The months of April-June seem to be the months of weddings what with one friend after another getting married! I don’t think I have ever gone for as many weddings as I have during the past couple of months! The one thing that is surely changing or rather has changed in Chennai is the popularity of silk sarees especially among youngsters.

Guys, you are most welcome to skip this post unless you want to read it for educational purposes like this person here. :P

Gone are the days when every other person came to weddings showing off their silk sarees that had lots of zari. In fact, there is hardly any zari in the sarees worn by most of them these days. The designer sarees, especially the synthetic, crepe, tussar or raw silk designer sarees, are the ones that are in vogue now. With anything from simple thread work to stones, sequins, zardosi or kundan work done, the prices of these sarees range from 500 to 50K+. Of course, the expensive ones (say upwards of 5K) are reserved for the brides and sisters, cousins or other close relatives of the brides/bridegrooms. Oh yeah not even the brides wear ordinary traditional silk sarees with just zari alone for their wedding reception. It’s either designer sarees or ghagras/lehengas with lots of designer work done.

Coming back to the designer sarees worn by the people who come for weddings, the one type of saree that are so common are the plain synthetic sarees with simple or not so grand designer work in golden or silver colour threads done on the border and the pallu alone. Only some have simple dots kind of design done throughout the saree. And it’s mostly only the stones or chamkees that are there along with the thread work. This sort of work on some colours is sometimes a bit too dazzling - over paLa paLa those will be. Every other person seems to be having a saree like this in colours like light blue, light green, pink, lavender, orange, white, black or red. I have got bored of sarees like these.

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Photos Source: http://www.wholesalefashionindia.com/images/designer%20sarees/wfis016.jpg, http://www.yourdesignerwear.com & http://cgi.cafr.ebay.ca/BOLLYWOOD-CRYSTAL-KUNDAN-EMBROIDERY-SARI-SAREE-INDIA_W0QQitemZ220232098646QQihZ012QQcategoryZ155250QQcmdZViewItem

The other most popular sarees are the raw silk sarees which have borders in contrasting colours. These raw silk sarees priced anywhere between 500-1000 bucks with a particular design pattern printed throughout, with/without stones on each design pattern in the border, are the ones that seem to be popular for the past few years. These don’t interest me either.

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Photos Source: http://www.yourdesignerwear.com

The pure raw silks in dark colours like red, pink, green and blue that are priced around 2K-3K with work done throughout are the ones that seem to have become the current rage, as I observed at a wedding recently.

There are of course, more expensive, grand sarees with intricate work done throughout in synthetic and raw silk sarees. But I don’t find anybody wearing it for wedding receptions.

Now, I too like designer sarees but I don’t prefer either the synthetic ones or the raw silk. One of the main reasons is seeing every other person wearing these. Go to Nalli or Kumaran Silks and see the designer sarees priced around 3K and above. I find these more elegant than others. Some of those sarees priced 5K+ that have a mix of kundan and zari work on them are so beautiful. But these kundan-work sarees are grander than all those above-said popular raw silk or synthetic designer sarees.

A sample kundan work:

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Photo Source: http://www.indusladies.com/forums/general-fashion-trends/16384-kundan-work-embriodery-stone.html

Even though one may like all these grand sarees and buy them, I wonder when they will get a chance to wear it. Imagine you being the only youngster dressed in a grand saree apart from the bride! Or the worst case may be you wearing a saree that’s grander than the bride’s since the most of the brides too don’t wear silk sarees! I am saying this from experience! I made the mistake of wearing a non-designer silk saree with a pallu that has beautiful designs in zari and my saree turned out to be even more grand than the bride’s herself since she was wearing only a synthetic designer saree! :|

Talking about the reception sarees/ghagras of the brides, I really don’t see the need for spending a minimum of 10K bucks and getting very grand sarees/ghagras for their wedding only to later keep those locked up in the cupboards! After all, they too wouldn’t want to be the only person dressed up most grandly in some other person’s wedding reception, would they?

But the silk saree seems to be losing its popularity among youngsters only in Chennai. I went to a friend’s wedding at Sivakasi last year. I was the only one wearing a silk designer saree there and another friend of mine was the only one wearing a synthetic designer saree! All others, be it youngsters or middle-aged people, were wearing grand silk sarees, some that had zari a bit too much for my liking.

Is this rage for designer sarees here to stay? Will other places in Tamil Nadu also catch up with Chennai on this rage for designer sarees? Will zari be back in vogue?

P.S.: The sarees whose photos I have put might be grander/expensive than what I have mentioned in the post. I have put those photos here just to give you an idea of the type of sarees that I am writing about.