Saree - Unspoken love of mothers Weaved through the passage of time Folded into the depth of our hearts
‘The memory of my mother, draped in a cotton saree, with her solitaire earrings and a bindi on her radiantly beautiful face, contrasted against her open smile, symbolizing the simplistic beauty that I grew up with. The muted soft cotton with a gentle sheen across its seven yards swathe, encased in parallel strips of threads, defined energy, kindness, and sheer beauty. In our subcontinent, sarees are considered family heirloom and generational blessings. My mother’s memories now travel with me with her sarees’.
The book brings together ten women exploring the themes of the sarees and their mothers. Represented in this book are the concepts of identity, cultural inheritance, legacy, and the exploration of vibrant sarees. It inspires us to seek solace, and reexamine our roots and evokes deeper essence of ourselves and our relationships with our mothers - connecting generations into an eternal bond, under the shadows of their “Anchal”.
The book does not have any beginning or end, each spread is dedicated to a different story - collage of a saree with a story and a memory as told by one of the ten women.
Contributors: Farhana Kabir, Namrata Mishra, Divjyot Sachdev, Mythreyi Nethi, Malka Shamrose, Rachana Sen Maitra, Moniza Choudhury, Jaya Mishra, Shaila Nahar, Laila Nahar
Collections: Claremont Scripps College, University of Colorado Boulder Libraries, Los Angeles Public Library Special Collections, Hirsch Library Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), Harvard Fine Arts Library, School of The Museum of Fine Arts at TUFTS
Photographs: Family Archive, Laila Nahar / Editing, sequencing: Laila Nahar / Book Concept: Laila Nahar, Jaya Mishra / Book & Box design: Laila Nahar, Tanveer Khondker / Language: English, Bangla / Self-Published / Variable Edition of 10 / 2026
Book structure: Each spread representing a different saree with collage from family archive of 10 women. 40-45 spreads are weaved with paper in random order to make the book block, representing the pleates and flows of the sarees. This attributes to the delicate structure of the book.
Box/case: Thebook has a choice of a handmade box or a case. The handmade case has a tied enclosure made of cotton fabric. The box depicts the structure how saree-sellers used to carry the sarees using two pieces of large cloths criss-crossing the bundles of sarees in old-time.
Other details: Archival inkjet print on Awagami or other Japanese Washi paper, Handmade paper (India/Nepal), Vellum. 90 pages, 90 photos, each edition with unique and random saree collage. 4x11 inches.
To acquire/purchase, please email me.
Acknowledgments: Susan Kae Grant (ideas to incorporate fabric) & Crista Dix (for sending me the vintage-brochure ‘How to wear a saree’)
