[vc_row njt-role=”people-in-the-roles” njt-role-user-roles=”administrator,editor,author,armember”][vc_column][vc_column_text]
The Indian sari is undergoing a veritable revolution as a fashion accessory. Its formerly unorganized market is now growing and structuring, while the major luxury brands are seizing on this trend. A veritable fashion phenomenon, the Indian sari now combines tradition and innovation, with daring designs and surprising combinations.
Over the last ten years, the sari, that long piece of cloth that wraps around the body, has undergone an evolution unprecedented in its five millennia of history. The Offbeat Sari exhibition at London’s Design Museum illustrates the renewed interest in this traditional garment. It brings together over 90 iconic saris from studios and innovative designers across India, including the very first sari worn at the Met Gala and an aluminum jersey sari worn by Lady Gaga.
It was in 2015, when she met designers in Delhi who were transforming the sari, that Priya Khanchandani, curator of the exhibition, became aware of this movement.
“I saw the sari reborn as an everyday garment, but in a very fashionable way. Younger women were starting to wear it”, she recounts. “Often intellectuals, writers and artists, who were wearing it in a way I hadn’t expected.”
Previously reserved for special events and weddings, the sari has reinvented itself as a garment suitable for everyday life, even when paired with T-shirts and sneakers. The rise of mass consumption and social networking in India, combined with the growth of the urban middle class, have helped accelerate this movement, as the curator points out.
“The influence of social networks is having a very big impact in India, particularly among young people, allowing trends to spread and, I believe, the wearing of the sari is becoming a popular movement”, she explains.
Click here to read the full article on Luxus Plus Magazine.
Featured photo : © Shutterstock
