High quality handmade Indian sarees online shopping: Sari might be a fashionable garment now, but it started from being a humble drape used by women thousands of years ago. The origin of the drape or a garment similar to the sari can be traced back to the Indus Valley Civilization, which came into being during 2800–1800 BC in north west India. The journey of sari began with cotton, which was first cultivated in the Indian subcontinent around the 5th millennium BC. The cultivation was followed by weaving of cotton which became big during the era, as weavers started using prevalent dyes like indigo, lac, red madder and turmeric to produce the drape used by women to hide their modesty. Discover even more information on shop Indian sarees online.
Kanjeevaram silk saris originate from Kanchipuram, a temple town in Tamil Nadu, and use a special weaving technique that makes the sari last for generations. The saris have contrasting bright colours with designs of the border and the pallu being different from the body of the sari. The sari has golden weaves and bold, colourful motifs like flowers, peacocks and elephants, says 71-year-old Deepa Sharma from Delhi, who owns Arankri, a 30-year-old establishment that curates handcrafted saris. The Baluchari saris from West Bengal incorporate designs based on mythological stories from the great Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
According to Chishti, there are more than one hundred ways to drape a sari depending on region, fabric, length and width of the garment, and what the wearer might be doing that day. She created a series of videos showcasing dozens of ways to tie one on. “The younger generation wants to be able to experiment with it, to wear it in various ways,” she says. Among the techniques for wearing a sari: the ubiquitous Nivi drape (pleated, wrapped around the waist, with the pallu (the embellished end of the garment) flung over the left shoulder); and the rural Dharampur drape, which cleverly transforms a long rectangle of material into knee-length bloomers. Most sari presentations require a choli (cropped top) and slender half petticoat, the latter often helps to anchor all that textile wrapping and fabric manipulation. Some sari folds need to be held with stitches or pins, others are more free form, like fabric origami for the body.
With the advent of invaders and the subsequent colonization, Indian women and their attire saw a considerable change. Today, a plunging neck or a visible midriff causes aunties and uncles to stop and stare. A deeper understanding of the history of the saree and methods of draping shows how women back then draped their sarees bare-breasted. The norm of wearing blouses only started with the coming of the Mughals. This thought became more pronounced with the British coming in; their idea of the uncivilized and untamed found the rationale for making it compulsory for women to wear blouses.
Most of our products are handcrafted and the weavers have been chosen with care in order to ensure the best quality of handwork is brought to our customers. In fact , some of our empaneled weavers have won awards at the highest national level and have been associated with this work for generations. Our products and weaves are authentic, artisanal and sourced sustainably , curated by Karigars from different parts of India like West Bengal, Varanasi, Rajasthan, Gujarat etc. Find even more details on https://silkpetalss.com/.
The popularity of the sari has a great deal to do with its versatility. The sari can be draped in nearly a hundred ways, allowing the wearer to style it so as to look formal or casual. Most of the drape styles are specific to different regions of India and, just like the food and regional languages, are a result of context, geography and function, explains 39-year-old Malika Verma, co-creator with Rta Kapur Chishti, 72, a sari historian, textile scholar and co-author of Saris: Tradition and Beyond, of the The Sari Series, a series of 84 short films documenting India’s regional sari drapes.