Body-conscious Banarasis
Ekaya launches 'Kama', a new range of Banarasi drapes aimed at a younger clientele
“These are anywhere saris which lend themselves to multitasking but I wouldn’t call them funky," says designer Anupamaa Dayal at her studio in New Delhi’s Munirka village. She fondly holds the georgette Banarasis she has developed for Ekaya, a sari store in the Capital that specializes in a range of Banarasi weaves. Set to launch next week, the collection, Kama, follows Dayal’s “Anywhere" concept, which defined her Spring/Summer 2015 line at last month’s Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week. “My brief was to take Banarasis out of the shaadi mandap (wedding setting)," says Dayal.
Dayal and Palak Shah, the 23-year-old chief executive officer of Ekaya, make persuasive members of Indian fashion’s sari-revival community. “We want more and more young women to wear saris without having to choose from ‘aunty drapes’. The sari is our most confident garment anyway," says Shah, who is often seen in woven saris at fashion and culture events.
Kama, which revels in what the two call “pop colours", includes georgette (with some variations in silk) saris, stoles, square scarves and two-piece unstitched fabric sets (a dupatta with another equal-sized piece), to be styled and worn in a versatile manner.
Dayal was dressed in one such set. With a moss-green dupatta worn as the pallu, she had draped a gold-chequered piece of the Bengal cotton pleated as the sari’s skirt. Asked if square scarves had a market in India, Shah quickly threw a powder blue one over her jacket and trousers to display how a Banarasi scarf with gold details and multi-fabric trims (the latter two an Anupamaa signature) could instantly perk up a casual outfit.
Each sari comes with a blouse piece in the same fabric but a dramatically contrasting colour—a fuchsia pink with a peanut-butter colour sari; a yellow blouse with a lilac one; or a soft pink with a deep blue. The gold-thread motifs vary from the Bengali fish and the Bankura horse to the most recognized one in this technique—the pattidar butas (leaf motifs).
Soft georgettes, even sheer organzas and chiffons, are not particularly new to the Banarasi weaving vocabulary. Woven on khaddis (pit looms), with weft-patterned gold silk-thread designs, they are a familiar part of temple town Varanasi’s imprint on India’s handloom legacy. What is new in Dayal’s Ekaya collection is the adventurous use of “English" and “modern" colours—as Shah terms it—that free the Banarasi sari and dupatta from its traditionally deep jewel tones and opacity, giving them the youthful chutzpah of, let’s say, a bold and brazen nail-polish shade.
Dayal, however, emphasizes the fabric’s lustrous appeal when compared with the heavier drapes of yore. “It is not just about brighter colours—these are sexier than a normal Banarasi while being demure and sumptuous as saris are supposed to be. These saris are body-conscious, just as most women are these days. You can throw a bunch of them into a suitcase and carry them anywhere in the world, wear them without waiting for an event and adapt them seamlessly to different cultures," she says, adding that no Indian wardrobe can be complete without an original Banarasi.
Shah talks about customers from varied age groups who are keen to wear saris but want to look thinner and sexier. “Even slightly older women want saris that don’t belong to the aunty bracket in design," she adds.
Dayal and Shah want to share styling ideas with customers so they can shift from the sari to the dupatta to the stole and the two-piece easily, like draping one with a waistcoat. With plans to keep adding new pieces on the basis of customer feedback, they feel Kama will start a conversation with younger sari enthusiasts in cities.
Kama will be available from 25 November at Ekaya, D-7, Defence Colony, New Delhi (41009143). Saris cost ₹ 15,000-25,000, scarves and stoles start from ₹ 3,000, and dupattas range from ₹ 6,000-7,000.
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