In Anavila

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While at Cannes, Nandita was seen wearing two Anavila saris, a beige one that she wore with a silver necklace and a pink one that she paired with a beige clutch.

She looked lovely in both.

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52 Comments

  1. There is something about this woman , her persona …I love. She has air of confidence around her ..she carries herself with elegance in those plain sarees and earthy tones.

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  2. She also wore another white one with a silver choker and hair in a bun while protesting on the RC. Would be great to see that one as well!

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  3. Before I put forth my point, let me mention I personally hate bling, ott ‘curated’ looks n always ‘made-up’ appearances. Coming to the post, we come across women like Nandita daily in our lives (if living in India). Be it teachers, professors, bankers or women working in corporate sector. There is an effortless style n then there is shabby. I will be brutally honest here, I find Nandita’s dressing falling into later category. The working women we come across in our daily lives are dressed to perfection n that too effortlessly! These women wear sarees to workplaces. For them it’s a way of life. Just travel in Kolkata’s metro for once n you will see lovely Bong women in sarees commuting to their offices. I have many colleagues who wear sarees. The traditional Bong crisply starched cotton saree looks way more smart than the ones here in pictures. I guess women like Nandita n Kiran Rao intentionally dress-up in a shabby manner as they want themselves to be perceived as intelligent. There is this notion that if you dress-up shabbily then you come across as an intelligent person!
    P.S- Now I am ready for all the backlash ;)

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    • I wonder why haven’t you considered the possibility that women who are not Bongs and who are not in Banking/corporate sector but in Entertainment industry could be intelligent too, may be? Intelligence is bot limited to one community nor one particular industry.

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    • Moni, where do you see the shabbiness in the above photos? I see a confident woman in a neat saree with a pleasant smile. I don’t see someone who’s deliberately dressing down to prove she’s intelligent. But I guess we each have our own yardstick.

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    • Kiran does quirky or at least she thinks it is quirky. She makes an effort to buy clothes that spell her style. I don’t think she intends to look shabby.
      As for Nandita, she seems to favour saris with little jewellery and minimal makeup. I find her pretty. She has been complimented on her taste in ethnic wear so she sticks to what she knows best. I am pretty sure that her sponsor/producer had a certain budget in mind for their appearances at Cannes.
      I think that,like music, all of us have different sensibilities when it comes to fashion.
      I don’t think these ladies intend to dress shabby. What’s quirky or tasteful for them is shabby for you because you (probably)feel that they have dressed down for an important event.

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    • I don’t understand what is ‘shabby’ in this. Of course showing one boob is shabby but she is so elegantly dressed here and that is the reason why looks like these should be appreciated when everyone just wants to dress to show skin. Anyone who dares to be different and not follow herd mentality should be applauded even if everyone around India dresses like this it is so refreshing to see someone embrace it in an international level

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    • Maybe shabby isn’t the word, and maybe looking intelligent isn’t the thought. Some women don’t love dressing up to the common extent, low make up n beauty regimes followed. Most actors are heavily groomed and we are used to seeing the end product since ages, maybe she doesn’t follow all that and hence comes across much more simple. Everyday working women are probably better dressed to the acceptable extent they can, than few other everyday women (non working) so that is their fair comparison and difference.

      Yeah kiran Rao can come in the shabby category.

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    • Way to pit women against each other *AND* presume that their sartorial choices must have a hidden agenda of showing off their intellect. That’s an absolutely regressive take but you already knew that. People who preface their statements with disclaimers are usually aware of how ridiculously empty they sound.

      Nandita looks anything but shabby. She looks especially dreamy in the pink saree.

