DECONSTRUCTING THE SAREE – Part 1

Draping a saree is a many-layered experience. Over my next few saree posts, I will be taking you through different elements of the saree. Here is the first one.

One of the most important components of the whole saree-draping experience is really small in size but huge in importance. The safety pin. Oh, the tension if there is no safety pin to be found. How many searches have been done in corners of the cupboard, other clothes and even inside bags, all in the hope of finding safety pin(s). We can have whole conversations about the merits and demerits of the tiny golden pin versus the monstrous infant diaper pin, with most settling on the medium-sized silver safety pin. I am a two-pin girl. I know there are women who go through an entire day with no pin (gasp!) or just one pin. Then there are saree sisters who need a whole handful. This little metallic invisible accessory really does give another meaning to the phrase, ‘pin-up’!

Here I am in a faux-kota saree, all pinned up for office.