The Green Peacock-and-Lotus Bandhani

This one is not a costume. It is what Kalyani Priyadarshan wore to a function in September 2026, photographed after dark among friends and again by day beside a lake. Nobody has said what the occasion was, so neither do we.

And for once the outfit is not a mystery. It is Pink City by Sarika's Peacock and Lotus Bandhni Saree, on sale on the Jaipur label's own site at ₹72,500, in sizes XS to XL or made to measure. That price and that stock status come from the brand's own product page, not from the clips going round.

What you are looking at, piece by piece. An emerald-green saree with a satin sheen, tie-dyed all over in a small, even grid of white bandhani dots. Down the border and across the pallu runs a broad band of gold zari and thread embroidery, peacocks and lotuses worked into it, wide enough to read from across a room. Under it, a sleeveless blouse in the same green with a high round neck, and the embroidery climbs the neckline and runs into the border so the two read as one piece. The brand stitches the blouse with the saree.

Around it: big chandbali earrings with a dark green enamel stud, a gold crescent and a fringe of green beads and pearls; a pale gold brocade potli with gold tassels; a thin gold bangle and a couple of cocktail rings. Hair pulled back, sunglasses pushed up on her head.

Two things we are leaving off rather than guessing at. The rings and the bangle never come sharp enough to match. And we are not naming anyone else in the photographs.

Below is the real saree, at the price the brand charges for it, and under that the three pieces we picked ourselves. Our saree pick is the right emerald with white dots and ships with its own blouse piece, so there is no second green to mismatch — but its border is a narrow mirror-work lace, not her broad peacock band, and that is the honest gap.