The Saree and the Western Woman

Yeah, I second that, deepa. I love sarees,too. Never thought that would happen; when younger it was just something one did,occasionally, for weddings and so on, and while it was fun, and as you said, a crazy feminine bonding experience, I never thought I would actually get to a stage where I would choose to wear sarees just like that, for an ordinary working day. But increasingly, find myself doing so.

Another peculiarity ,perhaps its one of those archetypes of our collective subconscious,is that the saree seems to give women in india more credibility and authority. Maybe thats why older women gravitate naturally to it.

I think Saree is most underrated. No, it is not just a dress. It is an elaborate costume and it can make any ordinary woman look extra-ordinary. It can lend poise, dignity, beauty, royality and sensuality like no other. It must have been invented as a dress worthy for Goddesses or royal queens - it is that elegant and royal. Unfortunately, it is so much hassle for practical day to day choir. It suits more for special occasions where one has to look like a queen or somebody special. However on some women, it does not suit at all - some of them look like a monkey draped in a curtain. But luckily, sarees come in so many fabrics and colors and patterns and wearing styles, everybody can find one that suits their body-types.

I have seen white women in sarees and they simply look stunningly in them. Even ordinary bland sarees look so extra ordinary on them. I have seen some of the Hare Krishna lady devotees in simple saffron saris and they do very look good in them. Imagine what some of the fancy colorful sarees could do for them. The colors and the fabrics can naturally blend so well with their skin tone. I would definitely recommend it to any white lady.

sartorial elegance cannot be divorced from culture...and the body language that culture germinates

a person from a different culture will find it almost impossible to carry with grace the sartorial elegance of another culture

how many can wear a kimono with grace?

and a digression: saree is graceful but not even all indian ladies can wear it gracefully

Temp: hahhahaha...yes, some Indian women wear saris most disgracefully. :-)

Deepa, great article. Reminded me of something I read a long time ago..took me a while to figure out where but here it goes:

http://www.sawf.org/newedit/edit04012002/index.asp

Seems its a particularly Indian ritual/grace/ or tradition. Kind of like the kimono....

Nandita Das in a saree is the ultimate turn-on for me

The woman on the book cover "How to Salsa in a Saree" displayed on the home page is an example of how to wear the saree in the most repugnant fashion.

She seems to be wearing the saree backwards.. and although the blouse is correct, her upper torso anatomy seems to be backwards as well

Ah Ledzius, you've now hit that *other* thing that sarees need - flesh! Traditional saree blouses don't work for flat chested women. For maximum effect, you have to sort of *pour* out of the blouse like the heroines of Malayalam porn.

Or just like the "dhak dhak" girl...one reason Indian screen idols are "well-endowed." Lol....

I am a "western woman", of a WASPish ethnicity, who lives in a small town in New England, USA, and I own 30 or so sarees. I love them beyond anything else I own, and I have been wearing them in the privacy of my home for a few years. I have Chantal Boulager's book on saree drapes, which I pour over and study, practicing each drape and family of drapes over and over. I love all the things about them that you touched on in your article, plus, I don't know, they make me supremely happy. I have also bangles and jewelry, which is also part of the experience of putting on a saree. It has taken me a bit of time to understand the aliveness of a saree on your body, it is not like jeans and a Tshirt that you put on and it's over - with a saree you are constantly in a state of, as you said, awareness of the cloth on you and it's dance around your body. I once last summer got brave and wore a very modest one to the local grocery, and everyone thought I was going to a wedding, or they were startled and didn't know where to look. Obviously, very little exposure to South Asian culture here. I dream of one day being somewhere in the presence of other saree-wearing women who will not take issue with the fact that I am not South Asian by birth or culture, but just love the amazing wonderfulness of the saree. Thank you for a wonderful article.

