What are the smart ways to accessorize a saree?

Putting an ensemble together depends on a number of things. For one, the occasion determines how dressed up you want the saree to be. However, when accessorizing a saree, keep a few things in mind.

When wearing a saree with too many patterns and shades, keep things very simple or too much jewelry combined with too many patterns might be very distracting, and worse yet, very tacky.

Women should also make sure their accessories match their body types because sarees show the female form. Tall women should wear short, slouchy bags (hobos or clutches) but petite women should avoid these types of bags because the size overwhelms their petite frames. Short women should avoid hand bags with long straps, and medium and plus-sized women should go with medium-sized bags.

Women with round faces should go with small earrings to give the face a more oval look as opposed to wearing long earrings that will make the face appear rounder. In general, women should wear heavy jewelry with simple or limited patterns. Sarees with colorful borders can be accessorized with long chains.

In general, long bindis go well with round or square faces, and round ones go with long faces. Shimmery or stone-studded bindi goes perfectly with silk sarees. The color of the bindi need not match the saree.


Plain cotton sarees should be complemented with simple studs or light dangling earrings and a thin gold chain finished off with a couple of gold bangles to finish the ensemble. A saree with a silver zari looks good with either silver or diamond jewelry and one with gold goes well with gold jewelry. Finally, Kundan jewelry complements chiffon sarees and temple jewelry complements silk sarees. Gold-plated jewelry matches traditional sarees.