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    • Shabby chic, maybe?!! I kind of agree and kind of disagree with yiu. I mean yes she does look nice but at the same time so average. I mean maybe dressing to the nines is not her forte but at the same time when one is at such a grand even, it wouldn’t hurt to dress up nucer than on an average day at work. Hell my bedridden grandma would make more efforts to look glam. Like look at Shobha De – 70 and kicking glamorous ass. Also I feel there is a pressure to appreciate “simple” because we have always been fed the “good girls are simple” diet while growing up. Just my two cents

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    • Errrm. She made a film that is in competition in Cannes, so don’t think she really needs to work hard on proving her intelligence. Also I think she’s exceptionally beautiful and one of the most graceful women we’ve had on the Indian screen. Beauty and intelligence are not mutually exclusive and let’s stop this banality right here. Some women are comfortable in their skin and simply don’t like ‘glamming up’. Is that hard to fathom? And she is a proud and accomplished working woman. I don’t get your point here either. The only thing shabby here is your comment. And oh ya, I’m a Bong.

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    • Dear Ms. Pal…when was the last time you saw Nandita Das in a MM, AJSK , or even a non designer, blinged out, OTT saree. Decades maybe? Have you considered that, perhaps this is her style. Also, to insult someone’s intelligence with the way one dresses? WTF.

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    • Hello. Bong professional woman here, who’s often travelled by the Metro too ;) Am astounded, frankly, that someone familiar with that aesthetic would find Nandita Das shabby. Just popped in to say that — your opinion is your own, of course, but I cannot understand where it was born.

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    • Darling…. she doesn’t need to portray herself as intelligent. She is intelligent. I hope you know that she is a film director who has made intellectual films and an activist. There is no connection between how you dress and how intelligent you are. She looks lovely and not shabby like you thoughts :))

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    • Haha. I loved reading the reactions :)

      Yeah, I agree her saree is not crisp unlike my teachers who wore them so perfectly at school. However, I feel that too much starch in a saree takes away from the softness of the look. I would call it a romantic’laid back look and not a sharp or intelligent look ;-) You know what I mean. At the same time, I feel people who have grown up in India surrounded by women (in a literary job) would have this bias. In an international event, the association would not be drawn. That said, her saree could use some more ironing

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    • You seem more of a shill for Bengal Bengalis and their loom than an objective critic of fashion. Intelligence being geography or aesthetic bound? Sounds pretty Nazi to me.

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    • My thoughts exactly. Just because you dress differently from others, doesn’t mean or make you intelligent.
      Secondly, as you said – we see 100s of women wearing similar sarees but waaayyy cheaper and non-branded, and looking wayy better than her on daily basis. For people complaining that only bongs and corporate are considered here, let me tell you – all labor and maids in my area in Delhi are also dressed in simple cotton sarees.

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  4. Also waiting for more posts on Tillotama. She rocked Cannes this year. Loved her in the Rashmi Verma and green Raw Mango. Would love to hear your take PP!

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  5. Im not going to even bother arguing over the shabby comment. Cause we all know ( and you do too) that she’s plain Gorgeousness AND pure Talent. You on the other hand…need to get your self a job. Just saying ;)

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    • Being Gorgeous and pure talent doesn’t mean you just roll out of bed..she also deserves same critism as everyone on this fashion blog…everyone of us are stating our opinions; no need to jump on band wagon to stoop so low..

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  6. Don’t agree with the original comment but, because I do believe style is subjective and relative to the context. My own subjective opinion is Nandita Das has hit the right balance of form and function in this case and it works beautifully for her. But the comments bring up a discussion and a question for you guys regarding the intelligence vs fashion paradox: I do come across situations when I am judged unfairly for making an added effort in how I look. And growing up in STEM I definitely felt the pressure to dress down lest you were judged as frivolous or less intelligent. Do you guys experience this? I agree with the comment above about intelligence is not restricted to a profession and neither should be fashion.

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    • IRL I know regardless of STEM/non-STEM, the pressure to dress down exists in academia for female faculty, more prominently in male-dominated disciplines. Unfortunately, it eventually boils down to “dressing like a man without looking like a man”. And don’t even get me started with student perceptions/evals and female faculty fashion. However, while dressing down might be the norm, denims continue to be a rarity among female faculty, except when school is out. But for students, it is an entirely different matter. Though I feel that things are changing slowly. This is all higher-ed FWIW. My two cents. Glad someone brought this up.