Jennifer,

I've never attempted a saree, but I applaud you on wearing yours to the grocery store in the US. If I ever wear a shalwar quameez outside, I get some very sharp double takes from Eastern women, like they've never seen a white woman before.
Besides that, there are some things I am pretty content in not adopting of desi culture, I'm superbly comfortable in my jeans.

lovely article, deepa. every Gurupoornima, we have hundreds of American women who line up literally(!) and we Indian women help them with wrapping the 6 yards of cloth.

I disagree about the difficulty of handling the sari for a more "active" lifestyle. On the contrary, I learned to catch a bus, running after it, in a sari!! It is certainly a versatile piece of clothing and most pragmatic.

My school kids are used to seeing me in a sari and think I am a princess or something!! Thak God for living in the bay Area, the sari nor the djabla is out of place here.

lovely article, deepa. every Gurupoornima, we have hundreds of American women who line up literally(!) and we Indian women help them with wrapping the 6 yards of cloth.

I disagree about the difficulty of handling the sari for a more "active" lifestyle. On the contrary, I learned to catch a bus, running after it, in a sari!! It is certainly a versatile piece of clothing and most pragmatic.

My school kids are used to seeing me in a sari and think I am a princess or something!! Thak God for living in the bay Area, neither the sari nor the djabla is out of place here.

I am, and have always been, comfortable in saree. I am not sure that all western women have the same gait... I mean, I think it really does vary by individual. I do think it takes a certain grace to wear saree well.. you have to alter your pace and your posture and not everyone can do it. it is certainly an elegant and beautiful dress *if* you can wear it properly.

so temporal, I really disagree with you. I think it is easy to assume that someone from another culture would not be able to pull it off, but if you need proof I would be happy to show you my wedding video. everyone commented that I looked as if I had been wearing one all my life... no issues even going up and down stairs.

that being said I have seen quite a few women in india who did not wear their sarees well...

ss:

so temporal, I really disagree with you.

no you don't;)

this is what i wrote:

a person from a different culture will find it almost impossible to carry with grace the sartorial elegance of another culture

Temp bhai, it works in reverse too...despite the large numbers of desi women living in North America and Europe, very few (first generation ones) manage to wear western clothes with the same elan and glamour as western (regardless of race) women. I have seen the most stunningly beautiful Indian women wearing the most horrible, dowdy (even though expensive) business suits and dresses.

And yes it has to do with the posture, gait, pace and understanding of culture again. And that is always a two way street....

Hi Deepa, I totally agree with your observations and also what you told your American friend. I guess most clothes need some getting used to and the saree isn't like the salwar kameez (essentially pants and a long shirt) or the lehenga (like you said, a skirt and blouse). I saw a photograph in the news recently of some of the top international sports stars, all clad in sarees for their India visit. It was charming but even in a still pic, it was quite obvious that they weren't Indians - not from the colour of their skin but by the way they carried themselves. Body language is unique to cultures and I guess the Indian body language carries off a saree to perfection - after all the garment was designed for it!

Sarees are quite fashionable especially for weddings and also for the really ultra-formal corporate meetings. The Indian women in these settings are as confident as their Western counterparts but somehow, something just is...different. I guess we all learn to carry our heads and bodies from our moms and that doesn't change with haircuts, degrees or passports.

Today's Hindu carried a photograph of the Williams sisters and jelena Jankovich in sarees. They really proved that wearing a sari requires a different body posture. Venus was easily the most graceful, the other two looked rather ill at ease, and the shoulders squared, athlectic stance just didn't set off the sari right on them.

Anamika:

""I have seen the most stunningly beautiful Indian women wearing the most horrible, dowdy (even though expensive) business suits and dresses. ""

Ditto for men, not used to wearing suits...body-language, co-ordination etc. etc.

