Indian sarees shopping right now: Red is the most favoured colour for wedding saris and is a traditional garment choice for brides in Indian culture. Women traditionally wore various types of regional handloom saris made of silk, cotton, ikat, block-print, embroidery and tie-dye textiles. Most sought after brocade silk saris are Banasari, Kanchipuram, Gadwal, Paithani, Mysore, Uppada, Bagalpuri, Balchuri, Maheshwari, Chanderi, Mekhela, Ghicha, Narayan pet and Eri etc. are traditionally worn for festive and formal occasions. Find more info on Shop Indian Sarees Online.
The style was popularised in the 1870s by a Bengali lady – Jnanadanandini Devi … She adopted the front pleat style of wearing the sari from the Parsee women she had seen in Bombay, and wore it with a blouse and petticoat, as they did, which was different from the traditional Bengali style of wearing the sari, says Chishti, who started a Sari School in 2009 in Delhi, and conducts workshops on the sari and the different methods of tying them. The blouse is also an adaptation by the Parsees, from the Western puffed sleeve blouse they wore over the long skirt. Though they had come from Persia 700 years earlier, they adopted the sari as they sought asylum in India on the condition that they would wear the local dress, adopt the local food habits and the local language of the western state of Gujarat. The sari shows the rich diversity of Indian dyeing, printing and silk weaving.
The word “sari” means “strip of cloth” in Sanskrit. But for the Indian women—and a few men—who have been wrapping themselves in silk, cotton, or linen for millennia, these swaths of fabric are more than just simple garments. They’re symbols of national pride, ambassadors for traditional (and cutting-edge) design and craftsmanship, and a prime example of the rich differences in India’s 29 states. “The sari both as symbol and reality has filled the imagination of the subcontinent, with its appeal and its ability to conceal and reveal the personality of the person wearing it,” says Delhi-based textile historian Rta Kapur Chishti, author of Saris of India: Tradition and Beyond and co-founder of Taanbaan, a fabric company devoted to reviving and preserving traditional Indian spinning and weaving methods.
With the advent of invaders and the subsequent colonization, Indian women and their attire saw a considerable change. Today, a plunging neck or a visible midriff causes aunties and uncles to stop and stare. A deeper understanding of the history of the saree and methods of draping shows how women back then draped their sarees bare-breasted. The norm of wearing blouses only started with the coming of the Mughals. This thought became more pronounced with the British coming in; their idea of the uncivilized and untamed found the rationale for making it compulsory for women to wear blouses.
Most of our products are handcrafted and the weavers have been chosen with care in order to ensure the best quality of handwork is brought to our customers. In fact , some of our empaneled weavers have won awards at the highest national level and have been associated with this work for generations. Our products and weaves are authentic, artisanal and sourced sustainably , curated by Karigars from different parts of India like West Bengal, Varanasi, Rajasthan, Gujarat etc. See extra information at silkpetalss.com.
It originally formed part of a three-piece costume consisting of a piece of cloth draped as a lower garment, a chest band, and another piece of cloth worn over the shoulder and used to cover the head. The sari is probably the oldest unstitched attire in existence. It is the most versatile garment and is both conventional and contemporary, says Delhi-based Sanjay Garg, the owner and designer of Raw Mango, a brand of contemporary handwoven textiles. A sari designed by Garg, 40, featured in an exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2017 of 111 articles of clothing and accessories that have left an indelible mark on modern fashion.