Every year around festival season, social media fills up with trend lists. Top 10 looks for Navratri. Must-have Diwali outfits. Kids fashion forecast. Most of it is generated content with no real insight behind it — the same few styles repackaged with different headlines.
Here's an honest take on what's actually happening in kids ethnic wear in 2025, based on what parents are actually buying and what's getting the most wear.
Worth following: one-shoulder and off-shoulder crop tops with lehengas
The one-shoulder crop top paired with a lehenga is genuinely popular right now and for good reason — it photographs dramatically, it's comfortable because there's no tight neckline, and it gives girls aged 6 and older a slightly more grown-up look without being inappropriate. This has been building for two or three years and shows no sign of fading.
Our Green One Shoulder Crop Top and Lehenga and Pink One Shoulder Lehenga Set are two of the most consistently ordered styles in the collection. Both available in sizes 1 to 12 years.
Worth following: sibling twinning outfits
This is the trend that has genuinely changed how families shop for festival wear. Three or four years ago, people bought outfits for each child separately. Now a significant number of families specifically look for coordinated brother-sister sets for Navratri and Diwali family photographs.
The right approach is complementary rather than identical — matching colour family, not matching outfit. A girl in a sea green lehenga and a boy in a sea green kurta reads as intentionally coordinated without looking costume-like.
Browse the sibling twinning collection for coordinated sets across boys and girls styles.
Worth following: lightweight fabrics for active festivals
There's a real shift happening away from heavy, elaborate embellishments for Navratri specifically. Parents have figured out that a child in a heavily embroidered silk lehenga at Garba is going to be uncomfortable and reluctant to dance. The move is toward satin and organza with cotton lining — outfits that look festive but let children actually participate in the occasion rather than just stand and be photographed.
All the girls ethnic wear styles at VKbySwati are built around this — lighter constructions that photograph well and survive active wear.
Worth following: animal prints in ethnic silhouettes
Animal prints in traditional cuts — kurta sets, A-line frocks, sharara sets — are particularly popular for boys and younger girls. The print adds playfulness to a traditional silhouette. It works well for Navratri, school functions, and casual festive occasions where you want the child to look festive but not overdressed.
The Blue Cotton Dhoti with Animal Print Kurta for boys and the Blue Angrakha Wrap Top for girls are two of the most popular animal print styles in the collection.
Skip: overly trend-specific colours
Every year certain colours get declared the colour of the season — usually driven by a few viral Instagram posts. Deep wine, sage green, terracotta. These colours are fine but if you buy a lehenga specifically because it's the Instagram colour of the season, you'll find it looks dated by the following year. Invest in colours that travel across seasons — sea green, aqua blue, coral, deep pink, ivory. These work for multiple years and multiple occasions.
Skip: heavily embellished outfits for toddlers
Heavy sequence work, large mirror embellishments, and stiff embroidery are genuinely uncomfortable for children under 4. The outfit looks beautiful in photographs but a 2-year-old in a heavily embellished lehenga is going to be miserable within the first hour. For younger children, look for outfits with embellishments in specific places — a belt, a neckline, sleeve edges — rather than all-over coverage.
Skip: buying purely for Instagram
The outfits that perform best on Instagram tend to be the most dramatic ones — enormous gown skirts, very heavy embellishment, theatrical silhouettes. These are not the outfits your child will be most comfortable in or that will get worn more than once. The best kids ethnic wear decision is one your child feels good in and that works across multiple occasions. That's usually a simpler outfit than what goes viral.
Browse the full girls ethnic wear and boys ethnic wear collections at VKbySwati. All styles in sizes 1 to 12 years, shipping across India.