A Wardrobe Full of Stories is a compendium of cherished, never-told-before saree-stories. The text is built upon 34 interviews with public luminaries such as Vidya Balan, Swati Piramal, Shobhaa Dé, Cherie Blair as well as saree designers, revivalists and everyday saree wearers—journalists, dancers, actors, philanthropists, lawyers, doctors, singers, artists, corporate mavens and entrepreneurs.

The author came to us with an idea—conversations with 34 fellow saree lovers. However, the publication was not to be a book of interviews, but a book of sarees. We had 40 hours of interviews, and one question: What can one say about the saree that hasn’t been said already?

Over seven thousand years old and enmeshed with South Asia’s cultural history, the saree clothes at least half a billion people. The saree is iconic but also pervasive with thousands of books, films, talks, papers, reels and exhibitions about it. So we dove into the hundreds of pages of saree interviews to come up with a creative concept that would bring order and give shape to the book. Then we set down to researching, writing and designing the book.

In the gathering and retelling of saree stories, we crafted the book to weave together the historic, mythic and cultural legacy of India’s most enduring icon. Using the saree as a lens, the book collates forgotten songs, weaves, belief systems, textile traditions, iconographies and art movements.

What sets the book apart is that it is not an academic or research tract but built upon the saree memories of women from all walks of life. The book became a repository—an archive of the women's desires, ambitions, emotions, identities and family histories, heirlooms and inheritances. To express this, the creative concept poses the question: What is the saree to you?

We treated each chapter like its own creative universe to evoke the innumerable meanings a saree holds to its wearers. To replicate the unforgettable tactile nature of the saree, we made real things with our hands—we stamped and sewed and embroidered and painted and wove.

We embroidered maps on cloth; recreated a 5,000-year-old pattern with a hand-carved potato stamp; made our own kaleidoscope to photograph a Paithani’s infinite reflections; wove voices—literally—into a tapestry with strips of paper; and turned saree motifs into word poetry. Finally we cloaked the book cover in raw silk with gold foil motifs.