A
sari or saree is a strip of unstitched cloth, worn by females, ranging
from four to nine yards in length that is draped over the body in
various styles.[1] It is popular in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan,
Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Burma, and Malaysia. The most common style is for the
sari to be wrapped around the waist, with one end then draped over the
shoulder baring the midriff.
The increased interaction with the British saw most women from royal
families come out of purdah in the 1900s. This necessitated a change of
dress. Maharani Indira Devi of Cooch Behar popularised the chiffon sari.
She was widowed early in life and followed the convention of abandoning
her richly woven Baroda shalus in favour of the traditional unadorned
white. Characteristically, she transformed her ‘mourning’ clothes into
high fashion. She had saris woven in France to her personal
specifications, in white chiffon, and introduced the silk chiffon sari
to the royal fashion repertoire. The chiffon sari did what years of
fashion interaction had not done in India. It homogenised fashion across
this land. Its softness, lightness and beautiful, elegant, caressing
drape was ideally suited to the Indian climate.
Different courts adopted their own styles of draping and indigenizing
the sari. In most of the courts the sari was embellished with stitching
hand-woven borders in goldfrom Varanasi, delicate zardozi work, gota,
makaish and tilla work that embellished the plain fabric, sumiltaneously
satisfying both traditional demands and ingrained love for
ornamentation. Some images of maharanis in the Deccan show the women
wearing a sleeveless, richly embellished waistcoat over their blouses.
The Begum of Savanur remembers how sumptuous the chiffon sari became at
their gatherings. At some courts it was worn with jaali, or net kurtas
and embossed silk waist length sadris or jackets. Some of them were so
rich that the entire ground was embroidered over with pearls and
zardozi.
Because of the harsh extremes in temperature on the Indian Subcontinent,
the sari fills a practical role as well as a decorative one. It is not
only warming in winter and cooling in summer, but its loose-fitting
tailoring is preferred by women who must be free to move as their duties
require. For this reason, it is the costume of choice of air hostesses on Air India.
This lead to a professional style of draping a sari which is referred to Air-Hostess style
sari. An air hostess style sari is tied in just the same way as a
normal sari except that the pleats are held together quite nicely with
the help of pins. A bordered sari will be just perfect for an
Air-Hostess style drape where the pallu is heavily pleated and pinned on
the shoulder. Even the vertical pleats that are tucked at the navel are
severely pleated and pressed. Same goes for the pallu pleats that are
pinned at the shoulder. To get the perfect ‘Air-hostess’ a complimentary
U-shaped blouse that covers the upper body completely is worn which
gives a very elegant and formal look. Mastering the ‘Air-hostess’ style
drape helps to create the desired impact in a formal setting like an
interview or a conference.source
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