Of nine yards and a hashtag

A viral trend has women — and even men — sharing their saree moments.

saree, saree trend, saree twitter, #sareetwitter, saree trend on twitter

Australian commissioner Harinder

For a hashtag to become viral on social media is a routine affair. The latest addition this week is #SareeTwitter, which has a number of women, including politicians, diplomats and celebrities, post photographs flaunting the nine-yard drape. Among those tweeting are Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who posted her photograph in a Banarasi weave, from a morning puja on the day of her wedding 22 years ago, and Australian High Commissioner to India, Harinder Sidhu, draped in a dark pastel blue saree from her mother’s wedding trousseau.

Keeping the spirit of the trend, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri also made a post, with photographs of his mother, Bibi Kundan Kaur, in Germany in the late 1950s and his wife Lakshmi Puri in 1974 during a meeting with the-then Vice-President BD Jatti. “#sareeswag has travelled the world,” he wrote. Actor Renuka Shahane paid a tribute to the weavers by donning a black Paithani saree, while Yami Gautam, Priya Malik and Gul Panag, and German actor Suzanne Bernert also joined in. Actor Ayushmann Khurrana also shared his photograph wearing a saree from the sets of his upcoming film Dream Girl, so did equal rights activist Harish Iyer.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

But this is not the first time that the Indian drape became a trend on social media. In 2015, #100SariPact had gone viral which had women wear sarees for 100 days, and share stories behind each one of them. What started as a pact between two friends — journalist Anju Kadam and entrepreneur Ally Matthan — evolved into a full-fledged movement with women all over India responding to the idea. There are also a number of closed groups on Facebook that have cropped over the years on the same lines, such as Six yards and 365 days, Saree Speak, India Saree Challenge, The Saree Story and Doctors and Sarees.

Ayushmann Khurrana

“I started the group with three of my friends to share about handloom sarees, and soon, more women joined. We talk about weaves, embroidery and the yard used, along with its story,” says Sunita Budhiraja, who founded Six yards and 365 days in 2015. It now has over 30,000 members. “Women also talk about their self — if they are suffering from some disease or depression — and many have gained self-confidence to open up their own enterprises,” she says, adding that the group will meet in Varanasi this September, with members from across the world coming over.

Rta Kapur Chishti, a saree historian and textile scholar, says, “Recent initiatives have created an interest in the saree but it remains mostly formal occasion wear. At present, the fashion scene is largely western wear or Indian casual wear such as salwar kameez, so one cannot foresee the impact of these online trends as yet.”