Alia Bhatt got the Best Actress award at the 69th National Film Awards in Delhi for her performance in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai. For the special moment, she picked a ‘special outfit’ and in her words, as penned on Instagram, she wrote, ‘A special day calls for a special outfit. And sometimes that outfit is already right there.’ Bhatt chose to re-wear her wedding attire, an ivory and gold Sabyasachi saree.
While Bhatt did it only now, many Bengalureans have been following it as a practice. Entrepreneur Mehak Kukkar-Mehra wore an ivory and black Sabyasachi lehenga for her sangeet function in 2012. Though heavily embellished with fine threadwork, Kukkar-Mehra managed to find different ways to reuse her lehenga. “I have worn the lehnga multiple times at other weddings and recently during a Deepavali celebration where I substituted the heavy choli (blouse) with a plain black raw silk blouse. This lehenga was an investment and looks and feels even better each time I wear it,” she says.
Something similar Akshitha Basavaraju, a fitness expert did with her wedding reception lehenga. “I reused it for another family function after a decade. I dress it down with other elements so I don’t go very heavy on the jewellery or go overboard with the hairstyle. The jewellery is toned down compared to what I wore for my wedding,” she says.
In South India, it’s not too uncommon to reuse the wedding Kanjeevaram saree and nutritionist Gauravi Vinay says she was clear she wanted to pick something she could reuse. “Traditionally we are supposed to wear green. I kept the blouse for my mahurtham saree simple to maintain its relevance. So I can rewear the blouse now with it looking classic,” she says.