Urban India seeing comeback of saris
“Saris constitute the very ‘fabric’ of India, demonstrating the timelessness of the hand loom and the beauty of color as they ‘weave’ their way into daily routines surrounding kitchen and family,” said Judith Schwartz, Director of Sculpture in Craft Media: Clay, Glass, Metals, Fiber
.
The sari is possibly the most romanticized and celebrated garment in Indian history. To me the sari is the most un-judgmental garment. The sari knows no height, no weight, no girth, no color and infact the sari knows no gender either. This single garment could be manipulated and worn to choose any styling choice and preference. And this seems to be one primary reason, why slowly yet surely the sari is finding it’s place back in the Urban Indian woman’s cupboard.
The Sari Premise :
The sari market is a 50,000 Crores INR market growing at a CAGR of 14%. The sari has a huge international presence amongst NRIs and the International market size alone is almost 20,000 Crores.
The Sari Psyche :
The modern Indian woman is a thinking woman, who embraces body positivity and the sari embraces the soul and not just the body. She also strives for a deep and insightful connect with the women of her family, and embraces craft which is centuries old and enjoys draping a piece of the craft on her shoulders. Heirlooms and collectables are meaningful to the modern Indian woman. We work with revivalists who actually recreate your old saris, re-weave your grandmother’s heirloom sari. The sari wearers are getting more excited about revived old weaves, motifs and patterns and are more than happy to take a leaf off the books of the erstwhile style icons.
The modern Indian woman also prides herself to being a multi-tasker and has stopped looking at the sari as a complex drape and feels pride in her roots and her ability to handle the drape with ease and elan.
The Sari Relevance:
The working Indian woman finds the Sari a practical outfit which gives her the ability to appear formal and serious without being repetitive and maintaining the Indian fetish for the bright, colorful and beautiful. She also seems to now take pride and possibly finds liberation in executing those activities in the sari, which earlier was felt impractical. We have sari wearing marathon runners, weight lifters and bikers making waves.
The Sari Social:
Social media has played a significant role in increasing stickiness to sari wearing and the pride around it. Sari groups on Facebook and such communities encourage the members to upload images of themselves in saris and the entire social community is generous in their praise and appreciation, thus contributing to the purpose and these groups are getting bigger by the day. Instagrammars posting themselves in a sari daily, style tips around the sari, and interesting hashtags like #sareenotsorry and #protestsaree has built buoyancy to the sari. There are people who use the sari and their sari wearing Instagram pages to spread awareness about societal issues and concerns like gender equality, feminism, LGBT rights, Minority rights etc. Revivalists, designers and market places are also blogging about the sari, craft and revival making the sari a veritable garment to be associated with.
The Sari Styling:
Sari draping styles are getting edgier and making them popular amongst the younger audiences. Saris are now paired with interesting crop tops, tank tops, t-shirts, shirts, peplums, trousers and tights. Women are taking the saris from their mum’s wardrobes and Tassels are becoming more exciting with huge variety of tassels and pompoms that are used with the sari. Motifs are also becoming fun, with cats, dashunds, toy planes weaving themselves in. Celebrities are tending to sway towards the sari for many of their red-carpet appearances.
The Sari Supply:
Availability always plays a crucial role in increasing popularity of a garment. With the ever increasing awareness, and love for the unstitched garment, the supply has also taken new dimensions. Ecommerce sites are popularizing the sari and making it available to an international audience with a mere click of the button. Innovative locales for pop-up stores, exhibitions, store in stores and fashion shows are also ensuring availability of coveted designers to international audiences.
The handwoven Sari as an ensemble is reaching great heights and taking women to their pinnacle. The pride of ownership and styling associated with it, makes the effort of choosing and draping well worth it! Best suited for all occasions and ideally should be worn and flaunted to larger audiences. We are proud to be able to put the hand-crafted Sari on the global map, at Parisera.
