I love the look of the sari, but I don’t have the guts to wear one (for 2 reasons… The first being I’m not Indian, and the second that I’m not happy with the way my body looks right now.) Would any of you wear a sari out in public? Why or why not?
(note: I do not mean out in public in India)
I saw a detailed description of how to fold one once and it looks way too complicated for me. The fabrics are beautiful though. I was just admiring a woman last night while we watched our kids swimming. She was wearing some kind of wonderful purple and gold raw silk sari. It did look a bit awkward trailing it around the wet swimming pool deck, though. I’d probably prefer to actually wear a salwar kameez (?).
Grandma-types look much nicer in a sari or salwar kameez, too, than they do in American old-lady getups.
I have the same problem. My friend and I once went sari-shopping, but I just looked dopey. 
Also, many of the sari colors look great on Indian women, but terrible on pasty-white-with-reddish-complexion types like me. So I’ve stuck with admiring them.
My friend, however, already owned a sari and wore it sometimes to church. She looked good, having found a pretty dark blue color.
Absolutely, in fact I have been keeping my eye out for some nice sari fabric. I already own lots of beautiful batiks, African designs, sarongs, etc., and would love to add a sari to my collection.
Nope, sorry.
Sure, why not?
I love saris, but I’d look like a complete dork in one, and would be embarrased to wear one in public.
Just listening to my Indian friends laugh about the misuse of menhdi, bindis and the habit of hippies around her to hang Indian wall hangings upside down is enough to scare me off of cultural appropriation. And there are plenty of people around here who are happy to wear anyone’s cultural garments- no matter how sacred, inappropriate or wrongly worn. I don’t want to join them.
Then again, I did once visit a Hindu temple and wore a beautiful embroidered Punjabi (a long fitted tunic with loose pants and a scarf- it’s all the rage with the younger people) and I’m sure glad I did because I would have stood out even more (as if being blonde isn’t enough) otherwise.
YEs and no. Love the fabric but with my reddish blonde hair I probably would get some weird looks. I would use the fabric for “something” else though. I could see making a skirt or some other type of flowing dress or something out of it.
Wait - I thought of something…it depends on where I was going. If I was going somewhere that was kind of hippie-ish or where kind of anything goes (Bourbon street, Venice Beach, A Midevil Festival…I might wear it anyway)
I have to wear a sari - next April, anyway. My fiance’s Indian, and we’re having both a Hindu and a Christian ceremony. One for his family, the other for mine. His dad’s planning on buying me a sari for the Hindu part, and his grandmother’s contributing the jewelry. They also want me to henna my hands. I’ll probably look weird, but I’m really looking forward to the experience!
oooh! Oohooh! My favorite subject!!
Here’s my “Information for Non-Indian Customers”.
I wear saris all the time – well, a lot of the time anyway. Every Friday to work (casual dress day, yannow). To my wedding. To my bachelorette party. Out dancing at clubs. Anywhere. Right now! I love saris! I might be addicted. I have around 25 now, maybe more.
I do some copyediting and writing and etc. work for the Indian fellah that owns this place, and he likes to pay me in clothes if I let him. (The rupee-to-dollar exchange is awful.)
Note that I am a pastywhite, brunette European-type American who has (sob!) never actually been to India. Yet.
It is not that hard to drape them! Really!
For ages I have been meaning to put together a really useful online tutorial on draping and wearing them, but somehow I always have something else that hasta get done first. Now I will be more motivated.
cher3, you got it right, it’s “salwar kameez”, a.k.a. “Pujab suit” or “punjabi suit”. I wear those too. They’re incrediby comfortable. The great thing about saris though is they ALWAYS FIT, even if you gain or lose weight.
I’ve never yet met a South Asian person who didn’t think it was cool that I wear South Asian clothes. Some grandma-aged-looking ladies and even some my-aged-looking guys give me great big happy smiles when they see me. My closest Indian friend says I wrap saris better than she does (mostly because, as an Americanized, academic young woman who married outside her ethnic group and caste, she’s a rebel already and rarely wears them). She always brings me a sari or two from home (Bombay area) when she’s been back from a visit.
I’ve met very very few pastywhite people who think it’s weird. The worst was a guy at the grocery store, about a year ago… well-dressed fellow, middle-aged, comes right up in my face over the asparagus and says, “Are you a Gew-Rew?” (Imagine a fairly thick rural Texan accent.)
“Pardon?”
“Are - you - a Gew-Rew!”
OK; he wants to know if I’m a “guru”. Huh? WTF? Why does he want to know if I’m a guru? Ohhhhh…
“Ah, no, no sir, I’m not.”
“Well what are you then? Some kinda religion thing? Why you dressed like that?”
(gritting teeth) “Just fashion, sir. Not religion.”
