Twinn Swan

I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed playing dress up this much in my entire life. I had a brief phase in my late teens and into my early 20s when I experimented with makeup. But this–this is completely different. There is something about wearing the saree that says womanhood. It says, I am now a woman and I am proud of it. The saree is not an ensemble that little girls wear.

Since the saree is ‘free-size’, it can be passed down from generation to generation. It all comes down to how you choose to tie it or drape it. And since it is a traditional attire to begin with, there’s no sense at all in wondering whether or not it is trending, still in style and so on. All you have to do is put it on.

When I wear a saree, it is not merely to hark back to the past and remind myself of my roots. When I wear it, I remember that I am beautiful. I remember that these fabrics, designed specifically for Indian women, are beautiful. And lastly, I remember that if I don’t continue this tradition–who will?

I feel oh so feminine when I wear the saree. It is hard to describe for it is not just about how I look or what I am wearing. It is revealing externally what I feel, who I am, who my ancestors were and even who I perhaps envision myself being in the future.

Is it a bold choice to choose the fabrics and the ensembles that my foremothers wore with great pride? How callously and indifferently we have all chosen to shop at fast fashion outlets. We have completely forgotten the craftsmanship and the symbolism that went into the fabrics that our foremothers once wore with pride.

If there is nothing wrong with modernity, then why should there be something wrong with tradition? If there is nothing wrong with casually putting on jeans and a t-shirt, then why would there be something wrong with taking the time to reveal one’s inner being on the outside?

And yes, it does take time to wear a saree. In my experience, you cannot just put it on and rush out of the house with an unfinished coffee cup in your hand. I am all too guilty of this behaviour.

I was in the restroom yesterday and I realised that although what we wear may change, we women are still the same underneath it. Both myself–and the lady next to me–we were both standing there, adjusting our attire, our makeup and so on. I was dressed in a lovely baby blue saree with white and silver embroidery and she was wearing a black dress.

In our youth-obsessed culture, they say that beauty belongs to the young and to the ones who still possess the fountain of youth. But whenever I see a woman in a saree–and this includes grandmas and great-grandmas–I instantly remember that we women are all beautiful… no matter what ‘they‘ say.