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      • Thank you for sharing! So true about dressing like a man, I used to wear dresses to interviews and formal meetings because that is what I was comfortable in (didn’t want to pull my pants up when I sit down, story of my life). Formal business dresses, but quickly realized I needed to wear pants to be take seriously.

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  7. In context of the above debate I would say it has become a norm to appreciate or uplift women who doesn’t fit into traditional definition of beauty. These women are always appreciated no matter what they wear. They are applauded for their glowing skin, lovely smile and fresh looks. Nandita no doubt is very charming. But one can easily notice on this blog and other social media platforms how people find flaws in Aishwarya’s and Deepika’s looks.

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    • Are you kidding? Nandita Das is one of the prettiest women out there. She’s absolutely stunning. You need to broaden your perspective of beauty perhaps.

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    • Looking good and being beautiful is no crime just the way being simple and beautiful isn’t. I think the point of the ‘argument’ here was the lady’s intent in not following her peers (actresses) in their fashion standards or being anywhere closer. Or even being as simple as an everyday woman. Aishwarya and all do different genres of films and hence have to live up to that following, they definitely love their make up and fashion parades, Nandita has different tastes, league.

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  8. the beige sari is so lovely on her… nandita has maintained herself so well she doesnt seem to have aged in the last decade or so!

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  9. Maybe the people who are picked on are mostly about how they look and what they wear? And Nandita and the ilk are about much more than their clothes? I really don’t think they dress up to be featured or talked about for their fashion.

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  10. I have a simple question – why did the criticism of one Nandita Das’s outfit ruffle so many feathers? Is she above fashion criticism because she does serious movies and has a serious persona and speaks against the obsession with the fair skin? How is her talent or her personality relevant to her fashion choices? Are we not able to discern the thin white line between her outfits and her personality? When another mainsteam actress is criticized for her fashion choices, it’s open season but we can’t have the same standards for Nandita Das. And yes she does look nice, albeit a tad too everyday casual (for lack of better words). And yes, one can like/dislike/be indifferent to but we need to move on instead of calling each other jobless/regressive/shameless etc. Because each commetator’s joblessness is defined by how many times we are visiting the page to read each other’s comments and coming back with a counter argument. Hey, one man’s bling could be another man’s plaid shirt

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    • No one is saying that Nandita is above criticism. Connecting the way she dresses up with the assumption of her motive to “show off her intelligence” is what is worrisome and regressive. That is what’s being called out.

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    • You are on the same thread.. just saying. Good that this place leads to discussions as well than just fan commentary over outfits. N yeah the longest threads have been over Deepika, Aishwarya, kat, Shilpa, Sonam… maybe Nandita got this rolling first time. I haven’t seen much comments on her attire posts. Not an achievement but yeah seen that.

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  11. I think she is dressed up. But yeah she’s not glammed up necessarily. But most other actresses who glam up are essentially doing it as a work requirement coz their potential jobs/ remuneration depends on it. In Nandita’s case, her career is not really dependent on whether she glams up or not. She’s not seeking or will even be considered for lead roles or Endorsements, the type ARB or DP have etc. So it’s just a different job profile I guess. Like in the ‘real’ world, techies get away with jeans for meetings but most other client facing service line must be in business formals.

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  12. Neha, you are so right. That is the case in this blog. Ha! While you are supposed to appreciate the skintoneof brown ladies & their fresh faces while the same appreciation of lighter skin tones will be condemned. Even being unhealthy & shabby- unkempt looks are above criticism for certain *good* actors. And Lulu sums it well too in her comment.

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  13. It is mesemerizing to watch this lady at so much ease in her skin and her clothes! Doesn’t feel the need to pout or resort to tactical photo poses.
    What’s high fashion about her? That confidence my friend..
    To the poster who feels the pressure to like simple, the worlds tilted in the pressure to be complex!
    So fresh in that pink sari

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