Listicle: 10 foreign celebs who rocked the Indian sari

Another hit from the opening night of the NMACC at Mumbai in April 2023. Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla dressed the supermodel in a gorgeous ivory chikankari sari. Hadid paired it with a glittery gold blouse just like every Auntie. But unlike any Auntie, hers had a plunging neckline and the sari had a cheeky thigh-high side slit. The garment took a year to make. We’ll remember it for much longer.

In the years we’ve known her, Kim Kardashian has worn Marilyn Monroe’s dress, some kind of wet latex, a hot pink catsuit, black curtains covering her from face to toe, and too much shady leatherette. So her red sequined chiffon sari, designed by Sabyasachi Mukherjee and styled by Anaita Shroff Adajania, which popped up in Vogue India in March 2018, was a sparkling surprise. All that fabric and we could still see so much of Kim. Only she could wear a sari like this.

Everyone was at their splashiest best at the opening of the NMACC at Mumbai in April 2023. Zendaya, 5’10”, decided to out-splash them all. She wore a custom-designed Rahul Mishra sari, with a gold-beaded blouse and an embellished, purple skirt. The hand-embroidery took over 3,000 hours to complete. The best part: She swanned around, looking completely at home in it.

First of all, Naomi can do no wrong (except when she’s throwing things at her assistants). Last year, for the Met Gala, she wore a Chanel archival look inspired by the sari. The pale pink and silky drape, pinned over a silver embellished blouse, was the supermodel’s way of paying homage to Karl Lagerfeld. Her silver jewellery matched the trims. Barbie who?

Pantsuits and twinsets are all very good for a billionaire talk-show host. But when in India, nothing less than a sari will do. Winfrey wore a Tarun Tahiliani kanjivaram when she visited in 2012, long before Americans walked Indian red carpets. Her vibrant orange sari had gota work, zardozi and a pink border, and she paired it with a matching corset blouse with gold trim.

She kills it at awards shows (even when she doesn’t win). But Indians adore her look in Eat Pray Love (2010). Costume designer Michael Dennison customised an olive green and brown kanjivaram into a one-piece sari so she didn’t have to pleat and pull. How do we know she found inner peace in the movie? Her hair was nicely pulled up in a bun.

When the British singer offered sweets in a temple in Jaipur in 2018, local headlines read, ‘For the first time, ever’. They were referring to her blue embroidered silk sari, which she wore with the pallu over her head. What made her experience special, she’s told the press, was that a woman outside the temple helped her drape it. No stylist, no costume designer. We like.

Last year, for the opening look on her Renaissance tour, Bey showed up on stage in a custom sari-gown designed by Gaurav Gupta. The neon-green piece was from the designer’s Hiranyagarbha collection. One-shoulder, flowy, a thigh-high slit, waist cutouts and an attached hood. The neon green fabric, flowing in the wind, is the modern sari moment to remember.

What’s in the mail? An invitation to Priyanka Chopra’s 2021 Diwali party. What to wear to join the sea of South Asian celebs? Teigen wore a purple with gold sari with rosette details by the Indian label Papa Don’t Preach. She paired it with a low-cut matchy-matchy full-sleeve blouse and added a mang tikka. Who knew a cookbook author would pull off sanskari and sexy.

One could almost think Paris is too tall, too skinny, to look her best in soft Indian drapes. One would be wrong. The Swarovski-studded silver sari she wore in 2011, ahead of her visit to Mumbai to launch her line of handbags, is proof. The Tarun Tahiliani piece was sparkly and flowy, and was paired with a with a tiny strapless silver blouse. Paris had wavy hair and smoky eyes and her signature “That’s Hot” look. She wore a sari in pink almost a decade later. This is the one everyone remembers.