Men’s wear so far has been a space with minimal innovation often driving them to resort to bespoke options for festive wear. But Chennai-based ethnic wear brand Aavaranaa’s new line Sah-A focuses on a range of dhotis, kurtas, vastrams and accessories for men. “The idea was to do something different and include reusable outfits for men for festive occasions. Hence, we started off with white simple dhotis,” says Vijayalakshmi Krishna, co-founder of Aavarnaa. Weaved with pure zari on kanjivaram, Vijayalakshmi tells us that they have used the same weaving technique for dhotis as their saris. “We wanted the fabric itself to be rich and luxurious like our kanjivaram silks.”
Clearly, Aavaranaa has taken the men’s occasion wear a notch higher not only with the exquisite fabric but also reimagining the colour palette. Choose from colours like mustard, navy blue and bottle green with contrasting borders. Those looking for conventional white veshti or dhoti can pick the ones with coloured borders.
“We tweaked pallus and borders to suit the collection for our menfolk,” says Vijayalakshmi as she talks to us about the angavastrams that she believes add panache to the dhotis.
_.jpeg?w=640&auto=format%2Ccompress)
For a moment we thought if this idea was contradictory to the traditional white sarong that men famously wear at weddings or festivals, Vijayalakshmi explains her take. “It’s like how muhurtam saris are always maroon but now brides prefer pastel colours; so there are ample opportunities for experiments. This hasn’t been explored much in veshtis,” she explains and adds that their collection can also be used for deities.
Price for dhotis starts from Rs 10,500.
priyanka.chandani@newindianexpress.com