The royals and their love for costumes is no hidden secret. In older times, a fleet of weavers, beaders, embroiderers and seamstresses sat within palace karkhanas to create something bespoke for the queen. There was a special impetus for making saris that the royal ladies would wear with much elan. Each style carried forth a story of rare reverence, be it the gossamer chiffons embroidered with pure gold threads and semi precious stones, the soft Chanderis worn with pure zari borders, a patent of the Maratha women, or the chantilly lace that would get shipped directly from the ateliers of France to the palaces of India.
Shrimant Murari Rao Yashwant Rao Ghorpade in original dupatta.
Late Rajmata Vasundhara Raje Ghorpade Sandur.
R.K. Sushila Kumari of Jasdan.
Cut to modern times. As couture claimed centre stage, these master craftsmen working on commision for princely families were forgotten. Their masterpieces lay packed in the trunks of the erstwhile royals and in the memoirs of past queens, where many stories of rare textiles and costumes could be found.
Many such tales have been lying within the personal wardrobe of the very elegant and beautiful Ambika Raje Ghorpade of Sandur. The wife of Kartikeya Raje, a successful entrepreneur, a great food historian and passionate chef, she had the privilege of calling two spectacular women her mother: Sushila Kumari, the Princess of Jasdan, who was her biological mother, and the late Rajmata Vasundhara Raje Ghorpade, who was her mother-in-law. From both of them she inherited not just amazing tales about textiles but also an inborn grace to do justice to anything she wore.
Born to a Maratha IAS officer Hirojirao Ramarao Patankar and Raj Kumari Sushila Kumari of Jasdan, Ambika got married into the Sandur princely state in Karnataka. A popular Maratha state with a strong political legacy, Sandur was also the region where a unique form of Mysore silk was woven. Add to that the fact that Ambika’s mother-in-law, the stunning beauty, was a princess from Baroda. Together they created such a trunk of tales to unfurl that Ambika decided to share them with the next generation on a forum that they understand: Instagram. “It would help my two daughters trace my collection better,” she jokes.
There are sari influencers galore today, but this lady says things from the heart, tracing many rare, restored pieces to the women of Baroda, Jasdan and Sandur. From a Parsi gara, lovingly restored from an old piece of chiffon, to her mother-in-law’s bridal dupatta which she added to a sari, her tales are enchanting. Every word uttered by her catches the fancy of her organically grown followers – most of them second-generation nobles and royals – including her daughters, the younger one, Anushka Ghorpade, who is a baker, and the elder daughter, Krutika, who is a mother to a little girl and the wife of Akshay Bhansali, son of politician Yashodhara Raje Scindia and Siddharth Bhansali.
Two of my favourite stories from her stunning page are the one where she pays an ode to her mother’s chiffons, by posing in a stunning print from BBG royals herself, and the other where she strikes a perfect picture with her amazing spouse, wearing a sari, hand-tucked with a pure gold border, which belonged to her mother-in-law’s bridal ensemble.
The quotes which follow them are just as endearing. “When you are looking at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know. My insta page is dedicated to my mom, her love for saris and her in-depth knowledge of the textiles! Listening to her stories as I grew up, while shopping and travelling, is where my love for textiles started…Mom at 17 in a French floral chiffon and me in a @bbg_royal champagne rose chiffon,” reads the first one.
The second says, “Years back my mother-in-law was rummaging through her trunk and she pulled out her wedding dupatta. As she unfolded it, she realised it was in tatters. It was a real gold tissue dupatta with a solid huge gold border all around. The tissue was in tatters but the border could be restored. Those days they wore very long dupattas over the sari ,so it was easy to get a complete sari border from the dupatta! And I did !…My in-laws on their wedding day and me in a pink chiffon with the solid real gold border, which I restored from my mother in law’s wedding dupatta! Old is gold — literally!”