A saree is a garment that represents India’s rich history and cultural heritage and holds a special place for women all over the country. It’s the epitome of versatility and elegance; it can be worn for various occasions, from daily wear to grand celebrations. It reflects the wearer’s personal style, preferences and individuality, and has a lot of variety, from handwoven textiles to embroidered and embellished. Buying a saree also helps support traditional artisans and helps preserve art forms.

In this world, skin and body positivity have become more popular. While all skin colours and body shapes are beautiful, there is no denying that they play a major role in deciding the colour and style of the saree. Often these factors lead to doubts such as, “Which saree is best for my skin colour?” or “How to choose a saree for a rectangle body shape?”  

To answer the question, complementary colours that suit the wearer’s skin colour and styles that can show off or downplay certain body features are the best choices. Read on for a guide on how to choose a saree that will be perfect for your skin tone and body shape. 

Understanding Skin Tones and Undertones

Before we get into the guide, let’s understand the types of skin tones, undertones, and identifying features. Knowing this will help you understand which saree is best for you.

• Fair skin tone:
  Pink or porcelain appearance on the skin, sensitive to the sun and burns easily. Fair-skinned individuals often have more freckles on the nose and around cheeks. 
  
  
• Light skin tone: 
  Has a pale but more pigmented look than fair skin, and has a broader range of undertones. Those with light skin a prone to little tanning but can still burn in the skin. 
  
  
• Wheatish skin tone: 
  Medium skin tone, with more pigmentation and a warm, golden or beige appearance. People with this skin tone tan easily and rarely experience burns.
   
• Dark skin tone:
  Deep brown to black skin. They have rich pigmentation with a variety of undertones. Individuals with skin tone also tan easily and have great resilience to sun exposure.

To understand how these skin tones, it is important to know more about undertones, that is, the natural colours present under the surface of the skin:

•  Cool Undertones
  If the individual has hints of pink, red or blue on their skin, then they have cool undertones. Silver jewellery suits this undertone.
  
  
• Warm Undertones:
  Those with this undertone have hints of yellow, gold or peach on their skin. Gold jewellery looks good on warm undertones.
  
  
• Neutral Undertones:
  A mix of cool and warm undertones, both gold and silver jewellery look good on those who have this undertone.

However, another question arises at this point; how to identify what kind of undertone you have? There are four tests you can do to determine this:

• Vein Test:
  If your veins are blue or purple, you have cool undertones.
  If your veins are green, you have warmer undertones.
  If it’s a mix of both colours, then your undertones are neutral.
  
  
• Jewellery test:
  Hold gold and silver jewellery against your skin.
  If gold looks better, you have warm undertones
  If silver looks better, you have cool undertones
  If both look good, it is neutral.
  
  
• White paper test:
  Hold a piece of white paper next to your face in natural light.
  If your skin is rosy or bluish, it means you have cool undertones.
  If your skin shows a yellowish or golden hue, you have warm undertones.
  If it shows neither, you have neutral undertones.
  
  
• Sun exposure test:
  See how your skin reacts to the sun.
  If you tan easily and rarely burn, you have warm undertones.
  If you burn easily and rarely tan, you have cool undertones.
  If you burn and tan equally, you have neutral undertones.