How to choose a saree
As I wrote before I got invitation to a South Indian wedding and I am positively going. I need a saree then! After long consultations with Nivanthee (whose friend is getting married) and scrolling around the stalls I formed some ideas about this amazing piece of cloth and I bought one last night – now it’s with tailor for minor work. Kalpana, Nivathee’s mother, helped me to put on some other saree so that I get a clue about the ultimate look. It is just gorgeous to wear one – you feel like a proud princess. Along with jewellery, mehndi (ornaments on your hands put on with henna), bindi (forehead decoration) it looks so fantastic that you cannot believe you have it al on you. I am so overfilled with emotions that I want share some of what I’ve learnt about saree these days.
Ok, they say (and this is what I thought before) that saree is 5-6 m long strip of cloth which can be wrapped in various styles. I was convinced that a strip of cloth is a strip of cloth and is a strip of cloth and not more. So later I figured out…
Saree comes in a number of textiles, styles, colours and price ranges. You can choose from silk (various types of silk such as Barnasi silk or Tassel silk) chiffon, crape, cotton, polyester; plain material, material with the prints on it, with rich embroidery, with handwork, with glitter. This variety along with the price range from 150 Rs to 6000+ Rs gives you a mind-blowing number of choices.
What a saree shop looks like. It’s a long corridor-like room with shelves stuffed with the piles of sarees along all the walls. On a low podium right next to the shelves the salesmen would seat. They would invite you to seat on a bench in front of them and ask about your saree aspirations. According to those (sometimes – not really according) they would pull out all kinds of sarees for you. So, you seat, look, touch, try, discuss and bargain – and it may lasts for ages so fetched you get by the procedure – it’s sort of communicating with the ancient Hindu culture and traditions.
If you think you’ve bought a strip of cloth and that is it… you are so mistaken. You’ll also need a blouse to wear under (choli) and a petticoat (such a skirt to fix the saree on your waist). Some sarees have a blouse part - it is to be cut off and brought for stitching. The saree strip itself should be also should be treated a bit. And then more things are coming - matching jewellery….
I cannot wait putting it on ;o)
Ok, they say (and this is what I thought before) that saree is 5-6 m long strip of cloth which can be wrapped in various styles. I was convinced that a strip of cloth is a strip of cloth and is a strip of cloth and not more. So later I figured out…
Saree comes in a number of textiles, styles, colours and price ranges. You can choose from silk (various types of silk such as Barnasi silk or Tassel silk) chiffon, crape, cotton, polyester; plain material, material with the prints on it, with rich embroidery, with handwork, with glitter. This variety along with the price range from 150 Rs to 6000+ Rs gives you a mind-blowing number of choices.
What a saree shop looks like. It’s a long corridor-like room with shelves stuffed with the piles of sarees along all the walls. On a low podium right next to the shelves the salesmen would seat. They would invite you to seat on a bench in front of them and ask about your saree aspirations. According to those (sometimes – not really according) they would pull out all kinds of sarees for you. So, you seat, look, touch, try, discuss and bargain – and it may lasts for ages so fetched you get by the procedure – it’s sort of communicating with the ancient Hindu culture and traditions.
If you think you’ve bought a strip of cloth and that is it… you are so mistaken. You’ll also need a blouse to wear under (choli) and a petticoat (such a skirt to fix the saree on your waist). Some sarees have a blouse part - it is to be cut off and brought for stitching. The saree strip itself should be also should be treated a bit. And then more things are coming - matching jewellery….
I cannot wait putting it on ;o)
posted by Olga Tikhonova | 12:08 pm
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