By Dhanvanti Keshavrao
Each painted sari fashion designer has their own strong points. For example Shanta Malhotra of Pune wants you to take a new look at kalamkari saris, which you originally dismissed as saris meant for elderly women.

“In Kalamkari the different colours from the vegetable dyes, hand-painted figures of gods and goddesses and the motifs of animals and birds… all blend together beautifully. The 2000-year-old craft is fascinating. It takes months to create a beautiful hand-painted sari,” she says. If the border has a design, that goes into the pattern that takes shape on the rest of the sari; if there are more than two colours, the designs that take shape on it will have a mix n’ match of those colours
For two professional sari maestros — K M Lekha and Amritha Manoharan from Kerala — Warli paintings, a form of Indian folk paintings by Warli tribals of Maharashtra, has caught the imagination, and they have done hand painted designer saris based on this tribal painting style. Warli paintings depict the body by two triangles and head by circle and thus through crude lines they show movements. Lekha and Amritha are offering designer warli painting saris in cotton, nylon, silk and georgette materials. Apart from Warli paintings, there are floral designs, geometrical and tribal designs. Adds Amritha, “It is not unusual to find many women wearing the same design sari, but our design sari offers an exclusive design. We generally do a design not more than one or two times.”
Delhi-based designer Sarala Jain has come out with a brand new winter collection of traditional saris on which pictures of paintings by current Indian painting masters have been aesthetically emblazoned. The designer first took pictures of paintings made by artist Chandra Raghuvanshi, her partner in the venture, and then digitally juxtaposed the pictures on saris. This entire exercise took her almost three months to complete. Says Sarala, “While the saris in Bhagalpuri, georgette, tussar and raw silk are traditional; the abstract paintings on top of them give them a contemporary look for the modern Indian woman.”
It is the time for organic dyes and sari painting to cash on it, especially valuable if done by the tribal themselves. And Adivasi/fashion designer Shreenkant Parika has progressed a long way from Kotpad his Orissan village. And it is in the deeper jungles of Orissa that the blood red aal has survived through the millennia. Perhaps the only existing natural dye which totally eschews the use of any chemical ‘fixing’ agents, the aal dye is derived from the bark and root of the aal trees which grow in abundance in the Orissa forests. The dye is made by the Adivasis through a time-tested process based on the changing rhythms of Nature and an unhurried, earthy way of life. Today, when revival of natural dyes has got a cult status, Kotpad’s aal dyed fabric stands out proud, much like the Adivasis, who processes the dye, spins the yarn, colour it and weave the stunning Kotpad saris. His creations are a study in harmony: saris and dupattas with red or black temple borders, all over red backgrounds with brown borders and a sprinkling of woven ‘butties’, bird, animal and fish motifs or mesmerising lines.
Puneet Nanda of the fames Satya Paul’s design studio has experimented with art inspired collections years back with the works of painter S H Raza /Bose Krishnamacharfi, and followed it up with another collection inspired from the works of Matisse. Of course, money matters and these saris do not come cheap. A sari with the original work of Bose Krishnamachari is sold for Rs 2 lakhs. But as the original painting is priced at approximately Rs 13 lakhs, so this makes the sari valuable and affordable like serigraph painting copies of famous masters.
A sari studded with gold, diamonds, emeralds and other precious stones was made by Chennai silks - Chennai in 2007. The most special thing about the sari is the Ravi Varma painting which has been woven into it. All the intricate details in the painting have been replicated like the curly hair of the women and the jewels they are wearing. Besides, the border of the sari pictures 10 other paintings that pay tribute to the 20th century artist. The best part of the sari is that the women in the paintings are intricately hand-woven and beautified with jewels of gold, diamond, platinum, silver, ruby, emerald, yellow sapphire, sapphire, cat’s eye, topaz, pearl and corals.
Chennai Silks claims it as the world’s costliest sari, as per the Limca book of records, one that costs Rs 40 lakh and weighs around eight kilogram. This 40 lakh rupees sari is the first silk sari that required the use of 7,440 jacquard hooks and 66,794 cards during the weaving process. Moreover, a group of consummate workers took nearly 4,680 hours to complete the work.
It is easy to buy a painting and hang it on a wall but when it comes to wearing a painting, a few dos and don’ts are necessary. For instance, don’t add too many things to your couture, when you wear an art reproduction. That piece of the outfit is the highlight anyway, so the rest should be simple and minimalist.
You have to make sure that the clothes accompanying it are as simple as possible. If the painting on the sari is very colourful, then the ensemble should ideally be in one solid colour.
Make sure that you drape it in such a way that the main motif is highlighted. It could be worn with a sexy blouse or a tight top. MF