I love saris — but I have never seen saris like these before

Natasha Poonawalla, executive director of the vaccine-manufacturing Serum Institute of India, donned an haute couture sari for the 2022 Met Gala. The garment is on display at the museum show '"The Offbeat Sari" (pictured, right). The designer is Sabyasachi Mukherjee and the metal corset is by Schiaparelli. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images (l), Andy Stagg. Courtesy of the Design Museum)

I'm from India and I love saris. Millions of women across India and neighboring South Asian countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh still wear this ancient garment — typically a long strip of cotton, silk or synthetic fabric, several yards long and draped in myriad different ways across the wearer's body.

It's both an everyday garment and a fashion statement. But as many people from the subcontinent will admit, the sari also has deeper layers of meaning.