Handmade Indian sarees online shopping with silkpetalss.com: With industrialisation entering India, with the Britishers, synthetic dyes made their official entry. Local traders started importing chemical dyes from other countries and along came the unknown techniques of dyeing and printing, which gave Indian saris a new unimaginable variety. The development of textiles in India started reflecting in the designs of the saris – they started including figures, motifs, flowers. With increasing foreign influence, sari became the first Indian international garment. See more info at https://silkpetalss.com/product-category/sarees/.

The style was popularised in the 1870s by a Bengali lady – Jnanadanandini Devi … She adopted the front pleat style of wearing the sari from the Parsee women she had seen in Bombay, and wore it with a blouse and petticoat, as they did, which was different from the traditional Bengali style of wearing the sari, says Chishti, who started a Sari School in 2009 in Delhi, and conducts workshops on the sari and the different methods of tying them. The blouse is also an adaptation by the Parsees, from the Western puffed sleeve blouse they wore over the long skirt. Though they had come from Persia 700 years earlier, they adopted the sari as they sought asylum in India on the condition that they would wear the local dress, adopt the local food habits and the local language of the western state of Gujarat. The sari shows the rich diversity of Indian dyeing, printing and silk weaving.

India remains one of the last great handicraft cultures. It’s a powerhouse for dyeing, printing, and silk weaving, all represented in at least one of the estimated 30 regional varieties of saris. In the Ganges riverfront city of Varanasi, weavers bend over old-school wooden looms to make Banarasi silk ones, usually in bright red, trimmed with metallic zari thread, and prized by brides. In tropical Kerala, predominantly white sett mundu saris reflect styles popular before 19th-century industrialization brought the colorful aniline dyes—and Crayola-box brights—spotted around the subcontinent today.

The stitched fabric was deemed unclean in ancient times. The one-piece saree was considered auspicious and was (and still is) worn for significant Hindu occasions such as religious ceremonies, marriages, festivals, childbirth rites, and so on. The saree draping style evolved from the concept that the navel and belly should be left uncovered since they were regarded as the life source (as they connect to the umbilical cord). This is documented in the Natya Shastra, a 200-year-old South Indian scripture. With the mention of Rani of Jhansi wearing a sari and fighting the atrocities of the colonizers, one can only wonder about the feeling of empowerment while wearing a sari that has been bestowed with such a heroic legacy.

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. Discover more information on https://silkpetalss.com/.

After moving to Hong Kong, I started wearing the saris that my mother had given me as a part of my wedding trousseau. Hand-woven saris from different parts of India – the brocaded Banarasi from Varanasi, the pure silk Kanjeevarams from Tamil Nadu, the Paithani from Maharashtra and so many more. The sari gives me a sense of belonging, says Bangalore-based perfumer Ahalya Matthan, who in 2016 founded The Registry of Sarees, a research and study centre for handspun and handwoven saris in India.