The Tale Of The Blouse

From us Victorian-era origins worn by the fashionable set in kolkata, to the humble choli and even the corset-braletle, is modern sari blouse has had a remarkable journey. Bazaar India traces us roots, is flirtatons with royalty, and the glamorous avatars of today. By Priya Kumari Rana

My most cherished memories of my late maternal grandmother, Thakurani Ratan Kumari, is of her sitting in a cane chair in her large patio, surrounded by her beloved Pomeranians, wearing a light chiffon sari with a long blouse that covered her entire midriff. In their heyday, women of my grandmother’s era, the 1950s—especially those from royal and aristocratic backgrounds—were known to wear blouses that went all the way down and below their petticoat, with two slits on either side from where the sari would easily drape over the shoulder, without crumpling the blouse. In fact, if you look at photos of Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur, she always wore her trademark French chiffons with a long, demure blouse, much like most of the royal women of that era from the erstwhile princely States of Jodhpur, Udaipur, and Kota, among others.

Chiffon saris were the perfect accoutrement for covering one's head, a style that royal ladies in the pastright up to the present-were inclined to do. A Banarasi silk sari could easily slip off the head, but the chiffon sari stayed in place. To match their chiffons, the blouse went with the formal, covered up look, because no royal wanted to be deemed as 'indecent' in the eyes of onlookers.

A PUCCA ENGLISH BEGINNING

This sense of 'decency' and being 'proper' is what's at the crux of the matter with the blouse in its modern avatar.

The sari itself comes from a long line of fabrics that were draped around the body (the earliest mention is in the Rig Veda, which is several thousand years old; as are temple sculptures proof to this garment's ancient origins).