Nothing identifies a women being an Indian more than a saree (sari) although it is worn by ladies in Sri Lanka (osariya), Bangladesh and Pakistan. It is a quintessential Indian female garment. Even today, after two centuries of disruptions caused by colonisation and industrialization, a multiplicity of sarees still exists.

The origins of saree are obscure. This is largely due to the fact that very few records of Indian civilisation
occur as compared to others. What is not obscure though is that Indians were wearing lengths of unsewn
cloth draped around their bodies, long before tailored clothes arrived.

The saree is a cloth 4-8 meters long and 120 centimetres wide. It is draped around the entire body and this can be done in more than 15 different ways. Most of this fabric is, invariably, pleated at the waist. The remaining yards are swept across the upper half of the body.

Although the cloth is untailored, the fabric is highly structured and its design vocabulary is extremely
sophisticated. It is divided into 3 areas:

Longitudinal borders:
These usually extend the longitudinal length of the saree either as a woven design created by the contrasting
supplementary wrap or through wrap threads being in a different colour to the wrap making the field

Ending:
This is that part of the saree that is draped over the shoulder and left to hang over the back or the front.

Ending:
This is that part of the saree that is pleated.
Sarees come in various designs, materials and colours. The most popular saree materials are silk, cotton,
crepe, chiffon and georgette. Silk sarees from Banaras, Mysore and Chennai are world famous. Designs
include block prints, bhandhini, embroidered and patola amongst a thousand others. Bhandhini is a technique of tie-dyeing cloth so that many small-resist dyed spots produce elaborate patterns. Worn by women of all religious affiliations and castes, it is very popular in Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Patola sarees are the most time consuming and elaborate. They have intricate 5-colour designs resist-dyed into both wrap and weft threads before weaving, resulting in a completely reversible fabric.