A sari-inspired dress incorporates attributes of the Indian

sari A sari (sometimes also saree or shari)The name of the garment in various regional languages include: * as, শাৰী, xārī, translit-std=ISO * bn, শাড়ি, śāṛi, translit-std=ISO * gu, સાડી, sāḍī, translit-std= ...

into its design. This includes how it drapes, its embellishment and colours. In 1917, a sari-inspired dress appeared in the silent movie ''

The Gown of Destiny ''The Gown of Destiny'' is a 1917 American silent drama film directed by Lynn Reynolds and starring Alma Rubens, Herrera Tejedde and Allan Sears.Connelly p.355 The film shows how a dress performs a patriotic function for France during World War ...

''. Following Jacqueline Kennedy's goodwill tour of India and Pakistan in 1962, when she had brought back several saris with the intention to make them into dresses, for a short while the sari-inspired dress gained enough interest to inspire several designers including

Wesley Tann John Wesley Tann Jr (July 17, 1928 – November 23, 2012) was an American fashion designer. His clientele included Jacqueline Kennedy, Diahann Carroll, Carmen de Lavallade, Leontyne Price, Jennie Grossinger and several Miss Americas. His 1962 ...

and

Oleg Cassini Oleg Cassini (11 April 1913 – 17 March 2006) was a fashion designer born to an aristocratic Russian family with maternal Italian ancestry. He came to the United States as a young man after starting as a designer in Rome, and quickly got ...

to design dresses based on the sari. Other designers that have produced variations of the design include

Dolce and Gabbana Dolce & Gabbana (), also known by initials D&G, is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1985 in Legnano by Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. The house specializes in ready-to-wear, handbags, accessories, and cosmetic ...

, Catherine Walker, Valentino,

Marc Jacobs Marc Jacobs (born April 9, 1963) is an American fashion designer. He is the head designer for his own fashion label, Marc Jacobs, and formerly Marc by Marc Jacobs, a diffusion line, which was produced for approximately 15 years, before it was d ...

Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French high-end Luxury goods, luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton (designer), Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its produc ...

and

Alexander McQueen Lee Alexander McQueen CBE (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British fashion designer and couturier. He founded his own Alexander McQueen label in 1992, and was chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. His achievements in fashion ...

. Kennedy wore Cassini's light-pink chiffon, sari-inspired dress to the opening of the ''

Mona Lisa The ''Mona Lisa'' ( ; it, Gioconda or ; french: Joconde ) is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known ...

'' exhibition in Washington in 1963, and later that year wore it again when hosting a state dinner for Indian President

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (; 5 September 1888 – 17 April 1975), natively Radhakrishnayya, was an Indian philosopher and statesman. He served as the 2nd President of India from 1962 to 1967. He also 1st Vice President of India from 1952 ...

. When

Princess Diana Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

met the King of Thailand in 1988, she wore Walker's fuchsia and violet sari-inspired silk chiffon dress. In 1996 ''

Elle ''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, together with culture, society and lifestyle. The title means "she" or "her" in French. ''Elle'' is considered the w ...

'' supported their opinion of the sari-inspired dress by publishing an image of a woman looking down and stroking her embroidered black chiffon sari-inspired gown. In later years, other celebrities seen in sari-inspired dresses have included

Jennifer Lopez Jennifer Lynn Affleck (' Lopez; born July 24, 1969), also known as J.Lo, is an American singer, actress and dancer. In 1991, she began appearing as a Fly Girl dancer on the sketch comedy television series ''In Living Color'', where she rema ...

Freida Pinto Freida Selena Pinto (born 18 October 1984) is an Indian actress who has appeared mainly in American and British films. Born and raised in Mumbai, Maharashtra, she resolved at a young age to become an actress. As a student at St. Xavier's Colle ...

Sonam Kapoor Sonam Kapoor Ahuja (; born 9 June 1985) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. She has won a National Film Award and a Filmfare Award, and from 2012 to 2016, she appeared in ''Forbes India'' Celebrity 100 list based on her income and ...

