“Esho, he Boishakh, Esho Esho. Come, O Boishakh, Come, Come”

– Rabindranath Tagore

Every year, April 14 celebrates the arrival of the Bengali New Year or Poila Boishakh, part of a unique calendar system determined by the seasons. The same day is observed elsewhere as the traditional solar new year and a harvest festival by Hindus and Sikhs, and is known by other names such as Vaisakhi in central and north India, Vishu in Kerala, Puthandu in Tamil Nadu and Rongali Bihu in Assam. While growing up, Poila Boishakh used to be my (Moumita) favourite day of the year as it is the only day when all Bengalis will unwind and celebrate, irrespective of religion, class or caste. Ladies clad in white sarees with red borders, men in dhuti and kurta, take part in the Probhat Pheri processions early in the morning to welcome the first day of the year. On Pohela or Poila Boishakh, a Bengali home is thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned, people bath early in the morning and dress in new clothes. Everyone spends much of the day visiting relatives, friends, and neighbors. Our early memory of a Poila Boishakh day is about wearing new clothes, eating scrumptuous Bengali delicacies all throughout the day and what a fun it was to visit neighborhood businesses to celebrate their Hal Khata or opening of new ledger book for the year. We used to participate in various cultural programmes that usually take place to usher the first day of the Bengali calendar singing Tagore’s songs, not to mention wearing red & white saree and fresh flowers in hair.  Here in America, the celebrations are not quite as elaborate but the traditions are kept alive within the Bengali community. 

Look of the day:

As mentioned earlier, Poila Boishakh has an intimate connection with red and white saree for a Bong lady. It represents tradition along with festivities and rituals. The colors red and white symbolizes a wierd combination of love, passion, peace, sanctity, and fierceness for me. When planning about this look we thought of skipping the typical red bordered white saree but wanted to keep the essence of red and white colors. Thus the tussar saree with block prints was chosen. It had both essential red and white but yet was unconventional for the day.

I(Moumita) draped the saree in the traditional Bengali আটপৌড়ে style. Full sleeved blouses matches perfectly with this kind of traditional drape and brings in a lot of drama and style. For some extra servings of drama paired simple yet unusual accessories. The gold necklace and kaanbala earrings is complimented by the showstopper Marathi Nathni. Adding the nath makes the whole outfit all the more spectacular and deviates from the usual bengali look. The golden potli bag was a gift from a dear cousin and was a match made in heaven for the outfit.

Before ending this post, wishing all of you a very prosporous and a Happy New Year, শুভ নববর্ষ. May all your dreams come true this year. 

I hope you enjoyed the look and found some inspirations. If you have liked this look and feel inspired, then please share this post right now with your friends on Instagram and  Facebook. Leave us a comment or two below so that we know our effort was worth it.

Outfit Details:

Saree: Adi Dhakeshwari Bastralaya, Gariahat, Kolkata India

Blouse: Designed by Moumita

Gold Jewelry: N.P. Jewelers, Gariahat, Kolkata, India

Nath: Gehna

Potli Bag, Gift, source unknown.

If you’re wondering what to wear to a glamorous evening party or a grand dinner date, then we've got this gorgeous look put together just for you today, along with some must-remember do’s and dont’s when it comes to looking like the belle of the ball. For souls like me dressing up acts like a catharsis and evening parties and events gives us the perfect opportunities to do so. Sanchita had to attend such a dinner party in Charlotte and wanted to look her glam best without overdoing. Am sure this has occurred to you as well on how to get the right balance of glam without looking like a Christmas tree. Thus we thought of sharing her look with you and our takes on how to dress up in your ethnic best for the next party. 

Know more about the look

Sanchita is wearing a gorgeous handloom Tussar saree with intricate Madhubani painting done all over the pallu and border. We have always been very passionate about hand woven and handloom sarees as they have been someone’s hard work and toil. A craftsman somewhere out there must have spent several days to give life to these sarees out here. What can be more special than that. So buy more handloom so that we can support their livelihood. If you want to know more about handloom sarees please read our previous post here

This precious six yards adorned is with hand painted Madhubani art. Madhubani art or Mithila art is practiced in the Mithila region of India and Nepal. Painting is done with fingers, twigs, brushes, nib-pens, and matchsticks, using natural dyes and pigments, and is characterised by eye-catching geometrical patterns. There is ritual content for particular occasions, such as birth or marriage, and festivals, such as Holi, Surya Shasti, Kali Puja, Upanayana, Durga Puja.(source)

Let's get back to the look now, designed the blouse which came with the saree to be simple with a deep back. For a glamorous evening party Sanchita chose to amp up the look with a heavy dramatic necklace. It was match made in heaven with the saree and became the focal point of the whole look. Added some faux flowers to the simple bun.No elaborate hairdo as the outfit already had a lot going on in terms of accessory and saree. Just smoked up the look with dark eyes and nude lips. It added more attractiveness to the whole look.

Let’s wind up with our tips for today! 

• First of all, Styling sarees has no rules so keep experimenting and finding your own comfort.

• For a change put rest to your blingy designer labels and try out traditional sarees like Madhubani, Gadwal, Baluchari etc. for your evening parties. Some of you might be wondering if wearing your mom’s traditional tussar will make you look old for a happening evening party but trust me, these  age old weaves will stand out gracefully amidst all “trendy” outfits. In fact these classic sarees are beyond any fashion trend and are perfect heirloom possessions that you’ll treasure for years to come. 

• Team up deeper cut/halter blouses or trendy crop tops with the traditional sarees for that extra glam quotient.

• Pair dramatic makeup/accessories with simple sarees and vice versa. Balance in hair makeup and outfit is key to look good. You don’t have to be an expert hair and makeup artist but just know what looks good on you.

• Shoes and bags are equally important to complete the look. Invest in a good black or tan purse that would be your loyal friend for most of the outfits.

• Wear your smile and confidence and that’s the key to look good.

I hope you enjoyed the look and found some inspirations. If you have liked this look and feel inspired, then please share this post right now with your friends on Instagram and  Facebook. Leave us a comment or two below so that we know our effort was worth it.

Outfit details

Saree: Adi Dhakeshwari Bastralaya, Gariahat, Kolkata, India

Necklace: H&M store, City Creek Mall, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.

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.

What Was I Wearing:

Saree: Karukrit in Bolpur, West Bengal, India

Blouse: Silk material bought from Gouranga Bastralaya, Gariahat, Kolkata, India

Silver jewelry: H&M

Chandbali earring: Vinatha Collections, Virginia, USA

White sling bag: Celvin Klein

Embroidered bag: Hawkers' Market, Gariahat, Kolkata, India

Palm ring: Bilu da's Collection, Kolkata, India

Metal Bangles: Hogg's Market, Kolkata, India