The changing state of the saree

Pairing neon Converse shoes with a floral sari may sound like a fashion felony characteristic of Rakhi Sawant. But if the sari is draped over skinny jeans instead of a petticoat, the footwear suddenly gets unlikely legitimacy.

An army of fashion designers and their troupes of devotees are trying to reinvent the Indian nine-yard. Anamika Khanna recently crafted sari pyjamas with crushed muslin pallus and replaced petticoats with pyjamas, Wendell Rodricks’ sari gown has him deluged with requests from “celebrity ladies” who can’t get enough of the built-in choli and split pallu and Nida Mahmood’s deadly combo of jeans and saris has been turning heads since the fashion week. Satya Paul twisted and turned the sari around by throwing on trousers and Ravi Bajaj took Indo-eastern fusion to a whole level with the poncho sari.

Before scissors were whipped out, designers swore their allegiance to the “eternal symbol of grace and style”. Some pledged not to mess with the silhouette and others promised to keep it simple. Rodricks, who introduced the jersey sari as well as the backless sari gown, says he always has the sari in mind because it’s the only drape in the world that requires close to no effort to look sensual, fluid and striking. “I love to blend the aesthetics of the Indian sari with a red carpet-style, Western-gown look because together it makes for an impressive international statement,” he says.

Nida Mahmood, whose signature style is to pair skinny jeans, kitschy shoulder-enhanced blouses with funky saris, says she never messes with the length and breadth of the sari but opts for lighter fabrics. According to her, the key is in the drape – skip the first round of draping and start with the pleats instead. “The pleats start on the left leaving the right leg to show off the jeans,” she says. Mahmood says the idea of the neo sari is to “speak a language relevant to the current times.” “When you tell a story which has relevance to the contemporary thought, it becomes that much easier to drive the point home. In our daily life, we find it cumbersome to wear a sari which has now been replaced by the business suit. I feel the younger generation will embrace the sari in the modern context,” she says. This is where the new-gen saris step in.

Other designers too say the neo sari is a product of changing urban landscapes and lifestyles. Sanjay Kapoor, managing director of Satya Paul, says the trouser sari was invented to improve the “flexibility of the person wearing it” . Kapoor says that a few years after the label was born in 1985, the team realised that “we were a society at the crossroads” . “For 2,000 years, the sari remained untouched. The different weaves and forms are beautiful but times have changed and the customer is evolving,” he says. “The new customer is oriented towards an urban lifestyle with an obvious lack of patience to learn the art of tying a sari,” he adds. According to Kapoor, the ‘internationalisation’ of the sari is a crucial factor. “The essence of this sari stems from the western look that it imparts to its wearer without compromising on the traditional Indian feel,” he says, adding that the trouser sari received overwhelming response, especially in the NRI community.

Satya Paul has a dedicated cell that works to create new forms of the sari. “I’m looking forward to Madonna wearing this sari to help the Indian customer recognise the design strength of our work,” he says. Shaina NC, who is known for inventing incalculable ways of draping the sari, says the reinventions like the lungi or sarong sari are a hit. “I had one client who converted the drape of her wedding sari into a sarong style and another one who used the pallu of her wedding sari to make a jacket,” she says.

The sari has been the designer’s muse for years but sometimes reinvention has resulted in tragedy with the sari resembling a gunnysack. Vijai Singh Katiyar, senior faculty at the National Institute of Design (NID) and author of the book Indian Saris – Traditions, Perspectives and Design, says he enjoys “the zealous explorations with the sari by design leaders in fashion” , but believes that innovation needs to support the intrinsic characteristics of the unstitched sari. “Unfortunately in the India of our times, it is frequently about discarding everything that is old and making choices from the so-called idioms of modernity and progressiveness,” he says. “The sari needs new strategies to make its way into the hearts of the young generation. Attempts to fuse the sari with other formats helps, but designers need to overcome this obsession as early as possible so that their intervention is meaningful,” he says. Sari to say, but there’s still a long way to go.