The sari is a traditional dress worn by Indian women. When worn properly, the finished look is elegant and charming. But a sari worn incorrectly can turn out to be too revealing or clumsy. Wearing a sari requires practice and can be a nightmare for any first time wearer. So if you need to wear a sari to a graduation party or wedding dinner sometime soon, you better start practicing the five steps below now!
Step 1: Find a blouse and petticoat that matches your sari’s color and design. Start by wearing the blouse. Next, tie the petticoat around the waist and ensure that it falls till your ankles, almost like wearing a drawstring skirt! Ensure that you tie the petticoat tightly because it will need to hold the sari without coming loose.
Step 2: Now move on to the sari itself. Take one edge of the fabric (usually the plain end in case the sari has a designer border on one side) and tuck it into the petticoat just below your navel and then tuck in a complete round from left to right till you’re back at the navel. Now the sari would have draped around you once and would look a little like a skirt whose lower end almost touches the floor.
Step 3: Now it’s time for the trickiest part – pleats! Make 5 inch deep pleats in the sari at the point where you first tucked it in. Keep pleating till you’ve covered the entire length of the sari material. After every 5 pleats, hold them up together and shake them straight so that they are all even. Don’t get hassled if it looks messy at first, making pleats gets much easier with experience!
Step 4: Once all the pleats are done tuck them all together into the petticoat, just left off the navel. Some women prefer holding the pleats together with a safety pin but this runs the risk of tearing the sari if it gets tangled between your feet while you walk.
Step 5: Drape the remaining length of the sari once more around your body in such a manner that the end of the fabric diagonally crosses the blouse to be placed over the left shoulder. This end portion is known as the pallu and can be pinned down with a safety pin to stop it from sliding off the shoulders. The length of the pallu should coincide with the end of your finger tips when you stand with your hands by your side.
Voila! You are now ready to paint the town red in your dazzling sari!
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