- [Nina] Casey.
(Casey crying) (Nina laughing)
- I love this.
- [Nina] Why are you making that noise? (laughing)
- 'Cause you look so pretty. - Thank you. (laughing)
(upbeat music)
Hello, my name is Nina, and I'm Sri Lankan-American.
Over the last couple years,
I've been trying to connect to my heritage
a little bit more through fashion and style.
A few years ago, I wrote an article
about wearing saris to work for a week.
I wanted to try and recreate that again,
but with a little twist.
All of the saris that I have,
I've gotten to wear to weddings, and really formal events,
so they're heavily embroidered,
super sparkly, super shiny and bejeweled.
They're really cool and really beautiful,
but not suitable for everyday wear.
My life isn't that bougie.
So I wanted to try combining saris
with some existing pieces I already have,
and making it work for my everyday kind of wardrobe,
because I really do love the look of saris,
and I wish I had more opportunities to wear them,
so I'm gonna make my own opportunities to wear them.
I understand that in South Asia,
there are millions of people who wear saris every day,
casually, and it's totally normal for them,
but here in the West,
it's definitely not as common,
which is why I wanna give it a try.
Saris are basically pieces of fabric
that are about six yards long,
and there's multiple ways to drape them.
I can only do one sort of okay,
but I think, for this experiment,
I'm going to have to learn some other ways.
So this week, I think I'm gonna try to drape these saris
in three different styles.
I'm gonna try a drape with jeans,
a drape styled like a dhoti,
and a drape styled like a dress.
All right, let's do it.
Let's see how it goes.
It is day one, aka, the day I decided to wear jeans.
I decided that this is gonna be
the outfit underneath the sari.
My mom lent me a bunch of saris.
I feel like this one is the one that's gonna work for today.
I'm going to attempt it now, but I feel like,
I need to preface this whole video by saying
that I am not good at pleating.
We're gonna see how it turns out.
I feel like this is gonna take me like half an hour.
(upbeat music)
Update: I pleated the pallu off camera,
which is the part that goes over the shoulder.
Still working on the bottom pleats.
I feel like I'm not doing a good job.
(smooth music)
Okay, it's like a million years later,
and I finally did some maybe okay waist plaits.
I think I did not terrible.
It's definitely a bit showier than I'd probably go for
at work, but I'm kind of into it.
- I love this. - You like it?
- Yes!
I love that you're wearing jeans with it.
I love the material.
- [Nina] Do you think I'm making it work?
- Oh, definitely. - Yeah?
- Looks stunning on you.
- [Nina] Casey.
(Casey crying) (Nina laughing)
- I love this.
- [Nina] Why are you making that noise?
- 'Cause you look so pretty. - Thank you (laughing).
So I just got lunch, and the lady at the lunch place
was like, oh, I love your wraparound,
it's so cool, and I was like, a wraparound?
Like I feel like you can still tell it's a sari,
but because it's not draped in a more traditional way,
it is losing some of its sari-ness.
- I think it goes, actually, quite well,
'cause I sometimes think of saris as very, very decorative.
I feel like this one's a little more like,
day time, and so it kinda goes with t-shirts and jeans.
- We just went on a very casual movie date,
and I feel like this outfit held up during it.
- You found a way to light up a dark room.
- Aww.
Today started a little bit rocky,
but after I finally got it on and looking halfway decent,
I felt like today went really well.
I felt comfortable and it really felt natural to me.
I found myself, today, also walking with more confidence,
like I had a little strut going on today.
I'm excited to see what the next couple days bring.
Today, I am going to try to wear a dhoti style sari,
which is different than a traditional sari,
because it wraps around both legs.
I'm just doing leggings and a cropped hoodie.
This is a look that I would wear to work normally,
and I feel like I'm just throwing a sari on top of it
in a cool way.
I've watched a couple tutorials,
and they all say, this is an easy.
I feel like this is gonna take me awhile.
We're gonna try this one.
(upbeat music)
I am sweating trying to do this hip pleat part.
(upbeat music)
I ended up with these really uneven leg lengths,
and so now, I have to do it all over again.
(smooth music)
Holy (beeping), that took me so long.
I did something.
