Traditional cum trendy bridal sarees
Our day-to-day life attire depends primarily on the situations, also includes fashion, climate to an extent and last but not the least comes our comfort. How much varieties of fabrics we tend to style up with, but saree remains the national attire for Indian women. India is the land of festivals and ceremonies, where sarees play a vital role.
Bridal sarees are given the utmost importance because of the auspicious moment on which it is wore by brides. It reflects the dreams and expectations of the girls who are happy and excited to start the important chapter of their life. In the cycle of fashion, Bridal sarees are found to be preferably traditional at a point while it shifts to trendy look eventually and at times it is expected to be a blended combo of both styles.
Kanjivaram silk sarees:
Bridal sarees are woven in many parts of the country. They vary from ancient handloom weaving to modern machine mode weaving. Let us see few of famous handloom bridal saree varieties. First and foremost is Kanjivaram silk sarees. Kanjivaram or Kanchipuram is a district in Tamilnadu which holds an epithete “Temple City”. It is famous for its cultural heritage and assimilation of various religions like Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism can be witnessed here.
Since it is a land of temples, there is no day without festivals or ceremonies, so the silk sarees and fabric remains always in demand. During the Vijayanagara kingdom, this area gained its fame for weaving marvellous silk sarees. Two famous communities called Devangas and Saligars who migrated to this area, started weaving handloom silk sarees. The mulberry silk thread is chosen for this weaving which is twisted around a silver wire, which then run along with the golden thread. This three thread technique makes it unique and special.
People from various parts of the country visits this place to get the personalised sarees woven according to their taste of colours and patterns. Main feature of the Kanjivaram sarees is that the interlacing of zari borders and pallus with the sarees is made so perfect that no one can find out the line of connection. The weight of the saree decides the quality of the saree and bridal sarees are mostly woven with heavy work, especially in the borders and pallus. Recently, this variety is seeing its downfall which has to be revived soon because the habitats of this area is mostly dependent on the handlooms and weaving.
Uppada silk sarees:
Uppada is a village in Andhra pradesh and the name is gained after the village. This is not the only village famous for this variety of silk sarees while many other villages in and around Uppada are also into the weaving of this silk saree variety. The origin can be traced to the Odisha and Bengal area , from which it got migrated to the south. In Bengal area it is known as Dhakai sarees, since it is believed to migrated from Bangladesh.
The speciality of this variety is the usage of age old technique called ‘Jamdani’ meaning floral arrangement in a vase, originating from the Persia. As the name suggests , floral pattern founds the central spot in most of the sarees. Later mughal influence has created its impact leading to the addition of motifs of nature. Synthesis of unbleached yarn with bleached and dyed yarn provides an unique look to the sarees.
Earlier the sarees where made of cotton and muslin fabric, which later involved silk threads to design bridal and occasional sarees. Light weighted cum trendy saree lovers tend to select this variety. It also satisfies the aspirations of people loving heavily crafted sarees with the abundant spray of floral designs. Both the self patterned sarees with single colour and sarees with combination of contrast colours are available.
Ikhat sarees:
Pochampally sarees of Andhra and Patola sarees of Gujarat stands as a great brand of Ikhat sarees. This variety has a very old history of around silk trade era, where the weaving technique migrated from the spice islands of Malaysia and Indonesia to the different parts of the world. Ikhat sarees are not only famous in India, but has an international appeal and vividly found around 25-30 countries of different continents.
The striking feature of this variety is the use of warp and weft technique, in which the yarn is tied into bundles based on the patterns and then dyed with colours, which are later woven into beautiful fabric. The warp and wefts creates a super blend of different colours into intended patterns and the final output exhibits a blurred effect. Most of the people believes it to be machine mode prints but in reality it is handloom weaving.
Geometrical and curvilinear images holds the most used patterns of this variety of sarees, while motifs of parrots, leaves, elephants etc are also used thus creating a super blend of traditional look with trendy touch. Based on the occasion, the variety of yarn is selected thus making it wearable in any situation. The metallic thread from Gujarat gives a glassy look to the sarees thus making Patola sarees a special and unique variety.
Availability and affordability:
The above said famous silk sarees are now available online. Government has taken various steps to protect these handloom weavings by forming clusters of manufacturers and branding them and also helps in marketing the sarees. The price range of these sarees starts from around 6000 and extends even upto one lakh. On contacting the manufacturers, personalised sarees can be obtained according to our taste.
All these varieties can be obtained in physical stores also in selected saree boutiques at different prices. Modern day technology has taken the customization of these sarees to another level. The names of bride and bridegroom are woven with golden threads on the pallus. Even couplets of Thirukkural is also finding its space. Even the images of persons can be woven in the pallu. Not only sarees but stuffs like scarfs, stoles, purses , curtains and bedspreads are also found to have these imprints on them. Enjoy the adorable classy looks of different varieties at different occasions, thus changing every important moment into an evergreen memory.
