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You don’t see much black in India. Women’s clothes vibrate with beautiful colors. The combinations and pattern mixes can be surprising and inspiring. You get the idea from this photo of an older and a younger woman taken from the back. The sari of the woman on the left combines a bright fuchsia with pale green, with a hint of blue in the gold trim; on the right big checks are worn with circles.
I felt inhibited about taking many photographs of women (although their daughters took plenty of me!) These all come from Mumbai, from the very last day of my trip.
Combinations of orange, red, pink, and yellow were everywhere.
And this woman, enjoying the sun at the Gateway to India, did not think it was enough to wear her brownish red sari trimmed with gold and cobalt blue. She added green bangles to the outfit.
Mumbai is a thriving global city, and I wondered if I wasn’t seeing some evidence of the sari’s eventual demise. There were many mother daughter pairs like the one above where the mother wore her beautiful sari, while the daughter would have been at home at any American college campus. What will these young women wear with their daughters in twenty years time?
Oh, you lucky person! Did you get to the Handicrafts Museum? Did you go to any bazaars filled with fabric? I hope you are stuffing your suitcases with textiles to bring home!
It’s interesting about the kids in jeans. The sari survived colonization, diaspora, and wars, but it may be that the Internet plus The Gap will mean the end of the sari as daily dress. 🙁 In North America there is a huge market for saris, lehengas, and embroidered fabrics for Indian weddings, so this is one part of the culture that is definitely not going away!
I love that top photo so much! The mix of the circles and the checks is fantastic. Show us more, please!
the photo of the brown sari and her green bangles is really beautiful, so serene. hard to know if the sari will still be worn as a daily item, I can imagine it must be more comfortable than jeans in their climate!