How to Drape Uniform Sarees by Dolly Jain

How to Drape Uniform Sarees by Dolly Jain, I am six yards ahead of my times.” So reads an inscription on Dolly Jain’s arm. When she began a career as a saris draper 17 years ago, others thought she had no future. But these days, she has taken the traditional Indian garment to another dimension with her innovative techniques.

She has come up 365 ways to drape her sari and holds the record for draping one within 18.5 seconds. She has also worked with women who are part of India’s top businesses and the leading ladies of Indian cinema, from Helen, Hemalini, Sridevi, Madhuri Dixits Nene to Sonam and Deepika Padukones. How to Drape Uniform Sarees by Dolly Jain.

Jain says her out-of-the-ordinary job is purely based on passion and came up organically. Raised In Bangalore, Jain moved to Calcutta after getting married into a traditional Marwadi family. “I was only allowed to wear sarees. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I was so passionate about wearing them differently, I converted it to a career,” says Jain.

Most people around her were wearing saris in the traditional manner, she says, with folds and tucked into the waist. She wasn’t fond of saris to begin with, so she decided she would try them out anyway. Her friends and family started praising her for how she was carrying herself. Inspired by this praise, Jain held a workshop for the neighborhood ladies, one of whom asked her if she could do something similar in her hometown of Raipur. That was the start of her journey, she remembers.

Jain began experimenting on her own with ever more different drapes on her mannequin, and learned the regional styles of states such as Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Bengal. She then merged modern silhouettes with traditional ones, becoming more inventive as time went by.

Jain predicts sari will make a huge comeback as women are increasingly buying designer clothes. “The saris will become the next thing as they can experiment with them in so many ways and wear them with belts or trainers. When youngsters want all eyes to be on them, they opt to wear a sari as they understand the value and power of different types of draping and also because they can buy something that can be passed down.” Read more such stories here and here.