18th February 2023 Styles of draping sarees

There are more than 80 recorded ways to wear a sari. The most common style is for the sari to be wrapped around the waist, with the loose end of the drape to be worn over the shoulder, baring the midriff. However, the sari can be draped in several different styles, though some styles do require a sari of a particular length or form. Ṛta Kapur Chishti, a sari historian and recognised textile scholar, has documented 108 ways of wearing a sari in her book, 'Saris: Tradition and Beyond'. The book documents the sari drapes across fourteen states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. The French cultural anthropologist and sari researcher Chantal Boulanger categorised sari drapes in the following families:

The Sari Series,a non-profit project created in 2017 is a digital anthology documenting India's regional sari drapes providing over 80 short films on how-to-drape the various styles.

• Nivi sari – style originally worn in Deccan region; besides the modern nivi, there is also the Nauvari, kaccha or kasta nivi, where the pleats are passed through the legs and tucked into at the back. This allows free movement while covering the legs.
• Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarati, Rajasthani – It is worn similar to nivi style but with loose end of sari aanchal or pallu placed in the front, therefore this style is known as sidha anchal or sidha pallu. After tucking in the pleats similar to the nivi style, the loose end is taken from the back, draped across the right shoulder, and pulled across to be secured in the back. This style is also worn by Punjabi and Sindhi Hindus.
• Bengali and Odia style is worn with single box-pleat. Traditionally the Bengali style is worn with single box pleat where the sari is wrapped around in an anti-clockwise direction around the waist and then a second time from the other direction. The loose end is a lot longer and that goes around the body over the left shoulder. There is enough cloth left to cover the head as well.
• Himalayan - Kulluvi Pattu is traditional form of woolen sari worn in Himachal Pradesh, similar variation is also worn in Uttarakhand.
• Nepali: Nepal has many different varieties of draping sari, today the most common is the Nivi drape. The traditional Newari sari drape is, folding the sari till it is below knee length and then wearing it like a nivi sari but the pallu is not worn across the chest and instead is tied around the waist and leaving it so it drops from waist to the knee, instead the pallu or a shawl is tied across the chest, by wrapping it from the right hip and back and is thrown over the shoulders. Saris are worn with blouse that are thicker and are tied several times across the front. The Bhojpuri and Awadhi speaking community wears the sari sedha pallu like the Gujrati drape. The Mithila community has its own traditional Maithili drapes like the madhubani and purniea drapes but today those are rare and most sari is worn with the pallu in the front or the nivi style. The women of the Rajbanshi communities traditionally wear their sari with no choli and tied below the neck like a towel but today only old women wear it in that style and the nivi and the Bengali drapes are more popular today. The Nivi drape was popularized in Nepal by the Shah royals and the Ranas.
• Nauvari and Kasta: this drape is worn similar to ancient form of navi sari worn in "Kacche" style where pleats in the front are tucked in the back, though there are many regional and societal variations. The style worn by Brahmin women differs from that of the Marathas. The style also differs from community to community. This style is popular in Maharashtra and Goa.
• Madisar – this drape is typical of Iyengar/Iyer Brahmin ladies from Tamil Nadu. Traditional Madisar is worn using 9 yards sari. The Parsi ‘gara’ is a quintessence of embroidery, art and history, and it has a Chinese link
• Pin Kosuvam - this is the traditional Tamil Nadu style
• The Brahmika sari was introduced to Bengal by Jnanadanandini Devi after her tour in Bombay in 1870. Jnanadanandini improvised upon the sari style worn by Parsi and Gujarati women, which came to be known as Brahmika style.
• Kodagu style – this drape is confined to ladies hailing from the Kodagu district of Karnataka. In this style, the pleats are created in the rear, instead of the front. The loose end of the sari is draped back-to-front over the right shoulder, and is pinned to the rest of the sari.
• Gobbe Seere – This style is worn by women in the Malnad or Sahyadri and central region of Karnataka. It is worn with 18 molas sari with three-four rounds at the waist and a knot after crisscrossing over shoulders.
• Karnataka – In Karnataka, apart from traditional Nivi sari, sari is also worn in "Karnataka Kacche" drape, kacche drape which shows nivi drape in front and kacche in back, there are Four kacche styles known in Karnataka - "Hora kacche", "Melgacche" ,"Vala kacche" or "Olagacche" and " Hale Kacche".
• Kerala sari style – the two-piece sari, or Mundum Neryathum, worn in Kerala. Usually made of unbleached cotton and decorated with gold or coloured stripes and/or borders. Also the Kerala sari, a sort of mundum neryathum.
• Kunbi style or denthli: Goan Kunbis and Gauda, and those of them who have migrated to other states use this way of draping sari or kappad, this form of draping is created by tying a knot in the fabric below the shoulder and a strip of cloth which crossed the left shoulder was fasten on the back.
• Riha-Mekhela, Kokalmora, Chador/Murot Mora Gamusa - This style worn in Assam is a wrap around style cloth similar to other wrap-around from other parts of South-East Asia and is actually very different in origin from the Mainland Indian sari. It is originally a four-set of separate garments (quite dissimilar to the sari as it is a single cloth) known Riha-Mekhela, Kokalmora, Chador/Murot Mora Gamusa. The bottom portion, draped from the waist downwards is called Mekhela. The Riha or Methoni is wrapped and often secured by tying them firmly across the chest, covering the breasts originally but now it is sometimes replaced by the influence of immigrant Mainland Indian styles which is traditionally incorrect. The Kokalmora was used originally to tie the Mekhela around the waist and keep it firm.
• Innaphi and Phanek - This style of clothing worn in Manipur is also worn with three-set garment known as Innaphi Viel, Phanek lower wrap and long sleeved choli. It is somewhat similar to the style of clothing worn in Assam.
• Jainsem - It is a Khasi style of clothing worn in Khasi which is made up of several pieces of cloth, giving the body a cylindrical shape.

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