Indian Dress Styles

[ramana]

Sabyasachi Mukherji on the sari and its modern travails, in Telegraph, Kolkata



Sabya on the sari state of affairs

Sabya on the sari state of affairs



WHY DO WE CALL SOMEONE WHO WEARS A SARI AN AUNTIE, ASKS SABYASACHI MUKHERJEE



Vidya Balan



A certain Miss Balan is often attacked for her sense of style. Sometimes rightly so, and sometimes it is just because she has become the favourite icon for fashion bashing. I would consider this a classic case of stereotyping. When confused, conform.





Rekha



When I disassociate myself from this particular situation to look at society as a whole and fashion in particular, Miss Balan is replaced with a character called the “sari”.



I am appalled to say that in the modern society the sari to many has become an icon of backwardness. Many tags have been attached to people who wear the sari — behenji, sloppy, auntie being just a few.



And more often than not, these are epithets spouted by women about women themselves.



It worries me. Not the sari — because it has the strength to withstand any social crisis: nobody in India is powerful enough, not even a very large part of society, to eradicate hundreds of years of history. What worries me is the sari slanderer.



They must be a rather unhappy lot. When you discard something that is your own and move on, mindlessly seduced by “greener pastures” — in this case foolish fashion mating calls from the West — it clearly shows that somewhere deep down you are a tad bit dysfunctional. In all honesty, if a person is secure (and finance has nothing to do with security of this kind), you start celebrating what is your own and not the other way round. It has happened to me.





Aishwarya Rai Bachchan



There was a time when I was an awkward teenager trying to find validation from my peers by being what I would only regard today as obnoxious. As I started spending a lot more time with myself, opening myself to the world outside, I truly understood the resources and strengths within.





Sunita Kumar



Today I might be a fashion designer, on and off the road, but I am probably far more boring than a banker. Clothes wise, I mean. And it is not a political agenda to disconnect myself from the rest, to give myself a certain kind of intellectual aura. It is truly me. Someone who chooses comfort over fashion, functionality over aesthetics. It took me a while to get there but now that I have, nothing can make me budge. Not even the disapproving stare of a certain Miss Wintour. Maybe I have internalised myself enough to look her in the eye (albeit in a dark, crowded room, and with her sunglasses on).



But enough of me. Getting back to the sari, more often than not I drool (and that is a rarity) when I walk into a room full of people and chance upon an elegant woman comfortably and simply wearing a handloom sari, totally stripped of modern necessities (hair dye, baubles, Botox and its brethren). And if this woman laughs animatedly, eats with abandon and manages to wink, I need to be administered smelling salts.





Rani Mukerji



So the trick is to be yourself. It is the ultimate weapon of seduction because, remember, we only get attracted to people who have qualities better than ours or missing in us. And let me tell you, the quality of self-assuredness is missing in a lot of us. Perhaps that is what fashion needs to understand.



So you should think of a reversal process in your head. When in doubt, wear a sari. Not black. Also, what is very important is to celebrate your physicality. It is to be who you are, the way you are. And that sort of happiness can be rather infectious.



My thoughts stray to a comment on the Internet about the generosity of Miss Balan’s stomach. I am sure these are messages typed by stern women on their 19th minute on the treadmill via their BlackBerries. Are we really going to shun someone who enjoys her carbs? Because the sad part is as the tummy turns into washboard, the million-dollar smile would have faded.



And that would be such a shame. Maybe I need to switch from fashion and write a book — Lose Your Tummy. Don’t Lose Your Smile. It would make me an instant millionaire.



Save the sari. Share your ideas with t2@abpmail.com