It definitely has this dhoti feel.
I was cursing, I feel like I've used a hundred pins,
I pricked myself a thousand times,
all to achieve this effortless look.
- I think you look hot.
- Do you like the combo of South Asian
and Western clothing? - Yes.
I think you should make it a more regular thing.
- It's a beautiful color.
- Yeah. - Even though I'm colorblind,
but I can still tell.
- [Nina] It's draped like pants.
- I didn't even notice that before.
It looks cool, though.
- I just realized that I have to use the bathroom.
It's pinned to my leggings,
so I can't really stretch my leggings,
and just pull them down.
I'm gonna have to repleat this.
(beeping) it's like I didn't think about any of this.
- I don't think I've seen anything like this,
so it's pretty cool.
- It took me a really long time
to pleat and drape it properly.
- Don't beat yourself up over it.
- Okay. - That's hard!
I mean, how many people in the U.S.
are actually doing this every day?
You're not in Daceyland, you're good.
- I've been wearing the sari throughout the whole workday.
I feel like I have barely even noticed it.
It's really nice, it's just like a gauzy breeze
on my legs.
I felt really cool in this outfit,
and then, I even went to trivia at a bar tonight,
and I felt pretty chill in this.
If I had to do it again,
I might try to find some way to pleat it or pin it
that made it easier to take on and off.
This was just a really cool way
to transform something I already own.
I found a cool tutorial that makes a short dress,
which I like, 'cause I like a short dress and a short skirt
so gonna give it a try.
I think I wanna use this guy,
because I feel like he'll do the best
with this tutorial I found.
(upbeat music)
I might have to have some fun with the end here.
I just pulled this embroidered end of the sari up
and pinned it to my tank top, and then,
I'm gonna just bring this guy around,
and see if it works?
(upbeat music)
I think this is a little more of what I'm going for,
but I do think I wanna throw that jacket on this.
It's not perfect.
There's definitely still a little
bulk action happening here.
I made some adjustments to make it work for me,
and I think it's kind of cute.
- You're looking very fancy today.
I saw this first, and then I saw the colors in that,
and I was like, oh, yes.
- It looks like a nice summer look.
I like the pairing with the jean jacket a lot.
I like that it's sort of high to low.
I think you are working it really well.
- This video has weirdly turned into me
reviewing sari bathroom viability,
but I must point out that this one, very easy.
- It doesn't look like a sari.
It looks more comfortable and at least,
you wouldn't be dragging your feet all around,
like a normal one. - I know. (laughing)
- I think you're 100% pulling it off.
- All right.
My leg is popping out quite a bit.
- It's weird, 'cause it's really different
than what you normally wear, but at the same time,
it doesn't look like, unusual.
It just looks like a chic, cute summer dress.
- It's actually a sari.
(record scratching) It's a sari?
I see the sari, but also, it just looks like,
more mainstream American outfit.
- I'm about to go run some errands.
I am going to pin the bottom closed a little bit more
so my leg isn't popping out at the grocery store
quite so much.
I'm wearing this sari in the grocery store,
and it feels pretty natural, to be quite honest.
I like it.
So it's the end of day three, in this outfit.
I feel so comfortable in it that I didn't even feel the need
to change as soon as I got in the door.
All of my saris have fancy work at the end of them,
and I think this is cool because it still allows you
to show it off, but it has a little more comfort to it.
I think in the future, I would just add,
probably a couple more pins or something
to keep it more in place.
So my little experiment is over.
I'm kinda sad about it.
I feel very inspired by this challenge.
I wanna go out and buy a bunch of saris
in different prints to mix into my current wardrobe.
I think this challenge really reinforced the idea
that wearing and draping saris is really an art form.
You have to practice to get better at it.
It got a little bit easier each day.
I also love that I got a firsthand look
at how practical a lot of these tutorials were,
because there are a lot of tutorials about how
to transform your saris, but there aren't a lot of people
actually going out into the world and experiencing them.
Mixing these saris with my Western looks
just really boosted my confidence.
I felt so cool and so hip,
and just so on another level than I normally feel.
I'm proud to be Sri Lankan-American
and I'm glad I found a new way
to show off my culture and rock it.
(upbeat music)