Jewellery With a Banarasi: What to Wear and What to Leave Off

The rule with a serious woven saree is simple and almost universally ignored: the saree is the jewellery. A Katan Banarasi with real zari is already carrying gold across its whole surface. What goes on top has to complete that, not argue with it.

The one decision that matters: the neckline

Everything else follows from this.

• A wide, heavy border and a busy pallu — wear a choker or a short necklace. Anything long lands in the middle of the pallu and both disappear.
• A plain body with the work only at the border — this is where a long haar earns its place, because there is empty ground for it to sit against.
• An all-over jaal or butidar — no necklace at all. Statement earrings, and that is the whole look. This is the hardest one for people to accept and the one that photographs best.

Metal, against zari

Real zari is warm gold. So:

• Gold and polki — always correct, entirely safe.
• Temple jewellery — the best match for a South silk, and increasingly worn with Banarasi too.
• Oxidised silver — deliberately contrarian against gold zari and it works, but only if you commit to it fully. Half oxidised and half gold reads as an accident.
• Diamonds and white stones — the hardest. Cool white against warm gold usually fights. Keep it small if at all.

Earrings decide the photograph

More than the necklace. Jhumkas with a traditional weave, chandbaalis with anything that has a Mughal-influenced motif, plain gold studs with anything very heavy. Long ear-chains only if the hair is up.

What to leave off

The maang tikka, unless it is a wedding. A second bracelet on the same arm as bangles. Anything with a rough setting that catches silk — this ruins sarees and it happens constantly. And rings on more than two fingers.

The Bengali exception

The shakha-pola — the conch-shell and red coral bangles — and gold jhumkas are the whole convention at a Bengali Puja and they need nothing else at all. That is a complete look and adding to it is what goes wrong.

The sarees this is written for: Banarasi, Katan silks, Kanjivaram. The rest of the week is planned here.