For brides planning their weddings, outfits are one of the most important aspects. As a bride, you want to stand out and have heads turn as you make your way to your man. Style, details and colour coordination are all things that factor in to your bridal outfits but we are here to talk about a trend where the whole point is to not coordinate! We are talking specifically about contrasting saree blouses. While lehengas with contrasting tops have always been around (although those are also gaining popularity), we have seen more and more sarees paired with contrasting coloured blouses. You’re probably scratching your head and thinking “But people wear different coloured saree blouses all the time, how is this a trend?” Well, we are not talking about coordinating your blouse to match the border colour of your saree. We are talking about pairings like a gold blouse with your burgundy koorai! 

The most popular colour combination we have seen is the green saree blouse paired with koorai sarees. This is an interesting turn of events as for generations upon generations, colours like green and blue were avoided like the plague when it came to a Hindu wedding. The brides were forbidden from wearing green as the colour green was associated with the Gods and blue sarees were forbidden as only women getting married for a second time would don the blue attire. Are you still puzzled? We’re not surprised if you are.

Although a lot of these beliefs can be chalked up to superstitions or ‘old wives tales,’ the hues of red, yellow, and gold are very predominant  in a Hindu wedding as these colours symbolize purity and sensuality. The significance of the colour red can specifically be traced to astrology because according to astrology, the planet in charge of marriage is Mars. What colour is Mars? RED! 

Among all these traditions, you may wonder how did this style trend emerge? Well, like with many traditions and customs that change and adapt as society and generations change, the “banished” wedding  colours are now slowly making a forefront in todays modern Hindu Weddings!

Although it is hard to pinpoint who started this trend or the good old “who wore it first,” we can say that one of the first times we saw a bride wear a contrast blouse with her saree was when Actress Sneha got married. While she probably wasn’t the first to do this, she definitely front-lined this trend with her high profile wedding. We still remember seeing pictures from her wedding and just in awe over how unique her contrast blouse was.  

Wearing a contrasting blouse to your saree not only gives your overall look a pop of colour, it also lets your saree stand out by drawing the eyes towards all the details in the body of the saree. Although it’s been 5 years since Sneha’s wedding, this trend is still very much predominant with brides today that we have compiled a list below of recent brides who rocked this trend. 

Green Contrast Blouses

 

Other Contrast Blouses 

 

We hope you enjoyed this post as much as we did and that you have drawn some inspiration from all of these beautiful women who took advantage of  this look. Tie • The • Thali would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our wonderful photographers who collaborated with us to bring this post together. Without all of you and your hard work, posts like this are merely just ideas that never materialize.