It started even before she took the stage in Wilmington to accept the nomination for Vice President. A fellow desi texted, I hope she wears a sari for the inauguration! Female politicians are scrutinized cruelly for their looks and clothing but Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, in addition to representing all of womankind, must also represent Black America and India. And all the aunties are watching.

When I look at Harris I see an accomplished and ambitious professional woman who is impeccably poised and groomed. She’s a beauty who doesn’t seem overly identified with, or worried about, her looks. I was doubtful about her preference for pantsuits over dresses, but bowled over by her campaign uniform. Bounding down the steps of a Biden-Harris jet in white t-shirt, capri pants, suit jacket, and Converse Chuck Taylors, she seemed cool, pragmatic and progressive. (The campaign’s best tweet, from @jezebel: I am worried about Kamala Harris’s arch support) To inspect wildfire damage in October with California Governor Gavin Newsom she switched it up with Timberlands and an army-inspired olive jacket, surrendering none of her glamor or authority.

A sari is a different thing. It’s a flattering garment that complements any figure, and Harris will look ravishing in one. But, like stilettos, wearing one with ease requires years of experience. I’d prefer if she referenced India, and her fellow desis, more indirectly. She can wear something shiny, drapey, or crazy-colored, accessorizing with piles of gold jewelry. Or she can turn to the magnificent example of Michele Obama, who wore a strapless ankle-length embroidered gold sheath by Naeem Khan to welcome the Indian Prime Minister to the White House in 2009.

Harris is now herself a world leader and, in a better world, it wouldn’t matter what she wears. But each time she steps out she looks fantastic, and each time it inspires.

Kamala Aunty by Hanifa Abdul Hameed, 2020. © Hanifa Abdul Hameed, Colors of Honey

MAKING THE OLD BOLD

I nearly fell off my chair when a cluster of models wearing saris designed by Masaba Gupta for Satya Paul hit the runway at the Splendid India Closet show. I’ve never seen anything like them. They use large-scale contemporary graphics to highlight the garment’s classically fluid, draped form. Masaba’s most recent collection takes pop imagery including road maps, phone booths, and lipstick tubes and smears, and prints them on gauzy silk chiffon. I can only imagine the drama that erupts when a woman wearing a lipstick sari walks into a cocktail party in Mumbai. Surely she makes it clear that she is the wittiest, most modern, and elegantly appointed woman in the room.

A sari is, very simply, a six-yard length of 44"-wide fabric. It’s the way it’s draped and folded and tucked that gives it its dynamic, graceful shape. So to incorporate a sizeable graphic, rather than a small, all-over pattern, it’s necessary to plot out where every bit of fabric will land on the figure, how it will fall, and how it will move as a women walks in it. Masaba plays with ombre, incorporating long stretches of dove grey, bubble gum pink and electric yellow that accentuate, in turn, hips, legs and shoulders. She adds contrasting hot pink and cherry red borders to set off stark black and white motifs. And she sets the boldest graphics on the length that winds across the front of the torso rather than saving it for the pulloo, the end that falls freely over the shoulder and that, typically, receives the most specialized decoration. The graphics she selects are bold and loaded with pop cultural references (Warhol, Picasso, Lichtenstein, Rosenquist), but they don’t distract from the garment’s traditional silhouette. Masaba is executing centuries-old draping, masterfully, in a style that’s audaciously contemporary.

Ombre Grey Digital-Print Lipstick Saree by Masaba Gupta, 2014. Image courtesy of Satya Paul.

July 17, 2014 by Nalina Moses