In the high and far-off time, O Best Beloved, the game of chess was better known as Chaturanga to the Indians, and later to the Persians and perhaps the Moguls as Shatranj. The game has descended to us across thousands of years under various names, but the old name is remembered. And Zaara has drawn inspiration from it and the game to create this lovely piece.
(The pictures are thumbnails; click through for larger versions.)
This is a delicious confection in black and white silk, with gold embroidery. You’ll even find tiny blue dots in the gold; this is the quality of the material used at this designer. Zaara has absolutely lovely fabrics, and look how the ghagra skirt flows! I wish it were possible to have some motion shots here, but I can’t take machinima worth beans, so you have to be satisfied with the implication here.
The top goes along with the skirt, of course, and shows the fabric even better. It looks like there’s spots of gold along the edging as “embroidery”; note how it runs up the white cup there. There is also a dupatta, a gold tulle or net drape that I though I was wearing when I shot these; but it somehow fell off. Go to Zaara’s store and take a look at the vendor on the second floor! It comes in two forms — straight over one shoulder, or falling across your body in front.
Along with this, I’m wearing more Indian goodies: Yak & Yeti’s Devdras glass bangles (another Yak & Yeti freebie, if I remember); and something not Indian: the Fleur diamond and pearl earrings in gold from Virtual Impressions. My shoes are gold slingbacks from Armidi (you can’t see them), and my hair is Tiana from ETD (blackened copper).
I love Zaara’s outfits….and seriously, you should do the shawls. You will do something different, I know. Gidge and I have both blogged the same skirt in the same blog, lol.
If you’re talking about that Digit Darkes Reflection, I think everyone took a crack at that one. Like we said at the time, Dig came up with a winner.
(To explain, Cajsa wrote an article on the Pashmina shawls that Zaara has come out with at her blog, It’s Only Fashion, and I took her to task gently — and also, hopefully, with humor — about beating me out, ’cause I was planning on doing those. I didn’t get around to them. So I substituted by doing Shatranj instead.)