The Office Puja: Dressing Festive Without Overdressing

Most offices in Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad now do something in the week before Puja — a lunch, a small pandal in the lobby, an ethnic day. And it is genuinely the hardest thing to dress for, because both failure modes are visible.

Underdress and you look like you did not participate. Overdress and you are the person in a Banarasi at a desk.

The brief, stated properly

Something that reads as festive from across a room, and that you can sit at a desk in, walk to lunch in, and get home in. That is not a saree, unless you are very used to one.

What works

• Co-ord sets. The single best answer. Festive fabric, contemporary cut, nothing to adjust all day. See co-ord sets.
• Indo-western. Built for exactly this space between formal and festive. See indo westerns.
• A straight-cut suit in a good fabric. Chanderi, cotton silk, tussar. Quiet and correct. See salwar suits.
• A kurti with well-cut trousers. The most under-rated option and the easiest to actually work in. See kurtis and kaftans.

For men

A kurta with trousers rather than a pajama. It reads festive, it reads deliberate, and it does not look like fancy dress at a desk. See RANJH kurta pajama. Keep the Nehru jacket for the evening.

What to leave at home

Heavy zari, anything full-length and unlined, anything that needs a hand to hold it, and the Ashtami saree. All of them are right on the right day and wrong on this one.

If it has to be a saree

Then make it a light one, pleat it slightly short, and pin the pallu properly. A cotton or linen saree, a printed saree, or a georgette. Not silk, not embroidered, not new — the office is not the place to discover a saree does not sit well.

The real six days are planned here.