Maheshwari saris at Vaya start at Rs.3,000.

Young Maheshwari

Mira Sagar’s Maheshwaris.

 Candy pink, an almost fluorescent pista green and a netted range of stripes; the Maheshwaris at Mira Sagar’s Bandra store Vaya, in Mumbai, strikingly step away from the traditional Maheshwari template in colour, texture and style. Needing to create a new identity for herself and for the saris, Sagar began to experiment with leaving out zari, introducing heavier textures, increasing the size of the borders and pallus and seeking new areas within the tradition. Modifying the cotton-silk blend, which is typically 50-50, to increase the silk quotient, and reducing the zari by increasing the resham (silk) within the weave and working with materials like organza has allowed Sagar to add a richness to the sari. “I retain the basic placeholders of the geometric borders, simple saris—not too much happening in it, the drama is in the colour, drama in the texture, no flowers, peacocks, no patterning in the weaves. For me that’s not Maheshwari. It is simple, geometric, strong colours.” Though it has been challenging for Sagar to find young weavers in Maheshwar (Madhya Pradesh) who are open to changing the traditional template, she believes experimenting opens up the traditional form of the sari to newer demographics and extends the longevity of the sari also.

 

Maheshwari saris at Vaya start at Rs.3,000. Vaya, Jeevan Kiran, SV Road, Bandra (West), Mumbai.