Jessica Chastain Jessica Michelle Chastain (born March 24, 1977) is an American actress and producer. Known for primarily starring in films with feminist themes, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. ''Time'' ...

, and

Archie Panjabi Archana Panjabi (born 31 May 1972) is a British actress. She has had various roles in both UK and US television including as Maya Roy in ''Life on Mars'' (2006–07), Nas Kamal in NBC crime drama '' Blindspot'' (2016–17, 2020), Kendra Malle ...

in a sari-gown embedded with colour changing

LEDs A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...

Description

A sari-inspired dress incorporates attributes of the Indian

into its design. This includes how it drapes, its embellishment and colours. Fashion designers that have produced variations of the design include

, Valentino,

Armani Giorgio Armani S.p.A. (), commonly known as Armani, is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in Milan by Giorgio Armani which designs, manufactures, distributes and retails haute couture, ready-to-wear, leather goods, shoes, accessories, and ...

Marchesa A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman wi ...

Elsa Schiaparelli Elsa Schiaparelli ( , also , ; 10 September 1890 – 13 November 1973) was a fashion designer from an Italian aristocratic background. She created the house of Schiaparelli in Paris in 1927, which she managed from the 1930s to the 1950s. ...

Germana Marucelli Germana Marucelli (13 October 1905 - 23 February 1983) was an Italian fashion designer. Life and career Born in Settignano, Florence into a family of craftsmen, after the primary school at 11 years old Marucelli started working as an apprentic ...

Madame Grès Madame Grès (1903–1993), also known as Alix Barton and Alix, was a leading French couturier and costume designer, founder of haute couture fashion house Grès as well as the associated Parfums Grès. Remembered as the "Sphinx of Fashion", Gr� ...

Marcel Rochas Rochas is a fashion design, fashion, cosmetics, beauty, and perfume house founded in 1925 by French designer Marcel Rochas, the first designer of 2/3-length coats and skirts with pockets and one of the two designers, along with Elsa Schiaparelli, ...

Gianni Versace Giovanni Maria "Gianni" Versace (; 2 December 1946 – 15 July 1997) was an Italian fashion designer, socialite and businessman. He was the founder of Versace, an international luxury-fashion house that produces accessories, fragrances, make-u ...

Jean Paul Gaultier Jean Paul Gaultier (; born 24 April 1952) is a French haute couture and prêt-à-porter fashion designer. He is described as an "enfant terrible" of the fashion industry and is known for his unconventional designs with motifs including corsets, ...

and

Carolina Herrera Carolina Herrera (born María Carolina Josefina Pacanins y Niño; 8 January 1939) is a Venezuelan-American fashion designer known for her personal style, and for dressing various First Ladies, including Jacqueline Onassis, Laura Bush, Michel ...

Early-20th century

A sari-inspired dress appeared in the silent movie ''

'' (1917). In the film, the fictional character Mr Reyton leaves his mistress after noticing how beautiful his wife looks wearing the sari-inspired dress. The late 1930s sari-inspired designs of Schiaparelli, inspired by Princess Karam, would later inspire the gilt leather decorated black

crêpe A crêpe or crepe ( or , , Quebec French: ) is a very thin type of pancake. Crêpes are usually one of two varieties: ''sweet crêpes'' () or ''savoury galettes'' (). They are often served with a wide variety of fillings such as cheese, ...

dress by

Christian Bérard Christian Bérard (20 August 1902 – 11 February 1949), also known as Bebè, was a French artist, fashion illustrator and designer. Bérard and his lover Boris Kochno, who worked for the Ballets Russes and was also co-founder of the Ballets d ...

and Nada Patcevitch.

Mid-20th century

Following Jacqueline Kennedy's goodwill tour of India and Pakistan in 1962, when she had brought back several saris with the intention to make them into dresses, for a short while the sari-inspired dress gained enough interest to inspire several designers including

to design dresses based from the sari. Tann produced several dresses using saris including two which featured in ''The New York Times'' and became available at

Henri Bendel Henri Bendel, Inc. (pronounced BEN-del), established in 1895, was a women's department store based in New York City which in its later history sold women's handbags, jewelry, luxury fashion accessories, home fragrances and gifts. Its New York Ci ...

