How I wore my old dupattas?

“I love new clothes. If everyone could just wear new clothes every day, I reckon depression wouldn’t exist anymore.”

– Sophie Kinsella, Confessions of a Shopaholic

Well, I totally agree..

I love clothes, no matter what kind, as long as it’s beautiful, I am happy.

As I was born and brought up in India, I love Indian fabric, prints and embroidery. It’s intricate, it’s varied, it’s vibrant and there is always so much history behind every unique piece.

If you have ever been to typical market in North India, especially Punjab, you would know that they have these beautiful embroidered dupattas, that are hung all around a store, and the colors are breathtaking.

That’s where my love for dupattas started and this love led to me collecting them from all over India and eventually, my wardrobe overflowing with them.

Soon I realized I need to do something about it, as I really didn’t want to part with them.  I got my creative juices flowing and decided to turn them into something ritzy.

My first attempt was the one shoulder shirt

I wore this with white denim pencil pants; the sandals are from Zara; since the embroidery is really elaborate, I kept the accessories very simple- a silver watch, diamond drop earrings and a simple bangle. I carried a small green bag from Lulu and Sky. The main focus of the dress is the shirt and the sandals and that why accessories were minimal.

The fabric is an extremely soft black georgette, the embroidery is done with white thread and there are little mirrors placed in the center of the big flowers.

I have worn this outfit for formal and informal occasions both, just paired it differently, either with all black, or all beige or all red. Every time it looked breathtaking.

I am yet to try it with mustard and once I do, I‘ll let you know.

I tried the first one as an experiment, but when the outcome was better than I thought, there was nothing stopping me!!

I took a beautiful rust color, phulkari work dupatta on heavy silk and got a jacket done with it. It has a button on top and the rest is open.

The back and front, both have no elaborate cuts or darts. It’s a loose fitted jacket and as the material is thick silk, it falls very well.

The embroidery is beautiful, all hand done.

I wear this jacket with trousers (fitted or pencil) and a solid fitted top inside; with a short fitted dress; I even wore it once with a long flowing skirt and a short fitted top inside.

This time I used a Tussar dupatta, all hand embroidered, with Kantha work on it and patterns from Orissa. It had little sequence work all over, which really brightens it up. I got a bold black border done on the jacket to define the outfit better. It’s an open jacket, with no buttons. I wear it black trousers and black top and black heels, small studs in the ears and a delicate neckpiece. It gives it a formal look.

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I have also worn it with a pink fitted dress and black boots. I loved how it looked.  Accessories are again minimal, as it’s quite elaborate in itself.

I got two of my dupattas turned into pants.

Both the dupattas  were thick georgette, so were strong enough fabric. The white one had very intricate embroidery, done by machine, I love the contrasting colors; something so refreshing about it.

The maroon dupatta has chicken work done on it, all by hand; the rich colors used for embroidery, makes it really attractive.

I wear these with plain t shirts, always is solid colors, and again I keep accessories to a minimal.

(A tip: never mix prints with embroidery or two prints or two differently embroidered pieces of garment; keep your style simple and it works, always)

I had a thin silk, ‘Tie & Dye” dupatta. I had some parts in tie & dye and some parts were shaded in pastel colors. It was really elaborate and really beautiful. I got this dress made out of it. I added an embroidered piece as the neck and the rest of the dress was panels of the dupatta cut and stitched together. It’s a flowing dress, which is extremely attractive for someone with my built; it can be worn for most occasions and besides along pair of earrings, you don’t need anything else.

I am so glad I could turn these beautiful pieces into something I can wear pretty often. It was disheartening for me to see them stacked in my cupboard and me not able to wear them.

There are so many more pieces I am working on, and as I keep getting them stitched, I’ll keep updating this page.

Hope you enjoyed this article.

Lots of love!