The other thing that struck me is that we seem to notice the mis-steps and awkwardness more if persons who are not "normally" supposed to be wearing particular clothes, wear them. I mean, there are many Indian women who look a bit strange in sarees and the many western women who look awkward in business suits, but somehow it does not register (on my brains at least) so much as when it is the reverse...

ana #16

but of course!

and as cs points out, this extends to men too:)

Agreed - and no better illustration than Shri H.D. Deve Gowda whose outfits for his Russia trip were soooooo ill-fitting and odd that one couldn't have invented them. My favourite - the scarf tied around his head and ears to give him bunny ears! :-)

time and perspective kiddo;)

see amitabh in those yard wide bell bottoms?

or

sharmila with the 'nest' in her hair?

T

I grew up with Bata sandals and slippers, and till day hardbor ackwardness wearing shoes. Shoes suddenly exaggerate my walk and I feel so self-conscious that it totally distorts my normal walk. Ever seen those tall-looking circus freaks on tall trousers wobble walk to amuse the crowd? That is exactly I look in shoes. Remember the bell-bottom and high heel shoes era of 70's? Well, I owned the widest bell-bottom pants and tallest high heel shoes than and I had all the girls ogling and giggling at me - I thought it must be my handsome looks and charm until few people pointed out how silly I walked with those shoes. Till date, I avoid wearing shoes whenever I can get away with it, and remove them at the first opportunity.

HEY! Dont knock Amitabh and his bell bottoms! OR the stripy jacket from Muqaddar ka Sikandar! Or the white suits from Sharaabi! He made them look COOL! :-)

oops!

someone has a latent crush on big b;)

***

kerty thanks for your comments...perhaps you should see a podiatrist...may alleviate your condition

temp... #21.... OMG like desi guys who come to the west and figure the tight pants thing will work here too and then buy the tightest fitting jeans or suit pants imaginable and then wonder why ppl are staring?

:)))

ss:

hehheh!

don't get me started on that

sheesh

the colour combo
ties
striped ties with striped shirts with striped suits
joggers or casuals with suits
suit labels displayed on the sleeves
oxford shirt with unbuttoned collar

see what you started?

and a digression:

women watch NFL games for the sleek "uniform"

Temp bhai - Latent crush? Hah! I am a bona-fide child of the 70s...even today my wardrobe references Bianca Jagger and Zeenat Aman. So why ever not a crush on AB - but the 1970s, pre-Coolie one only please? ;-)

Re particular "national" styles: you can always tell an American in London. They are the only ones wearing huge trainers (sneakers) with everything. And all their clothes seem to be one size too large and cut extra baggy - sort of an American version of pind-style salwar/kameez. And then they wonder why they get identified...lol!

Oh and even 50 year olds wear university sweatshirts! And often put their toddlers in matching ones. SS - any explanations for this specific phenomenon?

Re: Indian women: my pet peeve is women who throw on the worst, bulkiest, most horribly knitted cardigan over a beautiful (albeit badly tied) sari. And of course the cardigan colours clash with the sari! In London, the Bangladeshis seem to be the greatest culprits for this particular crime.

And the insistence on wearing strappy horrible sandals even when its zero degrees outside. Nothing wrong with closed shoes with sari or salwar/kameez, you know. But I see it all the time in London and back home too. So this one obviously is international faux pas.

We have Anamika, Annamma, and Anona here together.. with SS thrown in now for good measure..

This gotta get interesting..

anamika...wish I knew what that was about... my normally sartorially un-challenged father greeted me at the airport in a sweatshirt from my undergrad days so long ago that I think I might have forgotten where it is located... thank god there is no Georgetown sweatshirt as yet for the baby.

people in the US are fiercely proud of their alma mater. I could not give a shit myself, but...

That bulky cardigan thing drives me bat shit. esp when coupled with woolen socks and sandals in the winter. I even saw one granny hike up her kancheepuram to reveal long underwear. too cute!


temp... oh, the lovely tendency of mixing prints that simply don't go together... HEY! let's wear plaid pants and a flowery shirt! but that tight pants thing makes me cringe.

