Handmade Indian sarees shopping today: Sari might be a fashionable garment now, but it started from being a humble drape used by women thousands of years ago. The origin of the drape or a garment similar to the sari can be traced back to the Indus Valley Civilization, which came into being during 2800–1800 BC in north west India. The journey of sari began with cotton, which was first cultivated in the Indian subcontinent around the 5th millennium BC. The cultivation was followed by weaving of cotton which became big during the era, as weavers started using prevalent dyes like indigo, lac, red madder and turmeric to produce the drape used by women to hide their modesty. Read even more details at shop Indian sarees online.

Each region brings forth a trunk full of saris, with a strong identity and their own traditional designs, motifs, and colours, says 73-year-old Laila Tyabji, co-founder of Dastkar, an NGO established in 1981 that supports traditional Indian craftspeople. Even from village to village, there is a different weave. Every sari has a story about the society and the people around it. It is a history book that tells you about the region, the community, the craftsmen, and the geography of the place. The famous brocades from the ancient city of Banaras, with intricate designs and detailed embroidery using gold and silver threads, take their name from the city and evolved during Mughal rule over India. To this day a Banarasi sari is a must-have in an Indian bride’s trousseau.

Tourists, locals, and bridal parties hunt for saris in the shops that seem to line every azure alley in Jodhpur or buzzing street in Mumbai. You’ll find them at grander, more expensive boutiques such as Delhi’s Ekaya Banaras, known for its handloomed silks and support of over 8,000 Banaras weavers, or Chennai’s Nalli, open since 1928, and sprawled over two floors of an Art Deco building in the T. Nagar neighborhood. Wherever they go, sari browsers find themselves overwhelmed by candy-colored stacks of neatly folded silks, cottons, and chiffons. A sari can be had for as little as $20 from a street seller or as much as $10,000 for a Banarasi beauty. “When you buy a sari, it’s usually a long process—you get the sari fabric at one store, have a blouse tailored somewhere else, and purchase a petticoat at yet another store,” says Sethi. It’s a complex dance through stores and tailors to score a sari, and not an item of clothing you throw on quickly. “But its a piece of fabric that has become iconic, and there are so many variations,” says Sethi. “Saris are so important, and certainly worthy of a celebration.”

History shows one such incident involving Jnanadanandini Debi, the wife of Satyendranath Tagore, brother of the famous Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, who was denied access to a club because of her “untamed” ways of dressing. What strikes here is an opposite scenario in Victorian Britain where women fought to liberalize themselves from the rigidity of Victorian corsets, both literally and metaphorically. The recent phenomenon of “free the nips” or “no bra club” shows how women in liberal democracies are still fighting the battle for the desexualisation of breasts. What the global north is still fighting to achieve was found inherently in the ways Indian society, especially women, used to express themselves.

Silk Petalss was born from a career Investment Professional’s love for the rich heritage of Indian handcrafted textiles and artefacts. Her admiration for the beautiful heritage weaves and products saw her travelling widely through interior villages and towns of India, interacting with the weaving community and understanding their perspective and concerns. Awareness about their issues, specifically post Covid19, the need to protect the community and our rich heritage led to Silk Petalss being created. See additional info at https://silkpetalss.com/.

That a long, unstitched rectangular garment used to drape the female form for 5,000 years and worn every day by hundreds of millions of women from the Indian subcontinent flourishes as a fashion choice of the 21st century woman makes the story of the sari a fascinating one. The earliest records of a garment similar to the sari can be traced back to the Indus Valley Civilisation that flourished between 2800 and 1800BC in what is today northwest India. The word sari is believed to be derived from a Sanskrit word meaning strip of cloth.