Bong Mania Overloaded

December rings in a whole new party vibe which continues till the next year. The chill in the air and roads and houses lit up for the season adds on to this festive spirit. There are a lot of invitations that we have to attend this winter ...Christmas parties, weddings,reception parties, new year gatherings, year end office parties, dinner parties with friends and family etc. etc. These days most of us tend to reach out for our cocktail dresses or our heavy salwar suits for most of these events. But let me tell you that you can easily ditch the "Oh-so-Obvious" winter party wardrobe and drape your pure silks with elan. I remember my Ma and aunts flaunting their traditional coarse silk and tussars in winters with lots of confidence and comfort. Be it their office parties, winter weddings or year end gatherings, their utmost glamour and grace in finest 6 yards would amaze us. So if you are with us in this, lets talk about how to #bringbackthesaree this season ladies!!

Recently had to attend an evening party at a friend's and while planning for what to wear, I thought of reaching out to my heavy silk saree. It has been a part of my trousseau and lying in my wardrobe to be worn at a suited occasion. It added the perfect bling to the event that night, was most comfortable as the warm silk hugged me all around and stood out in the crowd, garnering a lot of appreciations. So after I came back from the party, I thought of clicking few pics to post for you all.

Tips to wear traditional saree to evening parties this winter

Your heavy traditional sarees too may be waiting to get out of your closet, so bring them back this party season. Style them unconventionally, increase the oomph in them by strategic styling and feel their warmth this winter.

Here are few tips for the season:

Choose the right saree for comfort and glamour. Wearing the right fabrics will keep you looking great and feeling warm during the short days of the cold season. A good winter fabric should be strong, warm and natural, but should look amazing as well like pure silks, brocade, cashmere, etc.

Pair them with unconventional blouses like, sweaters, jumpers, warm t-shirts, velvet cholis/blouses, jackets, crop tops, winter coats,. This is the season you can experiment without melting in them. Wear according to the weather so that you feel comfortable while looking stylish.

Ditch the petticoats and wear wool leggings and skirts instead for comfort through long hours in cold. Depending on the temperatures and your comfort choose the right material for the leggings or skirt. Merino wool is my choice of base on the lower part of my body. This will help to dance away the night in comfort.

Layer your saree with a jacket or overcoat if you're having a late night outdoor party or you need a extra warmth. Intricately embroidered shawls can adda lot of style to the whole saree look. But drape them nicely rather than just clumsily putting them on. Don't shy away from comfort. Concentrate on the base and outer layer of the saree as much as you do for the saree itself.

Accessorize to balance out the look. Choose heavier accessories to accentuate subtle sarees and concentrate on statement pieces for rich embroidered sarees. If you are wearing an outer layer on the saree like a coat or a jacket, consider visibility of your statement accessories like necklace, either skip them and wear big earrings or pin them over your jacket. There's no point wearing any jewelry if its hidden below your shawl.

What Was I Wearing

Let me breakdown the look for you. This royal blue silk saree has exquisite zari work on its border, pallu and pleats. Although it came with its own matching blouse, but to keep the season's color in mind, I paired it with a heavy embroidered velvet net choli. The choli came with a lehenga set, and was perfectly warm and rich. Paired my favorite over-sized "katori"(as my Ma would call them 😏) jhumkis and a studded bangle. I opted out deliberately of any other statement jewelry in the look to avoid crowding the look thus keeping it easy and smart. Kept my makeup bright to be in sync with the ambiance.

Saree: Priyo Gopal Bishoyi, Kolkata, India
Choli: Came with a set of lehenga choli bought from Utsav Fahsion
Bangle: Gift from a friend, bought from Chique, Kolkata
Earrings: Gariahat Hawkers Market, Kolkata, India

The winter afternoon sun makes me so nostalgic. It takes me back to our weekends in the cozy verandas, cuddled up lazily in old kantha quilts, Ma keeping us engrossed with her childhood stories and Baba silently reading his usual newspapers."পুরানো সেই দিনের কথা ভুলবি কিরে হায়"(excerpt from Tagore's famous song on bygone days and nostalgia)!!! Alas!!!

