Saree, An Aesthetic Or A Style Statement: Know Saree Campaigns In India

Why Saree Suddenly Become An Urban Fetish?

  Sarees have been cherished and treasured apparel in India for centuries. It has undergone numerous transformations and has been worn in local styles with slight tweaks in their styling.   Yes, the saree has been synonymous with Indian wear most of the times. Being the traditional attire of the country, it was worn by the majority of the Indian women. When the Western culture began hitting the country, the attention naturally wavered towards the western style of clothing and slowly but steadily, the sarees lost their popularity.   Image Courtesy: fashionlady.in     Ever since, there have been many campaigns to support the traditional attire. Two Indian women came up with a campaign that flooded India, “100 Saree Pact.” It was a pact that gained momentum with an exponential increase in the number of women who took it up. Friends took it up, and their friends and so on.     This pact, as the name says, means that the woman will dress up in a saree 100 times before the end of the year. This pact was born back in 2015. The two buoys behind this pact were Anju Maudgal Kadam and Ally Matthan. They encouraged their friends too to take up the challenge.     100 times a year translated to about 2 times a week. They invited women to tell a story, the medium being sarees. They could talk about a special occasion, an event, a day out, etc. Their idea behind this campaign was to revive the elegant attire. 100SareePact invited women to share photos in the 6 and 9-yard attire and tag their family and friends too.   Image Courtesy: stylecraze.com     Following in these footsteps, Six yards, 365 days was born. It was brought alive and hoisted by Delhi based poet and author, Sunita Budhiraja. Her main concern was that sarees were disappearing from the daily scene and as a result, weavers too.   Six yards 365 days began on Facebook. With the help and support of her friends, Alka Raghuvanshi, Manisha Gawde and Sanjeev Mangalani, Sunita launched the virtual campaign in mid-2015. The popular saree store, Kalpana was a major element that helped in promoting this campaign.   As a part of this campaign, every time a woman wore a handmade saree, she had to post a picture to spread awareness about handmade sarees and weavers who work hard, but skillfully design a saree.   Image Courtesy: stylecraze.com     They noticed that most of the posts came from the Kolkata and Odisha based cities and cities from the south. They reason that these cities still keep alive the tradition whereas other metropolitan cities are quite far off from saree as an attire of daily wear. Due to the saree market having gone south in these areas, weavers too are few.   Women say that a saree is not just attire, it is an experience and a feeling. Every saree is a story by itself. We all agree that our mothers and grandmothers are synonymous with sarees.   100 Sarees Pact and Six Yards 365 Days have been pioneers in the Indian saree scene for a while now. Many other campaigns are coming up as a result and we hope to see that India cherishes the unique tradition of wearing a saree.     For more interesting content follow our Lifestyle and Cultural digital magazine Bananivista. Do “Follow” and “Like” our Facebook page for more updates on contests and events.