News

On a sunny Sunday, sari designer Jitinder Wirk is wrapping her cousin in five metres of burnt-orange crepe.

The silky material loops around and around Navi Gill's tiny waist, the border of silver embroidery and beadwork clicking on the floor. She stops wrapping when the beads stop, pleats the fabric, tucks it in and throws the remaining material over Ms. Gill's bare shoulder.

It's not easy to wrap a sari, but Ms. Wirk is a pro. Lately, with more young women returning to the traditional garb, she hasn't been able to keep up with the demand for her saris.

"The sari is definitely making a comeback with young girls," says Ms. Wirk, who opened her store, Mehar, in this Vancouver suburb three years ago.

For decades, young Indo-Canadian women shed their saris and tried to be as Western as they could. Now, they are following the lead of the East, looking to Bollywood rather than Hollywood, turning the tide on who makes their fashion decisions.

"When I was growing up, saris were worn by women getting married and older," Ms. Wirk says. "Now, teenagers are wanting and embracing saris."

At Inder Jandoo's Toronto store, Sonu Saree Palace, between 30 and 40 per cent of the clientele are teenage girls.

"People are getting back to their roots, trying to get back into Indian fashion," Mr. Jandoo says.

For many young girls, the saris he sells for $50 to $500 represent glamour and romance, thanks to Bollywood movies. Those films "show all the beautiful girls and handsome boys," Mr. Jandoo says. Saris and romance "go hand in hand."

At Mehar in Surrey, Ms. Gill says she's choosing to wear the sari in part because of its cultural significance. "It makes me feel in touch with my culture and my femininity," says the 20-year-old, who works at a nearby restaurant. "It makes me feel like more of a woman."

A few decades ago, when the Indo-Canadian population was still very small, women faced pressure from within the community to trade in their saris in favour of Western styles, says Hugh Johnston, a retired history professor at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., and author of two books on the Indo-Canadian community.

Adopting Western dress was seen as part of the community's effort to win acceptance in Canada.

"Canadian society wasn't terribly tolerant," he says. "But as the community has grown ... and as people have done well - making money, getting good jobs with influence - they have become more confident of their place in society."

With the Indo-Canadian population expanding, "it's a much more positive environment to bring their affection for their culture out into the open," Prof. Johnston says.

The bulk of the community is concentrated in Toronto and Vancouver, but Calgary, Edmonton and Montreal also boast growing groups of Indo-Canadians.

The sari is also gaining ground among young women in India and Pakistan, where Bollywood and television stars have helped make the outfit stylish.

Hollywood celebrities like Elizabeth Hurley and Jennifer Lopez have also been spotted wearing saris in recent months. Ms. Hurley wore hers - an $8,000 (U.S.) diamond-encrusted version - for her wedding to Indian entrepreneur Arun Nayar in March.

Davi Bains-Gill, who runs the Armaan sari boutique in Surrey, B.C., says she has always loved the sari for its elegance. Travelling back and forth to India, she has watched the influence of Bollywood on young girls in Canada in recent years.

"We've always been trying to be Western to fit in, but now Indian fashion and culture is more accepted," Ms. Bains-Gill says. "I feel proud when I see people, Indians and non-Indians, wearing Indian fashion."

Like the young Indo-Canadian girls wearing them, the sari has evolved to reflect a marriage of East and West.

These latest converts covet saris very different from the ones worn by their mothers and grandmothers. The new saris boast a Western twist: spaghetti straps on the halter top, side slits on the skirt, and backless tops.

"I like mixing the two cultures, but still keeping it traditional," says Ms. Wirk, showing off an original design: a brilliant turquoise sari with a lace-up blouse. "I designed another top to go under the sari after seeing something Halle Berry was wearing in a magazine. I took the cut of her blouse and added embroidery."

Yet the sari is still not everyday wear. Most girls only wear them to formal functions.

"It's still not seen as a practical garment for young people," says Pushpanjli Matharoo, a 60-year-old sari expert and consultant for The Art of the Sari, a new exhibit running until June 10 at the Surrey Art Gallery. "Young people are so active and it's not easy to wear a sari and go up and down stairs," she says.

Ms. Matharoo has collected 150 saris, some of which are showcased in the exhibit. The sari is the only outfit she wears. She wore it to work as a librarian at the Supreme Court of India. She wore it to university in New York. Today, she wears it to work at a Vancouver elementary school.

"The sari is 5,000 years old," she says. "It shows up in our epics. It's worn by a billion women throughout the world. The way you wear the sari is a statement of identity, a statement on the endurance of cultural ties."

Back at Ms. Wirk's boutique, Navi Gill finishes wrapping her sari and examines herself in the mirror.

"Every sari has a different meaning," Ms. Gill says. "For me, it's a symbol of love and affection. My favourite saris are the ones from my mom, from when she was younger. She saved them for me. I want to treasure something that was part of her history and will become part of mine."