of a Pakistani wedding outfit is, and there’s no way I could have figured that out myself!” Iqbal adds.
Daley, meanwhile, went for two outfits that honored both Iqbal’s Pakistani roots and his own Scottish-Jamaican heritage. First, for the ceremony, he wore a bespoke outfit by the British Pakistani designer Zain Ali, the product of several months of looking at different cuts, lengths, and fabrics. “Zain selected an amazing gold raw silk fabric for the shirwani and beautiful cotton embroidery fabric for the kameez and waistcoat, then finished it off with gold handmade Pakistani slippers, a hand-embroidered heart shape necklace inscribed with “NN,” and a beautiful jacquard silk scarf,” says Daley. “For me, it was important to support Zain as he is an incredible designer, and to champion another ethnic minority creative.”
For the evening, Daley then switched into an outfit of his own design, fusing motifs from his childhood in Dundee and his father’s homeland of Jamaica. “I selected a tartan in red, green, and gold, which are important colors within the Rastafarian community and across the Caribbean diaspora,” says Daley, who worked with the Scottish manufacturers Lochcarron of Scotland and Glenisla Kilts to curate the tartan fabric and custom handmade kilt. “I reworked two classic styles from my mainline collection—the oversized baker boy and hunting waistcoat—which were made in the kilt tartan to curate a three-piece tartan outfit. I also wore traditional ghillie brogues, sporran, and sgian-dubh, which I bought in Scotland. For me, it was important to showcase and support Scottish manufacturing within the designs, but also important to express my Jamaican heritage through the choice of color and styling.” (Daley then finished the look with grooming by barber Nathaniel Bury and hair by Eden Roots.)
Their attention to the dress code extended to the guests as well: With a theme of “going back to your roots,” friends and family were encouraged to sport outfits that paid tribute to their respective cultures, resulting in a kaleidoscopic array of color and print. “People really took it seriously,” says Iqbal. On her side, the family arrived mostly in traditional Pakistani dress, while the Scottish side of Daley’s family ensured an endless parade of brightly patterned kilts. “When we had our party, it was so amazing to look around the room and see everyone’s looks,” Iqbal remembers. “Being from London, our friendship group is naturally very diverse, and we have friends that come from so many different places. They all paid homage to their heritage with their wedding party outfits, and we had friends in traditional Sierra Leonean handwoven fabrics, Japanese kimonos, Palestinian and Yemeni thobes, Swedish reindeer-leather trousers, a Moroccan fez hat—the list goes on!”
