London's Design Museum to celebrate Indian designers with saree exhibition

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jan 16, 2023

A mix of innovate sarees by a host of Indian designers will be on display in London, UK at upcoming exhibition ‘The Offbeat Sari’, curated by Priya Khanchandani, from May this year. 

Designed to celebrate the saree and explore ways in which designers are pushing its boundaries, the exhibition will run from May 19 to September 17, 2023 at The Design Museum in London, UK, the venue announced on its website. The exhibition will cover numerous aspects of the saree, from how it is made and its place in India’s textile industry to how it relates to gender, with examples of men who have taken to wearing sarees in recent years. 
 
Ahead of the exhibition, The Design Museum has shared examples of sarees by brands including Huemn, VegNonVeg, Abraham & Thakore, Raw Mango, and NorBlack NorWhite on its website. The exhibition will explore the traditional drape as a metaphor for the layered and complex definitions of India today.

“Curated by our Head of Curatorial, Priya Khanchandani, this exhibition will unravel its numerous forms, demonstrating the sari to be a. It will bring together dozens of the finest saris of our time from designers, wearers and craftspeople in India,” announced The Design Museum. “Today, the sari in urban India manifests as a site for design innovation, an expression of identity, and a crafted object carrying layers of cultural meanings. The exhibition will unravel the sari as a metaphor for the complex definitions of India today.”