Sarees for Wedding Season

Wedding season is in the air. Every time I step outside I hear drums and wedding bands playing. In case you didn’t know, it is common to hire a brass band to play at your wedding. They band members wear uniforms that resemble the ones my high school marching band used to wear and they play lively Bollywood hits. The biggest sign that it is wedding season is that all of the homes of people tying the knot are lit up, inside and out, with twinkle lights. It almost feels like Christmas time, but not quite.

Anyway, in light of the season, here are a few interesting wedding saree designs that I’ve picked out from vasansi.com’s new wedding collection.

I love the long sleeved blouse and the vibrant orange-pink combination. $71.28

A soothing sea green faux georgette saree with a classy resham and gotta border. Again, I love the color combination. $78.04

There is a lot going on with this saree but it meshes together nicely. The vivid colors and detailing would make any lady stand out in a crowd. The cut of the blouse is also unique and flattering. $228.82

VYsaree – an ode to saree

The saree ode from VYSaree:

You come..

with eyes sparkling and smile scintillating

with voice lilting and long tresses mellowing

you come… my lady… in a saree.. and tickle my senses

With robe beautifying and fabric fascinating

with drapery stupefying and the look mesmerizing

you come, my lady… in a saree and tickle my senses

With flesh gleaming and curves captivating

with folds melting; themselves surrendering

you come.. my lady .. in a saree and tickle my sense..

Source VYSarees.com

About $1800, if money matters to you.

I’ll post pictures from their fashion show over the next week or so.

Second hand saree buying in Jodhpur

Lmlangf in A year in the thar desert – heat, sand, and lassis in india writes about the second hand saree purchase in Jodhpur.

something else i love about india: the secondhand sari vendors in the clock tower market of the old city. sometimes on sundays smita and i indulge ourselves by jumping in an autorickshaw and making our way to the crazy, chaotic, psychedelic city center in the afternoon heat, beelining our way through the fruit and vegetable stands, the little displays of pots and pans and buckets, the slick young guys touting bootleg bollywood DVDs, straight to the half-dozen or so staid-looking women sitting with their legs pretzeled up around them behind neatly-stacked rows of secondhand saris laid out on a blanket. they always keep their poker faces on when they see us coming, but usually the initial realization (“it’s them!”) that flickers in their eyes as we approach is hard to miss. we must be their best customers. for our part, we always saunter up casually, greeting them with even-toned “namastes,” nonchalantly eyeing their wares with an all-too-calculated air of indifference, carefully restraining ourselves from jumping at the first gorgeous silk piece that catches our eye.

we buy these saris for a variety of different reasons. some are just intoxicatingly beautiful silk of colors so rich you cannot believe that they can possibly be captured on a fabric so delicate, pinks and blues and yellows and greens, with intricate silver handwoven brocade that calls to mind the corridors and passageways of eternal mazes of flowers. others look like they would make pretty sweet apartment curtains, although to date i’ve only been bothered to sit down and hand-sew one set of them (a sky blue adorned with flowers and peacocks, which isn’t nearly as tacky as it sounds, and flutters nicely under the fan in my living room). others, usually nice cotton ones still in good condition (no rips, holes, or bloodstains – i’m not kidding), we actually wear (after a thorough hand-washing up on my sunny balcony, of course). since lately i’ve fallen into the habit of wearing saris like they’re going out of style (which believe me, they are definitely not), i’m always up for another nice light one that will swath me through another mindnumbingly hot desert day.

it’s easy enough to find a ready-made petticoat which will match the sari, but the blouse is a whole different story. first you have to find a matching center that has an array of colored fabrics that you can choose from for a color which will match the sari. then you buy that material and take it somewhere else to a tailor (neither sari shops nor matching centers actually have tailors). here you drop it off, describe the type of blouse that you want (deep-necked, belted, shorter sleeves, etc…a vast variety of options that mean a difference of perhaps one or two inches of fabric in the overall design of a blouse), he takes your measurements, and then you wait anywhere from a week to a month until the tailor feels like giving it to you, which is never, ever, don’t even dream it, on the day that he originally told you it would be..

It is really unfortuate that the second hand saree concept or “exchanging” saree idea t has not taken a foothold in Indian main stream. It’s high time!

There is so much that can be done to give a face lift to a saree, especially with prevailing fashion sense where exactly matching blouse is not necessary for the saree ensemble to be complete.

At times, I have thought about a sari exchange web site. Oh well.. it will happen when the time is ripe.

Wordless Wednesday: So many sarees and so little time!

Skill set of a good saree salesman

Rohit Mahajan described the skill set a great saree salesman possesses. Many of these skills are necessary for any sales job, but with sarees, your arsenal is infinite, which makes the task a tad more challenging.

The protagonist of this scene is the man who is making the sale, … his job specification/responsibilities is/are quite enormous. If i could list them in a bulleted form, the following would be his process of sale:

* Ask the customer about their preference of style/range/fabric
* Show them some sarees, and try convincing them on as many as possible
* When you have reached the point where the women have still not shown that glint in their eye, bring that “special” saree which you think would make them nudge from their “not buying” status.
* Once you know that they are definitely gonna pick up “atleast” one, confuse them with colours and variety, and constantly argue about how they are letting go of an absolute marvel, which
would have gelled perfectly with their personality.
* Not even once in this entire process could you allow your eyes to take off from theirs, because your actions/suggestions should follow the customer’s reactions (and eyes tell them all )
* During the process, if the women are talking between themselves, use all your energy (and if possible, science ) to hear as to what is their point of worry/confusion/deliberation and strcuture your sale according to that.
* If they have started to pick some sarees from the lot, consider it a positive sign, and try convincing them to pick up as many as u can.
* Once they are done with the filtering, and you see that it might be possible that they buy more than one, start praising each one in their own light, and make them buy quite a lot of them
* If you see that they have made up their mind on buying just 1, be smart and advice them to pick up the expensive one (which should obviously look good at them)

Whoo! What a task! I was awestruck by the skill set that the salesman possessed.

Bagru Print Kota Doria Saree

Ravishing Radiance: A woman looks complete with an ounce of confidence, a touch of sensuality and when she is clothed in the comforting adornments that reflect her traditional values. Think you can be that woman? Then here is an outfit to look out for. A sari featuring Bagru print in light orange. Blossom like a flower on a sunny afternoon as you radiate the magic of this outfit wherever you go. This hand block printed saree with vegetable dyes in bagru print comes without a blouse piece.

Not bad for $20. From BsBazaar.

Precocious little girl in a pink Saree (sari)

A precocious little girl in a saree.

I really think we should start having little girls wear sarees at special occasion; they should learn how to wear a saree at a very early age, probably at the same time as they learn to tie shoe laces.

Product Page about Rs. 5,000 $120