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There are designers who can give your antique clothes the modern touch, and lend HERE, I must confess, the nomenclature is rather odd. How can you talk of revival of antique saris/lehengas, for, unless the design is at least 100 years old, it does not fit in with the label of antique. But what is happening is that there is such a great revival of interest in antique designs that the word revival of antique saris now means "restored" saris. These "recreated period" garments include antique dupattas/lehengas from the old havelis in Rajasthan, the Kutch and other regions of Gujarat, Varanasi and cultural sari-weaving towns in UP, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
All metros have their treasure house of antique sari dealers, who help modern designers to come up with innovative ideas. Yusuf Sariwalas in Mumbai’s Chor Bazaar is one such store, which stocks thousands of antique borders typical of various cultures, including old Parsi, Maharashtrian, Gujarati and South Indian, besides so many other forms of weaving and embellishment to modify your antique sari to current fashion, or current sari to antique rating. This is where many of the big-name designers find treasures that they use in their own work — Neeta Lulla and Manish Malhotra, for instance. In Bengaluru (Bangalore) Rani Ponappa is the expert who will rescue your antique sari to fit in with modern times by seeing a new story in every old sari. The Bengaluru-based 52-year-old re-invents cutting butti, pallu and borders of heirloom silk saris and transfixes them onto fresh chiffon, georgettes and silks to create a style statement that blends mesmerising antiquity with contemporary chic. In Kolkata, given the growing demand from her connoisseur clients for vintage saris, designer Kiran Uttam Ghosh is playing with techniques in her design studios to create antique saris. She is subjecting sari fabrics to tea-staining processes and dipping the already dyed fabric (zari work and all) into tea water for an antique look. She is also going all the way with beaten gold thread work and dyeing fabrics to replicate the tarnished, aged look. Designers like Neetu kumar, Anju Modi, Abdul Haldar and luxury brand Ravissant are also giving their saris the much sought after antique touch. "We draw inspiration from many old textile techniques and embroidery. For this, we travel around India, sourcing old textiles and patterns and setting them into contemporary styles," says Akshay Deep Singh, head designer, Ravissant Fashion. "To attain the antique touch, we subject our saris to a rigorous process of distressing through dyeing, printing and oxidisation. This gives the piece a patina of age without making it lackluster," explains Singh. Each sari takes up to 20-30 days to complete, depending on the intricacies of the embroidery or weave. The printed ones are priced at Rs 9,000 while heavily embroidered pieces at Ravissant come for Rs 60,000 upwards. Meanwhile, designer Krishna Potdar literally hammers a pattern out of the zari using pitta work. "This is achieved by beating the gold thread with a hammer for a flattish look," she explains. Remember, you might have just salvaged an antique sari from your grandmother’s box. But a heritage sari does not always have to be cut up and reused, or its border sold and used by someone else to create new fashion. Designers suggest keeping the vintage drape but updating it with a more "today’s" blouse. Gaurav Bhatia, for one, who with his wife Pratima works on creating exquisitely ornate garments, says: "We never encourage a wedding sari being cut up. That would almost be sacrilege. There are ways to drape it that will make it reusable. You can always give it a twist with unique blouses." To prevent heritage
saris from shredding, wear them as much as you can, and when you store
them, make sure you roll them rather than fold them. — MF
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It
is a sure way to stay one step ahead of the fashion pack. An antique
garment straight out from grandma’s steel trunk or from mom’s
trousseau has a grandeur that money can’t always buy. But what
happens if you love the old world look but have no idea as to how to
fit it with your fashion? All is not lost, as there are
designers/fashion maestros and specialists keen to cash in on this
boom to give antique touch to new saris.