Sari....

To my Indian friends

The Indian Sari (a.k.a. Saree, Sare, Seere, Sadi etc) is a timeless garment—with a history that dates back to over 5000 years. Designs, patterns and even wearing style have changed, but the Sari is still the most exquisite single piece garment for a woman. Nothing identifies a woman as being Indian so strongly as the Sari.

The Sari is the quintessential Indian female garment. The Sari is still the most favored garment worn at most formal occasions or at religious ceremonies.

This demure Indian Sari garment is very versatile, and multi-purpose. If there is a slight chill in the air, you can wear it around the shoulder like a shawl. If it is very cold you can wrap it around your head like a scarf. The saree is so practical to wear that you can even run a marathon in it with out any problem. The Saree is the ultimate in Indian clothing and attire.

The Sari is like a canvas to the weaver, block printer, textile designer or the mill hand. A hand woven, and hand created sari is the most down-to-earth organic attire one can wear. When you wear that hand-woven sari, you are paying tribute to Indian craft persons who have stubbornly stuck to the skills, traditions and secrets of thousands year old Indian culture.

The sari is not just attire but it embodies the warp and weft, the basic thread of life itself. The essential simplicity of the sari — an untailored length of cloth measuring between four and nine meters long by approximately one meter wide — is set against a wonderful variety of fabrics, colors, patterns, and draping styles. It displays the rich diverse regional traditions of color, pattern, and weave. The etymology (origin) of the word sari is from the Sanskrit word 'sati', which means strip of cloth. This evolved into the Prakrit 'sadi' and was later anglicised into sari.

By Homiyar Sukhia