LONDON - The sari is being reinvented for the modern age in an Indian "fashion revolution," with around 60 trailblazing examples due to go on display at a new exhibition in London.
Over the past decade, according to curator Priya Khanchandani, the sari has seen the most rapid transformation in its 5,000-year history.
From sari styles worn by young women on their way to work in Delhi and Mumbai to the spectacular creation that was the first sari to grace New York's famous Met Gala, the London showcase spotlights the garment's 21st-century revival.
Khanchandani says she first became aware of a renaissance in 2015 when she met some of the designers in Delhi who were transforming the sari, traditionally a single long piece of unstitched fabric draped over the body.
"I saw the sari being revived as an everyday garment in a way that was very fashionable. They were being worn by younger women than I knew before," she told AFP ahead of the show, The Offbeat Sari, which opens at the Design Museum on Friday.
"They were often quite intellectual women, writers and artists... wearing them in ways that I didn't expect," she said.
Having previously viewed saris as a garment to be worn for special events or weddings, she suddenly noticed them being reinvented as everyday clothing, even teamed with T-shirts and sneakers.
The birth of mass consumerism and social media in India combined with the growth of the country's urban middle class has accelerated the sari's revamp, Khanchandani said.
"The influence of digital media which has a really significant reach in India, particularly among young people, allowed trends to spread and I think allowed the way that saris were being worn to become a grassroots movement," she added.
Popular hashtags that have seen a vast array of images shared online include #sarilove, #sarifashion, #designsarees and #sareeindia.
Despite the sari's long history, it was not until last year that a sari was seen at the celebrated annual Met Gala event in New York.