Gaye holud saree

For our Holud, I decided to stick to traditional. The saree is the national dress for Bangladeshi women, and as I had decided to wear lehengas on both my wedding and wedding reception, it was a perfectly fitting option for the holud.

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For each of the major events, I focused on one or two gemstones or precious metals which formed gaye basis of my ensemble. For the engagement, it was pearls and polki, for the bridal shower, diamonds, for the wedding gold with a touch of ruby, and for the reception, sapphire and diamonds.

And for the Holud? It was pure gold. The Indian subcontinent and its people have had long love-affair with gold and for generations we have adorned ourselves with this precious metal to mark important milestones and celebrations. We not only use as jewellery, but have even incorporated it into the garments we wear by weaving them with gold, and gold coated pure mulberry silk threads.

The region that is perhaps most renowned for this practice is Kachipuram in the South of India, which is where my saree was woven. Sarees are typically designed with various threads, embroideries, sequins, and, or stones, however, sarees such as the Kachipuram focus wholly on the weaving. Motifs or designs are woven into the saree and often are symbolic of nature, temples or deities.

What made the saree I chose to wear special, was the entire absence of any motifs of designs. The saree was wholly constructed of gold holud and as a result contains a significant weightage of the precious metal. For this reason, to me, it has become more than a piece of garment, and is something which I would like to keep and possibly pass on to a loved one.

For those interested in these sarees, it gaye to be careful with your purchases as replicas do exist. Kanchipuram sarees are patented and registered and saree contain holograms indicating their authenticity. Kachipuram saree available at Nabila Boutiques Ltd. The simplicity of the saree allowed us to be creative with the blouse.

Although typically created with the intention of an exposed midriff and shorter sleeves, I wanted mine to be longer both in sleeve and body length. There is something I find quite elegant about full length blouses and since I was going to be performing I also thought that it would be the most comfortable option. The saree itself came with a border which contained a tiny sliver of green and so in keeping with our theme, my mom designed a green blouse with cut-work on the body which allowed the original gold Kachipuram blouse piece to show through.

The body of the blouse was also decorated with embroidered green flowers and the ends of the sleeves were of the same material as the saree. As for the veil, I did not want it to be a distraction, rather it was designed to be a complementary addition to the garment which brought together the saree and the blouse.

We chose a glimmering net fabric for the base and surrounded it with an intricately embroided green border which reflected the cutwork in the blouse. To complement the gold on my attire, I paired it with holud gold jewellery. Floral jewellery, using artificial or fresh flowers is also a highly popular choice for holuds. Although I did not personally want to pair floral jewellery with my ensemble, I did want to incorporate flowers into my look and so I put flowers in my hair and attached strands of orchids and chrysanthemums from my brooch.

Like with all the other events, I did my own make-up.