A work week in saris

The last week was a hectic week with several meetings and travel thrown in … but also a very satisfying week spent in beautiful saris. Here’s the week in saris –

25-07-2016 – A Kanchi cotton to stay cool.

This is a Co-optex Kanchi cotton that I am wearing. Awesome cotton and it kept me cool in the “muggy” “sweaty” humid weather on the way to Delhi and in Delhi too. We were driving back from Hyderabad and the Monday was spent in coming from Sagar (M.P) to Gurgaon. This picture is taken at Mukesh Yadav’s house near the Babina toll plaza where we were waiting for our special tea. Amma is wearing a Kumaran stores soft cotton and some rayon/art silk mix sari. Its a workhorse sari – never crumples.

This Co-optex Kanchi cotton is woven by Kalaimathi and I want to thank her for weaving this beautiful sari. I am glad that technology and Venkatesh Narasimhan’s brilliant idea of putting the weaver’s card on the saris help me connect with the weaver. I enjoyed wearing this sari and will cherish it for many many summers. Thank you, Kalaimathi. 

26-07-2016 A blue beauty

Geetu my dearest school friend gifted this sari to Mom and I borrowed it…. its not mom’s favourite colour and I love the colour. Geetu bought it at Jijamata Handloom. Its super soft and a great drape, apparently a south Indian weave. Neither Geetu nor I are very sure of the type of weave though. Krishnan and I had a meeting that day and it was perfect for that. The neckpiece is from Desh Maheshwari, Lapiz Lazuli beads. I am wearing a Khunn blouse.

27-07-2016 A special gift from my girl child

Madhavi Nair, hope you remember this sari. This was a gift from you and your team for my birthday in 2003 and I still remember how miffed you were when I paid for it :). Thank you for making the effort to get this printed and I wear it a couple of times every summer and remember those fun days. Amazingly detailed block printing and the cotton is of great quality. The neckpiece is an Adorjo creation and the blouse is a Khunn.

28-07-2016 A Jaipur chiffon

The striped chiffon is a Jaipur sari. For a couple of years I would land up at this store called “Durga Textiles” in Bapu Bazaar and buy these beautiful saris, several tie n dyes, bandhinis, bandhejs, silk, leheriyas etc. I haven’t visited the store in nearly four years now, and hope to rectify the situation soon. I have a black one in the same design and its an all time favourite of mine. Wore this to our meeting with Buddy4Study and it was a lucky sari, as we escaped the rain troubles that day.

This sari was made even more special because the neckpiece is made by my dearest Advisor Aaliyah for me. Its sun stone beads that I had bought at the Cottage Emporium and gave them to Nisha to make something nice. Well, it was extra special when Aal made this for me.

29-07-2016 A silk sari from Dhaka

Krishnan went to Bangladesh in 2004, while he was working with the USAID project and picked up a few saris for me. This was one of them. Its handwoven soft silk and the pallu motifs are beautiful. The combination of baby pink and white borders is just outstanding. I do have the white blouse that it came with, but paired it with a Khunn this time.

Time spent in beautiful saris is just wonderful time for me. Looking forward to the National Handloom day on Aug 7th and hope to celebrate that by converting a few of my friends to handlooms and of course wearing one myself !