; a turquoise and gold silk

Chanel Chanel ( , ) is a French high-end luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. Chanel specializes in women's ready-to-wear, luxury goods, and accessories and licenses its name and branding to Luxottica for eyewear. Chanel is ...

-style suit and a two-piece red and gold dress.

Joseph Horne Co. The Joseph Horne Company, often referred to simply as Joseph Horne's or Horne's, was an iconic, regional department store chain based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The store was one of the oldest in the country being founded on February 22, 1849, ...

stocked several of Tann's sari-inspired dress. In 1963,

made Kennedy a light-pink, sari-inspired dress to wear at the opening of the ''Mona Lisa'' exhibition in Washington 8 January 1963. It was based on a

Howell Conant Howell Thomas Conant, Sr. (March 13, 1916 – March 11, 1999) was an American fashion photographer noted for his portraits of the American actress and later Princess Consort of Monaco, Grace Kelly. Life Conant's father was a professional photog ...

photograph of the yellow chiffon sari-inspired dress worn by

Audrey Hepburn Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, t ...

the previous year and was made using pink chiffon and decorated with porcelain beads and

diamante A diamanté (also spelled diamante) is a glittering ornament, such as an artificial jewel (e.g. a rhinestone) or a sequin. Diamante may also refer to: Places Argentina * Diamante, Entre Ríos, a ''municipio'' in Diamante Department * Diamante ...

. On 3 June 1963, she wore it again when hosting a

state dinner A state banquet is an official banquet hosted by the head of state in his or her official residence for another head of state, or sometimes head of government, and other guests. Usually as part of a state visit or diplomatic conference, it is ...

for Indian President

. In 1967 Kennedy wore a sari-inspired Valentino gown to a dinner at the Chamcar Mon Palace in

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...

, Cambodia.

Late-20th century

When

met the King of Thailand on 4 February 1988, she wore a fuchsia and violet sari-inspired silk chiffon dress, designed by Catherine Walker. According to Versace, Elizabeth Hurley's famous Versace black dress, which she wore in 1994, developed from the sari. The magazine ''

'' gave the sari coverage in 1996 when it featured outfits "with an Eastern influence". ''Elle'' called them "utterly delectable", "so exquisite" and "they come off best without any extra adornment". They supported their opinion by publishing an image of a woman looking down and stroking her embroidered black chiffon sari-inspired full-length dress with a gold lace border.

21st century

In 2003

wore a mint green Valentino dress to the Oscars. It left one shoulder bare, was sari-styled and was based on the dress worn by Kennedy on the Cambodia visit in 1967. In 2010 Marc Jacobs collaborated with

to release a line of sari-inspired dresses made from vintage Indian saris. In 2012

wore an Alexander McQueen black sari-inspired dress to the Academy Awards. Mustafa Hassanali's gowns are frequently sari-inspired. Other celebrities featured in sari-inspired dresses have included

in a black and gold gown.

walked the red carpet at Cannes in 2016 wearing a white sari-inspired figure-hugging large volume gown. The following year, in Paris, she modelled Gaultier's sari-inspired adaptation of the

tuxedo Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element fo ...

. At the ''Vogue'' Women of the Year Awards in 2017, the host

, wore a sari-gown embedded with colour changing

, designed by Gaurav Gupta and

IBM Watson IBM Watson is a question-answering computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language, developed in IBM's DeepQA project by a research team led by principal investigator David Ferrucci. Watson was named after IBM's founder ...

References

External links

* * *{{cite web , title=5 Versatile Vintage Gowns Inspired By The Indian Sari , url=https://homegrown.co.in/article/801681/30-years-of-sari-inspired-vintage-gowns , website=homegrown.co.in , access-date=2 October 2022 , language=en Fashion Saris Dresses History of Asian clothing India–United States relations