Whole nine yards: A definitive book on saris is out

Hallelujah! The step-by-step guide to tying a sari -- all 108 drapes -- is here, through a series of line drawings and color photographs in a gorgeous new book, "Saris: Tradition and Beyond" (Roli Books, Rs 3,500). Considering that tying a sari is a cultural rite of passage to womanhood in India, and an everyday art that is dying among urbanites, this book is a welcome addition to the "my culture is cool" revivalism sweeping the Indian design world.

This is no pocket book however. The book's co-writer Rta Kapur Chishti started her research in 1984, when she was commissioned by the Indian government to document the nation's hand-loom textiles. Since then she has traveled district by district, village by village, to explore the entire spectrum of traditional weaver and printer settlements in 14 sari-producing states of India. This book is the whole nine yards, literally, a comprehensive compilation of the Indian sari: structures, designs, colors, formats and technology for every region and its distinctive wearing styles.

Contrary to popular opinion, Chishti tells TIME magazine she believes there is still a market for the handwoven sari. "If weavers would only stop trying to imitate mass-produced cloth and instead exploit the enormous variety of handwoven saris." Chishti imagines a pyramid, with expensive saris made by master craftsmen occupying a small niche at the top and everyday cottons produced by younger weavers at the bottom. "I'm not talking about Gandhian economics," she says. "It's the future."