Finally, the festival season ended!

With Navaratri and Dussehra celebrations over the past few weeks, Hyderabad was busy with mall and in store promotions, bonanzas, store openings etc etc. Along with the stores, the most busiest people this season were our tollywood heroines inaugurating all kinds of stores and showrooms. They came in all kinds of sarees for these promotions.

Here are Samantha, Tamanna, Manjari and Kajal



Wedding hair style - Aishwarya Rai

Some things never go out of style and further more, the traditional styles are gaining popularity everyday. The south indian wedding hair style remained intact with minimal variations over the centuries. A bride doesn't look like one without a long braided hair with flowers arranged on or around the hair. I personally love mogra and thought Aishwarya's hair on her wedding day looked simple and fab.

Her Mehendi day style though is different and unique

Basra Pearls

Pearls……As you know Hyderabad is famously and rightly known as the “City of Pearls”, and the city has a number of reputed pearl dealers/jewellers who deal in pearls. Any talk about traditional Hyderabadi jewellery is just not complete without a mention of the famous BASRA pearls, and for those of you who always wondered how the name Basra originated….. jewellery that was made with Basra Pearls means that the pearls originated from the pearl banks of the Persian Gulf that were found on the Arabian side of the Gulf, particularly off the coast of Bahrain, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Oman, and off the coast of Lavan-Kish island group on the Persian side of the Gulf. A hundred years ago Basra was a regional center for the marketing of Persian Gulf pearls; hence all pearls produced in the Persian Gulf irrespective of their country of origin came to be known as Basra pearls.

So, if you have any jewellery that was handed down from your parents/grand parents and that was made with Basra pearls….HOLD ON TO THEM, because they are the real deal and were made with the real natural pearls, the supply of which STOPPED about 50 years ago ( ever since oil was found in the gulf region, making the oil industry much more lucrative than pearls.). Given below are two really beautiful necklaces made with graduated Basra pearls, the first one has rather round and perfect pearls making it a unique piece.
 

Another traditional Hyderabadi pearl jewellery item is the Sath Lara ( Seven Strands ) shown below. The Saath Lara can be quite an over powering piece when made with larger pearls and I personally prefer them much simpler with smaller pearls or with lesser strands such as teen lara or the panch lara .

Here are some designs for Sath Lara.....click on the pics for more detail.





 

I am also including a link to an excellent article that talks about Hyderabadi pearls and the pearl trade.

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199805/city.of.pearls.htm



Anarkali Designs

Anarkali dresses have been in fashion for ages now and will be for a long time to come. They can be very grand or drown you right in if it doesn't suit you. We will explore some of the designs in the coming weeks and which style suits the kind of body type to pick the right one for your next party.

As you can see here for Vidya Balan, the yellow one suits better than the green one, which makes her look plumpy and short.

Kalamkari kurtas for kids

The cotton kalamkari kurtas are always a good choice for kids for small pujas and traditional functions. They give them the necessary freedom and style. You can get them anywhere in Hyderabad but if you would like to go to just one place, Kalanjali carries a good variety of them.

Tamanna at Vodafone

The peach color was good but the saree itself is very old fashioned. The color was great on her and the earrings looked pretty on her. Waiting to see some of these actresses wear some good designer cottons for a change.

Richa and Shriya inaugurates Kalamandir

Richa showed up in a net saree but with a front open blouse that I am not a big fan of. Otherwise the saree looked good and she looked great.
Shriya from what little we can see is wearing a net dress with embroidery. I am not so sure of the dress but her makeup looked little over the top. Toning it down a bit will help with her look in the outdoor events.

Multi colored kanchi silks - gaining momentum

Lately the multi colored kanchi silk sarees seem to be gaining momentum. We see so many of these in the weddings and other functions these days. The colors have become better and so did the designs for these sarees but I am not a big fan of these and hope the fashion goes away sooner than later. The traditional kanchi silk sarees always have the charm of their own.

Here are some of the multi colored kanchi silk designs from sakhifashions.com

Here are some from vijayalakshmisilks.net

Amala at NDTV ladakh exhibit

Amala showed up in a white collared kurta and white cotton pants at NDTV ladakh exhibit. I loved the dress and the simple multiple colored beaded necklace to go with the dress.