This project explores the complexities of history and beauty surrounding the sari and reinterprets the form through innovative draping techniques to emphasise its versatility and enduring elegance. By reclaiming the sari as a vehicle for freedom and self expression, this creative project pushes back against colonial ideologies of modesty and embodies Tamil decolonisation through design.

The sari has long been an emblem of South Asian identity with centuries of history, but the important legacy of a sari has often been relegated to colonial conversations regarding modesty and decency. This project intends to push against those colonial concepts by engaging with the sari in novel ways of draping and design to build the sari back into a symbol of personal and cultural freedom.

In the spirit of Tamil decolonisation, we reclaim the sari, as a marker of ethnic pride and self determined identity and self definition, that refuses the constraints from colonial history. This project also contends with Western dress standards that dismiss the many shapes of the sari, as well as the beauty and presence of a sari as is, without a blouse.