The Offbeat Sari

A major exhibition celebrating the contemporary sari. This exhibition unravels its numerous forms, demonstrating the sari to be a metaphor for the layered and complex definitions of India today. It brings together the finest saris of our time from designers, wearers and craftspeople in India.

In recent years, the sari has been reinvented. Designers are experimenting with hybrid forms such as sari gowns and dresses, pre-draped saris and innovative materials such as steel. People in cities who used to associate the sari with dressing up can now be found wearing saris and sneakers on their commutes to work. Individuals are wearing the sari as an expression of resistance to social norms and activists are embodying it as an object of protest.

Presented exclusively in Victoria at Bunjil Place, The Offbeat Sari is a touring exhibition by the Design Museum, London. Conceived and curated by Priya Khanchandani.

Header image: Holidaze, 2020. Norblack Norwhite. Photo Bikramjit Bose

_{Folia Saree, from Other collection, 2021. Raw Mango. Photo Amlanjyoti Bora}

About the Curator

Priya Khanchandani is a design curator and writer, educated at the Royal College of Art and at Cambridge University and now working independently. Until recently the Head of Curatorial at the Design Museum in London, her projects include the celebrated exhibition The Offbeat Sari with an associated book published with Thames and Hudson. She also curated Design Museum exhibitions Bethany Williams: Alternative Systems, Yinka Ilori: Parables for Happiness and the blockbuster Amy: Beyond the Stage. Her biennial projects center around interrogating narratives of identity and belonging through re-examining the existing canon of design, such as co-curating Pattern as Politics with Sam Jacob at Lisbon Architecture Triennial, and curating State of Indigo, the India Pavilion at London Design Biennial. Previously the first female Editor in Chief of celebrated architecture magazine Icon, Khanchandani was nominated for Fiona Macpherson New Editor of the Year.

What is a Sari?

A sari (or saree) is a traditional garment that consists of several yards of silk or cotton, often brightly coloured and intricately embroidered. It is usually worn with a short fitted blouse with the sari skilfully draped over the body so that one end forms a skirt and the other a head or shoulder covering. Saris are widely worn throughout South Asia - including India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.