Tulsi Saree and Question on how to wrap wear or drape a saree

Came across a delightful story and question from Gwen Berwick

After a couple of different women helped her put on a saree, she came back to the ashram she is staying in:

I got back to the Ashram and sat down on the porch in front of the Bala Shanti teachers. They all started giggling until finally one of them came up to me and said, “I’ll fix your saree. Come with me.” Again, off comes the saree and this woman goes to work wrapping it a different way, this time less pins and even less folding. It looked different than the way Vinu’s aunt wrapped it, or the woman at the battery shop. Apparently there isn’t one way to wrap a saree.

Yes, there are 150+ different ways of wearing a saree. We at Saree Dreams are working on setting up a wiki to describe each of the wrap in great detail.

And now her question is:

Now that I have been wearing it for a day or so no matter where I am some woman will take me to a corner and readjust my saree. I might know her but usually I don’t. If anyone knows the trick to a universal wrap that all Indian women will feel satisfied with, let me know!

May be it is rhetoric question, but that that never stopped me for answering before.

My thinking is that the other women are not “dissatisfied” with the particular style of wearing a saree; they are probably uncomfortable with the saree that is worn in a particular style but is not draped right.

The Nivi style is the most common style of wearing a saree. But the Nivi style includes a step of making four or five pleats in the front. And these pleats have to be of equal width. So if another woman notices a saree, draped in a Nivi style, but if the pleats are slightly uneven, that would concern her.

Some of it might have to do with the fabric too; some home spun fabrics are hard to manage and require ironing to make sure that the drapes fall where they need to, other types of synthetic fabrics are too “slippery” to manage. You put it on perfectly, walk a few steps and the pleats are no longer the same size anymore!

But the Saree looks great! There is certain sense of calmness that it projects. Thanks for sharing.