Girls in messy sarees

 

 

Photos: Vincent Boyer (Say hi on instagram @vincetravelbook)

This  post is an ode to girls in messy sarees. You know girls like me whose saree love resides in a world of messy pleats, crumpled sarees, un-ironed fabric, flyaway hair, practical shoes and general awkwardness?

Honestly, I am tired of the images that I see of women in sarees as most images focus on perfectly proportioned, light skinned women posing in high heels and jewellery. Where are the images of women going about their every-day lives in the garment?

Femininity in its pinned, regulated and bourgeois form makes no sense to me.  It immobilises me, restricts me and tries to control my wayward instincts. The very things that make me who I am, comfortable in my imperfections.

The saree is one of the world’s oldest and perhaps the only surviving unstitched garment, as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago. It was also originally conceived as a unisex garment that continues to be an economical and easy-to-wear option, suitable for all kinds of activities and adventures.

In spite of the limited scope for any change in the garment, it has a limitless future because of the endless options for experimentation and interpretation.

So here I am, in these photos in all my messy glory  wearing a slinky saree in a tropical rainforest walk.  Wore this chiffon bandhani beauty with a Guns n Roses tee-shirt and chunky brogues for a mini hike to the top of a stunning waterfall in one of the many national parks in Sydney.

Speckled with tiny dots, textured with crinkled crease of fabric, dyed with vivid dramatic colors; bandhani or tie and dye from Gujarat and Rajasthan is a stunning sight to behold.

Diverse patterns are created by the distinctive technique of tie and dye, pinching and resist tying of the fabric before dyeing. The tied areas indicating the patterns remain undyed creating dotted outlines of forms.

It takes talented crafts people to make these stunning fabrics and I have to admit I am quite the bandhani admirer (read hoarder).

Reclaiming the saree

It is time we reclaimed the saree, made it our own and joined its revival party in our own way..

Photos: Vincent Boyer (Say hi on instagram @vincetravelbook)

My first memory of wearing a saree is as a toddler, wearing a stripey floral mish mash of patterns. I am pretty sure there is photographic evidence floating about in one of the old albums.

As a child I was tremendously fascinated by my Mother, especially when she was in a saree at her dressing table. The lovely handloom-ed silks she prefers, the maroon lipstick she likes and the magic she made draping the six yards around herself.

The neatly laundered beauties in the cupboard smelling faintly of pot-pourri and naphthalene beckoned constantly  to me. I remember draping them around myself imagining I was a rebellious princess, warrior queen or Goddess. Durga puja has always been the time of the year when I would be awed by the sight of wonderful taants, jamdanis and balucharis.

I loved wearing a saree as a young girl and felt super special in its folds, somehow knowing that I had the keys to a centuries old club for women. I believed then as I believe now, sarees have a bit of magic in them.

As much as I like to romanticise the garment, I think it is time that we stopped seeing a saree as a costume and start viewing it as something to be enjoyed and experimented with. It is about being inspired by the past, how our grandmothers or mothers wore them but making it our own.

It is fun to try new things along with the tried and tested, mixing and matching patterns and accessories  that are unexpected or weaves in colours that clash or figuring out our own ways to drape. Throw our all notions of right and wrong and revel in being who we are, in my case a little disheveled, with messy pleats and definitely not perfect.

It is not about being different or trying hard to be quirky but about being free to think for ourselves and our own interpretation of the whole six or nine yards beyond the dos and don’ts. I think I could wear the Saree every single day of my life and still be able to interpret it in new ways.

I love wearing traditional Kanjeevarams with gold borders and the the mention of them always brings an image of Rekha, to my mind. In these photos I deviated from my messy norm to get  my pleats right and wore the saree properly albeit wrapped around a denim mini underskirt. I skipped in it around one of my favourite little lanes filled with a mad frenzy of plants along the stoops.

Clearly, I don’t need an occasion to wear something pretty, I’d rather wear it to play with cute kitties.

Not your sati savitri

This post is hopefully the start of a community where saree loving women from all over the world can have a little space to call their own.

Photos: Vincent Boyer (Say hi on instagram @vincetravelbook)

This blog is a quest to find what the six yards of fabric means to women at home in the Indian sub-continent and abroad. A saree isn’t just something one wears on special occassions and then forgets, it is a living embodiment of tens of thousands of years of culture, of resistance, it is a celebration of womanhood, our strength and more importantly our imperfections.

To me there is a lot of meaning behind the fact that the saree is one of the few truly free size garments, one doesn’t have to fit any beauty standards to feel absolutely breathtaking.

My name is Tanaya, I live in Sydney and I am an avid saree collector as well as wearer. However, I wear my sarees mostly with things that I’ve been told are a no no. In these photos, I am wearing a vintage Jamdani that belonged to my grandmother with ripped jeans and a panda tee-shirt.

I almost never wear petticoats (under skirt) with my sarees, I prefer denim, shorts, skirts and full length pants and I don’t like matching blouses. It started with me not being willing to wait on a beautiful garment just because I didn’t have the matching top and bottom to go with it.

As time went by I got more and more happy with experimenting and now I wear my sarees with pretty much anything I can lay my hands on and wear them out and about everywhere, I really mean EVERYWHERE. In these photos, we were walking about on a warm afternoon drinking beers before going to a pub, playing Cards Against Humanity, drinking some more and enjoying a live band.

I believe there is no place or occasion to wear something that has survived centuries, it can and should be worn anywhere we want to. So my friends, lets wear sarees, be nasty and take up space. Being Sati Savitri is overrated, I’d rather drink some beer and have some fun.