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strong and poised she used her finger to read along the lines of a speech she wrote herself about her dad
Bindi decided that it would be a good idea to just get so muddy that I had to chase her around the backyard to spray her off... (oh yes video is coming soon)
Péro, 2019
European lace with floral sequin embroidery
Worn with accompanying silk blouse
Bollywood nostalgia today
A nostalgia for classic Bollywood continues to capture the imagination of certain contemporary designers. The ‘I Love Chandni’ collection by contemporary brand Péro drew inspiration from Bollywood heroine Sridevi in the 1989 film Chandni, meaning ‘moonlight’. Sridevi’s bangles, her glittery bindi and the sparkle in her eyes are reflected in limited–edition saris adorned with subtle hand embroidery and sequins.
The collection was accompanied by a series of Bollywood–themed posters.*
Roots of the Offbeat
From the 1960s to the early 2000s, the sari declined in popularity as a form of everyday wear. A new wave of young women — born into a period of significant social and political change in post–independence India — wanted to define themselves as different from previous generations. They saw many reasons to reject the sari, which had been conventionally associated with women in the domestic space or with unwieldy formal wear. In Bollywood, clinging saris fetishised the female body as the object of the male gaze.
Yet a parallel movement emerged from the seeds of an earlier generation: a lineage of powerful, intellectual and self–aware women who enabled the sari to be perceived as a symbol of female empowerment. The progressive legacy they established has inspired many of the designers whose work is shown in this room.*
From the exhibition
The Offbeat Sari
(May – September 2023)
A major exhibition celebrating the contemporary sari. Curated by our Head of Curatorial, Priya Khanchandani, this exhibition unravels its numerous forms, demonstrating the sari to be a metaphor for the layered and complex definitions of India today. It brings together dozens of the finest saris of our time from designers, wearers and craftspeople in India.
Worn as an everyday garment by some and considered by others to be formal or uncomfortable, the sari has multiple definitions. Conventionally an unstitched drape wrapped around the body, which can be draped in a variety of ways, its unfixed form has enabled it to morph and absorb changing cultural influences.
In recent years, the sari has been reinvented. Designers are experimenting with hybrid forms such as sari gowns and dresses, pre-draped saris and innovative materials such as steel. Young people in cities who used to associate the sari with dressing up can now be found wearing saris and sneakers on their commutes to work. Individuals are wearing the sari as an expression of resistance to social norms and activists are embodying it as an object of protest.
Today, the sari in urban India manifests as a site for design innovation, an expression of identity, and a crafted object carrying layers of cultural meanings. The exhibition unravels the sari as a metaphor for the complex definitions of India today.
[*Design Musem]
Taken in the Design Musem