Red and White, Beyond Lal Paar

Red and white is the Puja palette and there is no arguing with it. The problem is that the classic white saree with a red border is so completely standard that on Ashtami morning a pandal looks like a uniform.

Wearing it is right. Wearing exactly it is optional.

Five ways to keep the palette and change the saree

1. Invert it. A red body with a white or cream border reads instantly as the same tradition and almost nobody does it. Strikingly better in photographs than the reverse.
2. Change the red. Alta red, maroon, rust and deep vermillion all sit inside the convention. Alta red — the colour of the dye women paint on their feet for the festival — is the most correct and the least worn.
3. Change the white. Ivory, off-white, ecru, undyed khadi. Warmer against Indian skin than optical white and considerably less common.
4. Change the technique. Red and white in Bandhani, in Ikkat, or in Dhakai Jamdani is the same palette in a completely different cloth.
5. Move it off the saree. A neutral Tussar or Katan with a red blouse and white flowers carries the colour without the saree being about it.

Where the convention comes from

Red is the colour of the goddess, of sindoor and of alta; white is purity. The lal paar sada saree — white body, red border — is a Bengali handloom tradition rather than a pan-Indian one, which is why it reads so specifically. The full guide is here.

The two days it genuinely matters

Ashtami morning, for the anjali, and Dashami, for sindoor khela. On Dashami especially, wear something you do not mind having sindoor thrown at it — which is a good argument for a cotton saree rather than a silk one, and against anything pale you love.

For men

A white or cream kurta with a red dupatta or a red-bordered stole. Understated and correct. See RANJH kurta pajama.

The whole range is at sarees and traditional Indian sarees, and the days are planned in the six-day guide.