"There's Nothing Vulgar About It!": Tarun Tahiliani Reacts to Priyanka Chopra Jonas's Sari Photograph

First up: did you see how smoking Priyanka Chopra Jonas looked on the cover of Instyle Magazine?! She's in a draped golden sari by designer Tarun Tahiliani, and that photograph is all kinds of hot, y'all. In case you missed it, here's the image, shared by Priyanka on her Instagram:

Going by her caption, Priyanka seemed extremely proud to have been able to wear a sari on an the cover of an US-based magazine. The Internet (yes, that a wonderful place), however, is unhappy with her outfit choice, and has slammed Priyanka for wearing a sari without a blouse and flaunting her bare back. Check out some of the comments below:

 

From calling out Priyanka for misrepresenting Indian culture, to claiming that you can't even tell that she's actually wearing a sari, Instagrammers had a lot to say about her photoshoot, which is hardly new, given that the Internet lot tends to take it upon themselves to police women's bodies and sartorial decisions. Designer Tarun Tahiliani (who's sari Priyanka is wearing on the cover) also reacted to people trolling Priyanka, and this is what had to say:

"There is nothing vulgar about it. In fact, not using a choli makes it a global statement. The transition from alluring Indian beauty to this modern goddess for a mainstream fashion cover only speaks of her [Priyanka's] versatility. She is truly a modern Indian icon."

It should be taken into consideration that the sari-blouse, which people are mistakenly considering to be synonymous with Indian culture is believed to be a British import. In fact, the words 'blouse' and 'petticoat' only made their way into our vocabulary during the British times.

According to several references, during the days of the Raj, women in Bengal still donned their saris in the traditional 'blouseless' style (as can be seen in Satyajit Ray's cinematic depictions of the era) alongside British women in laced-up corsets. The sari blouse wasn't a part of Indian culture until Jnanadanandini Debi (wife of Satyendranath Tagore) popularised the idea of blouse just so Indian women could enter British clubs. Even today, there are many tribes in India where women still drape their saris without a blouse. Which brings us to a very important pondering: is it correct for us to consider the sari blouse (or lack thereof) as the correct depiction of Indian culture? We'd love to know your thoughts.

 

 

 

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