Six yards of power

Afraid the board isn’t going to take you seriously if you make that presentation in a saree? Well, here’s a little story to reassure you. Years ago, a young girl freshly minted from the Yale School of Management walked into a job interview at the Boston Consulting Group in a saree, simply because she didn’t have enough money to buy a nice suit. The consulting firm not just hired her, but the woman went on to become, well, fairly successful.

These days, she sits in the corner room at PepsiCo’s global headquarters in Purchase, New York. You may have heard of her. She’s called Indra Nooyi. And in April this year, when the President of India awarded her the Padma Bhushan, she turned up wearing—you guessed it—a gorgeous, gold and orange silk saree.

Back home, the saree remains one of the most popular attires—not just of the homemaker but also of some of the most powerful women in India Inc. What makes the saree an outfit for all occasions is, of course, the sheer variety it comes in. From silk to cotton to chiffon to georgette to even denim.

On top of it, every region in the country has its own style and interpretation of it and now, thanks to Mandira Bedi, even the blouse has become bolder and more imaginative.

But, like with everything else in life, what you wear and how you wear it can make the difference between winning and losing. If you want to make winning in a saree your habit, then read on:

Manisha Girotra, Chairperson and MD, UBS Securities India. We called her our hottest young executive and she has given us no cause for a rethink. She tells you exactly how to look smart, savvy and stylish in the six yards. Draped in a saree, and with her dazzling smile, this deal maker oozes authority and power.

The saree goes to work...

Typically, a saree isn’t the first thing you reach for in your wardrobe when you are looking for a dress to wear to work. And understandably so. It doesn’t just take time to drape one, but it is hard to keep it on when you are trying to, say, run up a flight of stairs, late for a meeting. But the bigger reason why women tend to pass up on the six yards is something else: the saree makes them look like what they are: women.

Whereas in the brutal, male-dominated workplace, women prefer to look like the ones they are competing against: men. Here’s the thing, though.

Whatever we’ve said in the preceding three sentences stands negated if a woman has two things: grace and self-confidence (for samples, see The Sareenas).

Therefore, if you do decide to wear a saree to work, keep a few things in mind: pick light silks, chiffons, or cottons (needless to say, well starched) over any other fabric.

Wear formal blouses, which means they should be half sleeves, high back, and two inches of fabric covering the shoulders, and revealing only about two inches of your midriff. Coordinate them with carefully picked slippers, sandals, or closed shoes, and you can’t go wrong.

…And also to the party

Madhabi Puri-Buch CEO, ICICIdirect.com A graduate in Mathematical Economics and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, she joined ICICI Bank in 1989 in its project finance department. Since then, there has been no looking back for her. She is elegance and comfort personified in her sarees.

It’s when you step out to socialise that you can have lots of fun with your saree. There are, after all, as many types of sarees as there are regions in India, and even more.

You can choose from chikan to kantha to bandhani to Kota doria to Chanderi to Mysore silks… the list is endless. There are also as many styles of draping them; these vary from region to region, but the most common is the style worn by our power elite.

The thing about blouses

While the basic design of the saree itself hasn’t changed at all over five millennia, your style quotient is defined by what you pair it with. Your blouse is as important as the saree you choose and here, you have a wide variety to choose from—you can go for a traditional dress blouse, or ones with noodle straps, spaghetti straps or even an off-shoulder one.

Then again, you can go in for halter necks, low backs or knotted backs. Kurti blouses (the choli-type worn over ghagras and lehngas), so much in vogue till a few seasons ago, is now passé. They are, incidentally, now called tunic blouses.

5 Mistakes you ought not to commit

1. Wearing the saree too short. This usually happens when you wear a saree while bare feet or in your bedroom slippers and then get into heels. Result: your saree dangles inelegantly at your ankles. The remedy: get into your heels and then wear the saree.

2. Choosing broad borders if one isn?ft tall. Know this: when a short woman wears a broad-border saree, she looks even shorter and fatter.

3. Ignoring how the pleats fall. The front pleats should never skew either to the right or the left. Pleat your saree carefully in place and pin them up.if need be.to keep them in place.

4. Pinning up the pallu of an evening saree. During evenings out, the pallu of your saree should fall over your left arm from the shoulder. the idea is to showcase your pallu to the world (isn't that why you bought it in the first place?), and not hide it in pleats.

5. Leaving the pallu too short. Your pallu should be at least a yard (about 90 cm) long; it should come down to the tips of your fingers when standing straight. Shorter or longer than this means you've got the measurements wrong.

Need to know

If you are big built, it is better to wear georgettes, chiffons or silks as these fall well and give you a trimmer silhouette. If, however, you are thin, go for cotton, tissue, tussar silk or organza sarees as they make you look fuller.

If you have broad shoulders, go for blouses with wide necklines and short sleeves; this will make you look elegant. Also remember, heavy breasted women should avoid deep necklines as these will accentuate the cleavage; go for normal 7-inch necklines. Do the reverse if you are petite.

The colour code

•  If you are small, wear light colours and darker shades if you are big boned.
  
  
•  Avoid shiny sarees; they will make you look bigger than you actually are.
  
  
• Stick to neutral shades like black, brown, navy blue, maroon, and beige. It's best to avoid vibrant red, fuchsia, and turquoise or parrot green for the office.