How ready to wear works

What is actually stitched

A ready-to-wear saree is a real saree that has had three things done to it. The pleats are folded and sewn permanently onto a fitted waistband. A concealed zip is set into the side seam. And the pallu is pre-pleated and stitched so it falls at a set length over the left shoulder.

What is not different: the fabric, the border, the pallu design, the drape. Once it is on, it looks like a saree, because it is one. The pleats are usually deeper and more even than most people achieve by hand.

Why sizing matters here and not on an unstitched saree

An unstitched saree has no size — you pleat six metres of cloth to your own body. A ready-to-wear saree has a fitted waistband, so it does have a size, and it has to be the right one. We size to body measurements with 4cm of ease built in, and every product page carries the chart in centimetres and inches.

Measure your waist where you want the saree to sit — usually the natural waist — and your hip at the fullest point. If you are between sizes, take the larger.

When ready to wear is the wrong choice

• If you want to re-drape it differently. The pleats are permanent, so regional drapes are off the table.
• If your measurements are likely to change. There is 3cm of allowance in the waistband and no more.
• If it is an heirloom piece. Converting a Kanjivaram is irreversible. Lovely to wear, impossible to undo.
• If you want to learn. Draping is a genuinely satisfying skill and it takes one afternoon.

Converting a saree you already own

We convert sarees to ready to wear for ₹4,500, which takes about 5 working days on top of normal dispatch. We need three measurements — waist, hip, and waist-to-floor barefoot.

It is irreversible, and it cannot be returned afterwards because it has been cut and sewn to your measurements. We say that next to the option before you tick it, not in the small print afterwards.

Conversion detail and lead times