6 yard wonder

Women in Chennai love sarees! Isn’t that statement synonymous to kids love chocolate? The annoyingly ubiquitous salwar kameez ( popularly known as ‘chudidhaar’)  may have invaded Chennai in the past decade, cutting across age, economic status and class, but yet, thankfully the 6 yard wonder has retained its iconic status. 

 In Chennai, we wear our sarees with pride. We wear them to weddings, kutcheries, temples, functions, malls and cinemas. Never mind if they are cumbersome to drape, difficult to wash, even more difficult to starch and iron, expensive to dry-clean and not terribly convenient to travel in. Nothing like a crisp cotton saree worn with a smart blouse to work. Or an elegant chiffon to a party. Or a dressy kanjeevaram to a wedding.  Or a classic tussar or raw silk to a recital.

No matter how many sarees we own, we women still hanker for more ( atleast I do!). Why can’t we have enough of them? If we do, I guess all the huge silk emporiums that cram around Pondy bazaar and Panagal park making the area a traffic nightmare will be out of business. As if this was not enough, whenever there is an exhibition in town that lures us with advertisements of  ‘exclusive sarees’  from a particular state or a top notch designer, we women make a bee line for it.  Then there are the weavers and traders who come home selling a particular genre of sarees, stacked neatly in huge bundles or suitcases that they painstakingly unpack and spread out on the floor to show us. Trouble is, while we can breeze in and out of a huge shop staffed with nonchalant employees who can barely hide their exasperation as they ‘show’ you sarees you will never buy, we somehow feel sorry to turn away these vendors who come home with their collections. Just that the huge amount of effort and time they spend in displaying and the earnestness in the whole exercise touches us and we don’t have the heart to turn them away without making a small purchase, which may not even be worthwhile. 

Sarees have become more expensive, like everything else. A good silk saree costs a few thousand rupees and the price varies according to the place of purchase. There are designer sarees, that claim to be one of a kind, which means no one else is likely to own the same. Which also means they come with a heavy price tag. There are high end boutiques with their swanky ambience and hour glass mannequins draped enticingly in sarees ( at times outlandish) beckoning us to step in and take a look. I usually just take a look. Boutiques are exorbitant and understandably so, for they pay a premium to run a store in a good neighbourhood that can afford those prices.

What about the blouse? Back then, sarees never came with an attached blouse piece. One had to scout for a matching blouse piece in a cut piece store, saree in hand, choosing between shades of the same colour holding the saree next to them, at times checking them out in sunlight to ensure we get it right. But then, we could come home and find the blouse a shade darker or lighter, but can’t do much about it. There wasn’t too much of a choice anyway, just pure silk, cotton and two by two ( whatever that means!!). And we had to make up our minds if we wanted a blouse that matched the saree, border or pallu....tough call. We would always end up feeling our choice could have been better.

Now, life is easier. Blouses come attached with the saree, saving us so much bother. Blouse pieces come with embroidery, mirror work, patch work, sequins and borders that can be mixed and matched with any saree to enhance it’s appeal.  There are ready- made blouses aplenty too. The heavily padded ones are in vogue now, dispensing with the need for, you know what. They are convenient two- in- ones ( pun unintended!), as one can flaunt a backless, shoulder-less, neck-less blouse, without worrying about a strap peeping at the inappropriate place.  Just wear one piece and bingo!

 However, tailoring a blouse has never been more challenging, what with myriad patterns, varied designs and designer tailors who charge an arm and a leg for a good fit. But we are not complaining. After all, anything for a good blouse, even if we finally end up spending more on the blouse than the saree itself!  And it is an undisputed fact that a smartly sewn blouse will embellish even an ordinary saree and an ill fitting one would ruin a gorgeous saree.

Young women now pride themselves on never being able to wear a saree. Too elaborate, too inconvenient, too cumbersome. They are better off with their jeans and tees or kurtis. But they are all missing a point. The saree is the most elegant costume, flattering the feminine form like none other. It can be at once sensuous and modest, showing off the midriff and a little or lot of the waist. It can be teamed with a blouse to make a fashion statement.  And there are different ways of wearing it, as each woman renders her own unique style to it, in the way she drapes it and carries it off. 

Now tell me another costume that can match up?