In how many ways can you wear a sari? If you can’t think of more than the usual two, ask Shaina NC, the queen of innovative sari wearing. At a recent presentation at the Djinns at Hyatt, Shaina showed off as many as 30 ways to drape a sari in less than an hour! Pity she’s not aiming for a record, though she’s more than willing to share her drape secrets with the rest of us. “Anybody who is interested is welcome to come to Hyatt Regency where, till July 31, I am showing how to drape the sari,” she adds.
A B.A. in political science, Shaina dreamt of entering politics but instead chose to get into designing and innovating with saris.
“I think it comes from my mother Munira Chudasama, who is always clad in sari with the pallu falling on the left,” says Shaina. She reveals that though she’d started wearing saris since the age of 18, she never practised doing it. “It comes naturally,” she says.
“Shaina has an amazing way of draping the saris. She even manages to create a lehenga lookalike with multicoloured saris,” says former beauty queen Nikita Anand.
From wearing it like a sarong, to wearing it over trousers, to draping the pallu like a muffler, there are 100 ways to experiment with the six-yard wonder, says Shaina. You only have to watch her deft fingers wrapping and tucking in the pleats to believe her.