AND OMG! PLEASE! someone needs to tell the newly immigrated to take that tag off the sleeve of the blazer. I know it's nice for everyone to see you just got your first hugo boss or whatever, but that is supposed to come off before you wear it. oh yeah, and please cut the threads that sew your pockets together before the first wearing :))))

as for americans... we're a lot that simply cannot dress for the most part. if you see a moron in shorts in the dead of winter... american. someone wearing black sneakers? (ugh)... american. someone who weighs a good 90 kgs wearing a skimpy tank top? american. squeezed into low rise jeans that are 14 sizes too small sporting "muffin tops" that any baker would be jealous of? definitely american. someone that interprets "formal dress" as khakis with no real visible tears and any old shirt with buttons... you got it, american.

@ Anamika: Think that could be a cultural thing? Here in India, western formal wear doesn't follow the same rules. Open sandals are perfectly permissible in a business environment. Personally I loathe footwear but have to wear it for obvious reasons. I prefer open sandals anyday...the weather is just too hot. And while I wear shoes, sneakers et al, I can identify with kerty's discomfort. I'm most happy to shuck my footwear and go barefoot if I can.

SS:

"..but that tight pants thing makes me cringe.""

I fear that some guys dressed like this are on the fast-track to auto-castration..

SS:

""AND OMG! PLEASE! someone needs to tell the newly immigrated to take that tag off the sleeve of the blazer.""

A bit too late I think! It is now a part of "the style"...as in "arrey, yeh label kyon kaat diyaa"??!!

SS:

""someone that interprets "formal dress" as khakis with no real visible tears and any old shirt with buttons... you got it, american.""

hey, but that's what I like about the american style! the unpretentious, cleans lines of a calvin klein etc. as opposed to the slightly ornamental italian (sorry SS, you are somewhere in between) designers. I don't mean the orange "american pants" (nylon), with a parrot green tank-top and runners...but the the "smart casual" klein or lauren look that is at home everywhere...

SS,

That muffin-shop should somehow be legislated away, as it is too gross. In the 70's the police in some parts of india used to shred bell-bottoms worn by guys and also sheared their long tresses for good measure.

Anamika: your decripition of some of the bulky cardigans over beautiful sarees is so funny and on the mark...i hadn't noticed it earlier...yesterday i saw some saree pallu dragging a meter or so...

oops, muffin-TOP it should be, not muffin-shop..

common... no no, I am not talking about the smartly styled khakis made for business casual looks that can be nicely worn with just about anything and dressed up or down. I am talking about a beat up, ill-fitting pair of $20 Dockers (pleat front! gasp! someone PLEASE OUTLAW PLEATED TROUSERS!!!!) picked out of the laundry bag and paired with some ungodly shirt.

yes, there are some great american designers (and tommy hilfiger is not one of them)... and some americans can dress well... but then there are ppl like my uncle who seems to have never met a pair of saucony sneakers he did not like and you could not introduce him to kenneth cole on a dare.

"PLEASE OUTLAW PLEATED TROUSERS!!!!"

Amen!!

IdeaSmith, issue isn't formal wear but the fact that women come up to the hills wearing strappy sandals when their toes are about ready to fall off with frost-bite.

Unfortunately my home in India is also one of the traditional honeymoon destinations and every newly wed plains couple seems to nurture a private Roja fantasy. So up the hill they come, the man in wool coats, jumpers, closed shoes with thick socks (probably a sartorial disaster but hey, at least he is warm). The women show up alongside in saris (with the aforementioned nasty cardigan) and strappy shoes! Then they walk around, him with his chest stuck out in pride (and obviously warm), her huddling down to a bundle with the cold. And most likely they go home with her missing a few toes.

SS - yes, all those crimes! Sigh...also what is it that American women have with "flowing" dresses when (especially) when they are the size of a tank? I agree btw - BAN PLEATED TROUSERS! Or actually those extra long ones that seem to approximate patiala salwars on guys - hello, get them cut and hemmed to size, boys.