The sari

True to an old promise, we will discuss today the sari, the traditional garment used by millions of women in South Asia. We will review your history and traditional styles, but: "Readers who only want to know how to wear a sari, you can download directly to the end of the text, where a step-by-step." And the rest, let us to the point:

A dancer from Kerala

Concept. A sari is a colorful female attire prevailing in the Indian subcontinent. It consists of a long strip of fabric without stitching, ranging from four to nine meters in length and fits the body of the carrier according to different uses and styles. The most common way to wear a sari is wrapped around the waist women for one end, while the other edge passes over the shoulder, the stomach exposed.

Women usually get the subcontinent over the sari blouse called choli small or Ravika. The choli has short sleeves, low neck cut is presented to help women to withstand the harsh summer in southern Asia. The heat is such that in some places, like the region of Orissa , women's breasts are coated directly with the fabric of the sari. The cholis may not cover the back and are of varied thickness. They come equipped with a variety of reasons, such as mirrors, and ornate designs when compared to Western clothes. The sari is a garment common to all India.

Origin and history. The word 'sari' evolved from the Prakrit word (derived from Sanskrit) "sattika" mentioned in the early Jain and Buddhist literature.

India's textile history traces the origins of the sari in the Indus Valley Civilization, which flourished no less than between 2,800 and 1,800 BC in the western part of the continent, part of the territory currently occupied by Pakistan. The first known representation of the sari is a statue of a priestess of the Indus Valley, dressed in a cloth.

Old Tamil poems like Kadambari Silappadhikaram or describe sexy women dressed in saris. In Indian classical tradition and under the treaty Natya Shastra (which describes the classical dance and costumes), the navel of the Supreme Being is considered the source of life and creativity, and so the sari must leave the stomach bare.

Some historians believe that the dhoti dress, a kind of shell pants garment and the oldest India, is the forerunner of the sari. Although today is only a guy thing, until the fourteenth century was worn by both sexes equally.

Still preserved sculptures of the Gandhara school, Mathura and Gupta (I-VI centuries AD) that show goddesses and dancers showing what appears to be a dhoti in wide release, covering the legs widely and then floats to make a long and decorative fold ahead of them. The bra is not visible.

Other sources maintain that everyday clothes consisted of a dhoti, combined a chest strap and a film that could be used to cover the upper body or head. It still exists in Kerala (South India) a similar pledge.

What is generally accepted, without exception, is that related to the sari costumes, shawls and veils have been worn by Indian women in its current form for hundreds of years.

But controversy persists about the choli or blouse and undergarments. Some researchers believe that these components did not exist before the arrival of British India, and think they were introduced to satisfy the conservative Victorian idea of modesty and decency. What they say is that once women only wore the cloth, and left exposed breasts and upper body.

Although some historians have examples to refute this version, Kerala and Tamil Nadu (south) and Orissa (East) is still possible to see some examples of this practice. And classic poetic texts indicate that during the sangam period, one piece of cloth used to cover both the lower body and head, so the stomach and breasts were in the air.

Styles sari. The most common way to wear a sari is wrapped around the waist, and then take the loose end of the fabric up to slide it over his shoulder, but the air leaving the stomach. Although the sari can be dressed in different ways, some of which require a particular form or fabric length. Thus, experts categorize the style Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, the Dravida, the madisara, the Kodagu, the Gond tribal or styles. But the most popular of them all is the style "nivi" from the region of Andhra Pradesh in southeastern India.

The fabric nivi begins with one end of the sari tucked in their belts. The fabric is wrapped once in the lower body, and then attached in folds in front of the navel. The upper end of the folds also be inserted through the part of the waist belt. This creates a very decorative, that Indian poets in the past compared with the petals of a flower. The tutorial provided at the end of the article follows this style.

After further rotation around the waist, the loose end is passed over her shoulder. This end is called the pallu or pallav. We must pass diagonally across the torso. It has crossed from the right hip to left shoulder, so that the stomach is partially visible. The navel can be hidden or view depending on the preference of the wearer. The long end of the pallu coming to the back is often highly decorated. The pallu hanging freely or can be be used to cover the head, or just the neck, passing it the right shoulder.

The goddess Lakshmi, by Raja Ravi Varma

This style was popularized by the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma, which modified the southern style. In one of his paintings, the Indian subcontinent was depicted as a woman wearing a sari-style ethereal nivi.

The sari as a garment. In the past, saris were of silk or cotton. The rich could afford finely-woven embroidery, diaphanous silk saris that, according to folklore, could pass through an annular ring. The poor wore cotton saris, fabrics page. They were all handmade, and represented a considerable outlay of time and money.

The simplest of saris village are often decorated with lines sewn into the fabric. The cheap saris were also treated with block printing using wood, dried plants or ironed. The most expensive ornaments or brocade are geometric, floral and figurative as part of the fabric. Sometimes the strings are pressed and then tissues. Sometimes, the yarns of different colors were woven into an ornamented edge, a developed pallu and often small repeated accents in the fabric. For elite saris, these patterns could be sewn with threads of gold or silver, style "zari".

Worker compiling a sari

Sometimes the saris were further decorated with various types of embroidery, either colored silk (resham), or threads of silver, gold or gems (zardozi). The cheap versions of the wires used Zardozi synthetic and imitation stones, such as fake pearls and Swarovski crystals.

In modern times, saris are woven in machine mechanics and are made of artificial fibers such as polyester or nylon, which does not require ironing. Machine printed or stitched with simple patterns made with floats in the back of the sari. This can create an elaborate appearance on the front, but ugly in the rear.

Naturally, the saris made ​​and decorated by hand are much more expensive than the machine imitations. Although they are losing market share rapidly, hand saris are still popular for weddings and social occasions.

How to wear a sari

How to wear a sari. Here, I provide the details to wear a saree step by step, following the style nivi. Naturally, the fundamental condition is to have one (although I know cases of hard-liners who mounted it with a curtain), and is also very useful to run the steps in front of a mirror. I hope you serve. Voilà.

1

1. Wear a skirt false. Hold firmly the top of the fabric (the inside) around your waist.

2

2. Wrap the sari waist and firmly puts the top of the fabric (again, on the inside) by the false waist skirt.

3

3. Adjust the fabric around your waist while keeping the same height, and on reaching the front, the corresponding subject of the sari at the waist of the skirt false.

4

4. Starting from the right, fold the left as necessary the excess fabric past the navel.

5

5. Ask how many folds you think necessary, but usually their number between seven and twelve.

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6. Grab all at once and folds in the same way, and adjusts the height above the ground so that this match the rest of the fabric.

7

7. Put the top of the pleats in the skirt to hold them false, and goes back again for the remaining fabric.

8

8. Making available the rest of the fabric with your right hand and pass it to the left.

9

9. Hold the cloth well with your left hand and makes the necessary adjustments in the pallu with the right.

10

10. Lower your left shoulder pallu of her sari to pass naturally to the back. You can use a safety pin to prevent movement. And enjoy.

Then you can a video in English with a practical demonstration of the steps described above. I hope this information has been helpful.

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Thematic area:

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3. Caste and color in urban India
4. Klimt's golden sensuality, recreated in the colorful world of India