WHITHER THE SAREE ?????
WHITHER THE SAREE ?
Whoever invented the
Saree as a dress for Indian women ,must have had some ideas in his or her mind, one of which
was certainly that it should adequately
cover a woman’s body in such a way that
the draper’s body was sufficiently
protected with layers of cloth
apart from concealing of the vital statistics !!
The six yard cloth has been evolving over the
years. The traditional saree is the six
yards of cloth draped with pleats
in front and a pallav which would fall over the left shoulder which if
considered necessary could be drawn behind over the head or under the
neck to the right shoulder thus giving adequate cover to the body.There were
minor deviations in the drape like the
Gujerathi style of having the Pallav
draped around the right shoulder
to fall in front and the Coorgi style
of draping the entire pallav around the body with a bit falling from the right shoulder.
Of course there were the nine yards
version popularly used in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Essentially
the saree was considered as a very graceful dress ,adequate
for covering the modesty of a woman..
Over the years the Saree had its own evolution. In the early
years the Pallav was gathered into
unorganized pleats and pinned to the shoulder with a brooch. The brooches
came in various shapes sizes and inlaid with
precious stones and what not ,proclaiming to the world the status of the
wearer. In the fifties and sixties it became fashionable to leave the pallav
free over the left hand in a spread to
display the beauty of the pallav design. Then the film stars started
pinning the lower border of the beginning of the pallav near the
waist thus displaying the shape of the
waist and hips, albeit fully covered. Subsequently the saree which used to be
draped much above the navel , slid down to inches below, obviously to reveal
the flabless flawless midriff of the
wearer !! In the Sixties,the length of
the Pallav was reduced drastically
to make it seem almost an appendage on the left side of the woman’s body
! Came the Eighties and the fashion of pleated
pallavs ,pinned to the shoulder ,long
enough to almost touch the ground, commenced .(It may be stated with due
respect that all these changes were
first effected by our Bollywood heroines from whom it percolated
down to the “Aam sthree “)
Along with the changes in the draping of the
saree , changes in the style of the choli ( blouse ) worn with the saree , was also taking
place.While the initial days saw the blouse length upto the
hips and almost tucked into the
petticoat, with short sleeves and puffed
sleeves, in due course the length of the
blouse kept reducing perhaps to enable the wearers reveal their waist. In the sixties the length of the
sleeves kept increasing almost below the
elbow.The seventies showed a reverse trend. The sleeve length went back to the earlier short and
puffed styles
to return to the longer length in the nineties !! The
beginning of the 21st century again saw the reduction in length almost to the point
of being sleeveless .( it may be
mentioned that the actual sleeveless blouses were ever in vogue among the upper class and elite even from the fifties
). Now the fashion has almost come full
circle and any lengths are the in thing
as far as the choli sleeve is concerned
The shape of the necks of blouses
also kept changing from closed necks in the fifties and earlier to round necks, boat necks, deep necks , back to
closed necks in between in keeping with the fashion of the sleeves. But
the blouse which was used to cover the chest of the wearers has now
gained more importance than the saree and it would appear that the saree
is just an appendage to show case the
beautifully designed blouses, especially
in the front. The Saree covers the body ,only waist down. The pallav
which once was used to cover the upper
half of the body is now used to
accentuate the chest portion .Either the
saree is so transparent to reveal the beautifully designed cholis or
the saree is draped in such a way that
the chest portion of the blouse (however
brief the blouse is !!) is revealed. In
fact, often the way the saree is being draped now a days by the elite and celebrities
,it would not look like a saree at
all .The Pallav is tucked in such a way to reveal more than to
cover . It may need a closer look to actually understand that the person is wearing a saree! One would
feel that it would have been better for the wearer to just wear a pretty petticoat and semblance of
a choli !! The way it is draped ,more to
reveal than to hide ,is an insult
to the saree .The inventors of the
Indian saree must be turning in their
graves!
I don’t think that any other national dress of any other country
would have gone through so many changes. We Indians are obsessed with western
fashions. We are literally their slaves
when it comes to dress styles. The
majority of our celebrities and socialites
wear Western Gowns for grand occasions ,dinner parties and the like .That is better
than mutilating our Saree to make it
look western . I would call it a double standard of the wearers. They want
to make it look as though they are still
Indian but at the same time modern- for them Modern is the synonym for the
western fashions. Many women would I am
sure, agree with me when I say that the saree is in fact a beautiful dress and
if draped well looks very graceful and sexy too ! Revealing
all is not the only way to look sexy- concealing much also is !!! It evokes curiosity and imagination !!
Long live the Saree in its
traditional form!
