Nil, who goes by one name, shows me a whole boudoir for elaborate bridal saris.
"This is gold, metallic gold ... the glass beads, and zari, gold zari [a type of thread]," he says.
"The embroidery can be starting from 500 hours to 2,000, 3,000 hours of human labor of embroidery. So you can imagine the amount of time," he says. "So of course they come out to be humongously, obnoxiously expensive."
The big fat Indian wedding, says Nil, provides work for hundreds. He recently dressed one of India's hottest actresses in a sari — though not a sari my mother would recognize.
The author's mother, Reba, with the author's sister in London. Courtesy of Sandip Roy hide caption
itoggle caption Courtesy of Sandip Roy
It was, Nil says, "inspired by the war camouflage, but we have used roses to make the camouflage pattern."
When high fashion meets six yards of cloth, mistakes can happen. Lady Gaga shredded a sari to reveal a bodysuit, fishnet stockings and boots. Boutique-owner Malavika Banerjee rolls her eyes.
"What Lady Gaga did doesn't hold a candle to some of the sculptures we have in our temples where the sari has been worn in the most provocative and sexy manner possible," she says.
But if the sari's obituary is premature, its renaissance isn't complete either. Banerjee worries that weavers would rather their children pick up computer skills than old weaving techniques.
"If we don't make weaving ... an accepted, a modern and something to be proud of, then I am afraid that, you know, may not be in our lifetimes, but weaving, hand-weaving, will die," she says.
And we will be left only with carefully folded saris like those in my mother's closet. Her latest pastime is choosing the right sari for her final outfit someday.
"I can wear those things on my last journey," she says.
It has to be nice — but not one she loves too much.
"I told my daughter, 'Don't use those new saris,' " she says. " 'Rather you will wear it, that's much better.' "
My mother wants her favorite saris to live on beyond her. Because sometimes, love is all about saying sari.
Fashion
India
Bollywood