Holiday season during our childhood was all about stories, lazy afternoons, warmth of old handmade quilts, wedding parties, colors and happiness. Thus this winter series post is inspired by all those elements and few more. Its a vibrant Nakshikantha on tussar saree with stories of birds embroidered all over the saree in a corner to corner style. You can drape this saree to any of your Holiday parties or Wedding invites. Thus presenting our #Kantha saree look

Bought this Nakshikantha saree on my last trip to Bolpur, West Bengal from a local handloom shop. Its a hand-embroidered master piece on tussar. This specific kantha motif is called pakhi kantha or bird motif kantha. The saree has been embroidered with more than 32 hues of thread. The off-white typical of tussar color of this saree makes all the embroidered motifs pop-up. Sanchita also draped a similar pakhi kantha saree in peacock blue Bangalore silk in one of our previous blogs here.

So what is Kantha or Nakshikantha ?

For as many as 500 centuries, poor Bengali women have taken their discarded cloth scraps and sewn them together with a simple running stitch; taking the old and re-purposing it into something useful and protective. Far from trend-setting, or even artfulness, kantha was created originally for the most basic and practical purpose: to keep warm. Over time, kantha developed as a generational skill, a craft that could symbolically impart story, desire, and well-wishing for loved ones & gift recipients. Elaborate kantha were made as wedding gifts or gifts for mothers, with stories and wishes weaved in(source). Nakshikantha is refered to those specific artistic kantha work which depicts special motifs. The motifs may include images of flower and leaves, birds, fish and animals. They even have unique ways of story telling through the motifs.

How to buy genuine Kantha sarees:

In recent times with advent of machine embroidery, there has been a lot of less expensive pseudo kantha sarees sold in bigger outlet stores. But the genuine hand embroidery has always held its own reputation as pieces of art . In order to buy real hand embroidered Kantha sarees, please look into the density of the stitches. Denser the stitches, more likely its an hand embroidered one. Also the price of a real Nakshikantha saree is way expensive than the machine embroidered ones. But if you would earnestly like to own such a gem in your collection and want to support the brilliant artists working on them, this price would seem worthy for you. Kantha work is done on cotton, silk and tussar, so make sure you also check the handloom mark/silk mark on the fabric you're paying the for.

Styling of Kantha Sarees

Kantha Sarees are nothing new to us, we have been seeing our moms and grand-moms draping it with utmost elegance from ages. Kantha sarees are themselves so beautiful that we don't need much else. But an ordinary blouse and random accessories can spoil the whole drama in the saree. As these sarees are very traditional, edgy stylizing can draw all the attention in any party. Here are some tips to stylize your kantha buy:

The right blouse

Choose the right blouse. Printed or too much work on blouse may take the focus out of the kantha work on saree. You can choose subtle kantha embroidered blouse but solid colored ones matches the best. Contrast blouses can be a great option to brighten up the over all look. For multi-colored kantha work sarees, you can have a variety of colors to choose for a contrast blouse.

You can even experiment with crop-tops or unconventional blouse cuts like, off-shoulder, halter etc to raise the style barometer. Here's few examples of such modern blouses. But remember to consider your comfort before pairing them.

Source: Pinterest

Accessories can make or break the look

Boring and random acessories can spoil the whole look of the beautiful saree. So when you pair up your jewelries with the saree, keep in mind the blouse you are going to wear and the final look you want. Kantha sarees are very versatile and can be worn with silver, gold, pearls and even "junk" jewelries. So you have plethora of options to choose from. You can go over the top with chunky jewelries or keep it very minimal to let the saree talk. Its your choice! But whatever jewelry you pair up with, should compliment the whole look rather than looking out of place and dated.

For one of the looks I sported here, as I added floral hair acessory I kept my jewelry simple with a statement chandbali earring, a whole lot of colorful bangles and a kutch work sling bag. It added the needed glamour to the look and also kept a balance.

For the other look, as I kept my hair in waves, I tired some over the top silver chunky necklace and jhumkis and kept my hands bare with only a stylish palm ring. As the jewelry was heavy, I carried a very simple white leather sling bag.

Makeup and Hairstyle that compliments the whole attire:

Winter is the best time to experiment with your hair and makeup choices. At least you don't have to worry about sweating out your layers of foundation nor spoiling your newly curled hair. For your tresses sometimes simplest accompaniments can add a lot of drama to your look. You can try a floral clip like I have here, or also tie your hair in a traditional bun with lots of fresh flowers to amp up the evening look. During the day time you may simply straighten your hair for a cleaner look.

Play around with some fun makeup trends this season. If you are a lazy person like me and never want to spend hours on makeup, choose some statement colors for eyes or lips so they get highlighted without much ado. Like here in one of the looks I tried glitter and in the other a blue pop of color on my eyes, so that with less work and products I can make them bright and highlighted. Also you can go for a whole lot of other options like smokey eyes, nude eyes etc depending on how traditional or modern you want to look.