Sari + sneakers or boots = The new cool in Bollywood
INDIANS ARE NOW READY TO ACCEPT INNOVATIVE STYLING WITH THE SARI, SAY DESIGNERS, AND EXPERIMENTATION BY MOVIE STARS HAS SHOWN PEOPLE THAT IT CAN BE AMAZING
Asari has always been the most elegant piece of clothing — and it’s the most versatile, too, evolving with lifestyles and fashion sensibilities. From styling saris with crop tops and denims, the latest trend is wearing it with shoes and sneakers. Bollywood fashion divas — Rekha, Kangana Ranaut, and Sonam Kapoor — have nailed this trend.
Kangana recently made an effortlessly stylish appearance in an olive green sari with brogues. Rekha, still the headturner that she has been for decades, appeared in sneakers and a quirkily draped white sari. A little while ago, Sonam Kapoor wore a ‘cropped’ sari with very no-nonsense boots.
Is this a cool trend? Designer Rina Dhaka thinks that people are now ready to see saris styled in several different ways, which wasn’t the case earlier. “People had a notion that saris only look good if they’re styled in a certain way with a particular type of blouse, hairstyle, and sandals,” says the designer. “But now with celebrities experimenting and showing us that saris can look amazing with different things, it has now become more of a style statement... And I think saris look cool with sneakers.”
How does one get the look right? “Well, shoes won’t look good with the traditional type of blouse. And the sari needs to be styled in a certain way to make it work,” says designer Nikhil Mehra. Stylist Vikram Seth is all for this trend. “It’s a welcome change,” he says, “to see women sporting shoes with saris. It gives an effortless vibe, making sari an everyday wear thing. This is no longer a fashion faux pas.”