“Huh. Well. Whaduhya know.” Walks off.
But – just that one in the two years I’ve been wearing them.
Saris rock! Wear saris! I’d be happy to teach you how, give you good leads on buying them, whatever.
oh, and CONGRATULATIONS overlyverbose!
Just as everyday wear? Probably not. I’m sure it would look odd. I don’t do well with skirts (especially wrap skirts in the first place). I’m sure I’d do it wrong (which would annoy me) and for me, it would feel culture vulture-y.
For an “occasion”? Yeah. But I’ve yet to experience a sari-wearing occasion.
I do, however, have no problem with buying and using the material.
Yes, I wore one to my Senior Prom.
I looked every weekend for two months straight for a prom dress and found nothing. The dresses I tried on either made me look like a wedding cake or a skank. While going for a curry on Devon* I passed by a sari store and saw this gorgeous blood red silk sari with gold embroidery in the window. A lightbulb flickered on and I went in. It cost $160 and the seamstress measured me for the blouse and an underskirt right then. (a sari is 6 yds long w/an extra yd for the blouse piece) It was ready in a week and when I went to pick it up the seamtress was kind enough to show me the different ways to wear it. It’s easier than you think. It was a huge success and with my black hair and dark eyes it looked stunning on.(if I do say so myself) 
I still wear one of my light cotton ones when it’s too hot out. It’s very cool and you can’t help but look feminine in it.
*A street in Chicago known for its Indian stores and restaurants.
I have a sari. It’s brown and yellow shot through with green and gold. I use it as a wall hanging. If I tried to wear it, I fear I would end up bare to the world with a sari-puddle around my ankles.
I envy emilyforce. I would love to wear saris, just like I would love to wear beautiful, airy traditional African outfits, as I love clothes that billow and flow. I don’t though, because even if I were to look okay in them, I’d feel awkward.
emilyforce, you looked GORGEOUS in your wedding sari! Well done! (I’d love to be paid in saris – please let me know if your Indian friend has any overflow copyediting to be done!)*
My dark little friend from Bangladesh and his cute but pasty American wife attended a madrigal dinner with us one Christmas. He wore some of his native clothing and she wore a gorgeous red and gold sari complete with elaborate jewelry. I was so jealous! They had themselves announced as “King Masud and his wench Katie.” 
*Just kidding. I hate it when people I don’t know hit me up for work – get your own! I would never dream of being so crass.
sugaree, I don’t know if it would make you feel comfortable enough or not, but even if the sari fell completely off, you’d still be more covered that you proably are right now. You gotta wear a blouse and a full-length underskirt (“petticoat”) underneath them. It’s hard to wrap a sari without the petticoat, though it can be done. Your average nice traditional South Asian lady would be stunned speechless at the thought, though! Don’t tell 'em I’m not wearing one today… it’s bloody hot in Texas in August…
I always start my saris with a little tiny knot at the waist. That ain’t gettin’ past these hips. Some folks just tuck theirs into the waistband of the petticoat, but I’m too paranoid.
Real Indian ladies use pins to keep the folds in place at the waist and the extra-decorated loose end (called the pallu, pallav, anchol, or other things, depending on what language you use) over the shoulder. Me, I use Neodymium-Iron-Boron magnets.
[blush] Gee, Scarlett67, thanks! [/blush] My friends at Priyanka’s gave that one to me as a wedding present. I love how the cream silk sets off my ruby-red nose in those pictures. I was nearly sobbing from happiness the whole wedding.
I would definitely wear one. My roommate and I were commenting on this while going for dinner on Devon a while ago. One of my best friends my freshman year of college was Indian (as in, he had to pay international student tuition), and once I mentioned to him how much I liked saris, and that I’d like one. He seemed very suspicious of this, and wanted to know if I’d wear it for Halloween or something. I said no, of course not. He asked if I’d wear it to class. I said, sure, why not? He seemed satisfied with that answer, and said, “Okay, cool.”
I’m still a little too chicken to actually going sari shopping (I could not possibly look less Indian), but I’d totally wear one. My mom is a quilter and crazed fabric collector, when I last visited her, she gave me some wonderful golden cloth to use as a head scarf. I accidentally left it behind, unfortunately. I would wear it in public, too. I wear my painfully bright Oaxacan serape in public, so why not?
She’s out for the evening, but Mama Tiger LOVES saris. She was born in India and has found a good way to deal with her love of saris – she sells them on eBay, so she gets to have lots of saris but doesn’t have to keep them, or else I suspect we’d have a houseful of them.
She prides herself on being able to wear one without pinning it anywhere, and she has worn them during at least a few dressy occasions that I know of.
To clarify, she was born in India, but isn’t Indian herself. That doesn’t stop her as far as saris go, though!