Embellishing sarees and accessorising are today’s trend…. on all kinds of sarees, Benaras, Kanjivaram, Paitani, Uppada, Maheshwari, Chiffon, Georgette, Mysore silk and more.  Bedecking sarees come in many hues – embroidery, cutwork, sequencing, printing, painting, patchwork, adding contrast backing to the border and pallu, adding a waist band, border and pallu with frills & laces, attaching elaborate tassels to the pallu, blouses done with bizarre patterns – the list is endless.

Accessorizing sarees has undoubtedly become an industry by itself. Often, people pay more for embellishments than the actual saree! Quality has now given way to quantity, garish design and even same-day-turn-around service…. fuelled by mushrooming automatic embroidery machines. One should debate how much of add-on will look good on a particular saree. Not many people know where to draw a line and hence tend to go overboard, partly influenced by the service provider’s desire to make more money and finally a hideous creation comes out. This will only make the saree lose its beauty and the original identity.

Like I said earlier, understanding what looks good on which saree is important. For instance, there is a trend of wedding gowns. My last visit to a popular ‘traditional wedding wear’ outlet shocked me by showing me with a lehenga-blouse set, overly decorated with ‘zardozi’ work, weighing 10kgs! IMO, heavy embroidery or sequence work looks good on a plain chiffon or georgette saree; the blouse should be kept simple then. The reverse may also look nice, a plain chiffon with heavy work on the blouse.

The same will not hold good for Kanjivaram. Authentic Kanjivaram is a piece of art by itself. And art should not be masked it with embroidery, patchwork, cutwork, etc, etc, especially the bridal Kanjivarams and the wedding wear Kanjivarams, which come usually with dense gold borders and a grand pallu. Thread work Kanjivarams are attractive too, with motifs, beautiful borders and grand pallu. The difference is that all motifs, border and pallu designs are woven in silk yarn instead of zari. So, adding more to a ‘toned down’ concept may make it look grotesque.

The ‘No zari-no thread work’ Kanjivarams are a class of its own. They are best when draped as is. Always, the saree comes first and that must remain the highlight.

Though Mysore Silks are plain and simple, they cannot take the same kind of embellishment as chiffon or georgette due to their inherent delicate fabric.  Kasuti embroidery (intricate hand embroidery from North Karnataka) are more suitable since they do not add much weight.

Authentic Benaras sarees are known for their opulence….. the super fine silk and finest gold & silver brocade work, sometimes mixed with different coloured thread work (Meenakari). The pallu of authentic Paitani sarees is exquisite and again filled with rich zari and thread work done together. In Pochampalli, Patola or any other sarees from the Ikkat weaving practice (woven with tie and died yarns), the weaving process itself is extremely complicated and produces fantastic pictorial and geometrical patterns. So, in all these weaves, the arduous work that the weaver puts in should be the focus and any external embellishment has no place. I recently I visited my tailor to get fall and tassel fixing on my niece’s saree. That saree was a Kanjivaram and had an extra tall Korvai border with fine zari line checks on the body and had a grand pallu. I asked the tailor to fix ‘Baby kutcchu’ for the pallu (A row of small tassels attached to the edge of the pallu). He opened and saw the whole saree in detail & said…… “Madam, this saree is so beautiful as it is. Fixing Baby kutcchu will spoil the beauty of the pallu….. let it remain as it is, with the original simple knots tied by the weaver.”  He could not restrain himself from being truthful while unmindful of losing a few hundred Rupees. Imagine my delight when I heard this from him. For someone, who always feels ‘less is more’, and ‘Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication’, his words were music to my ears.