The Sari Crusaders

When And Just Like That’s Diwali episode came out on January 6, 2022, there was a hullabaloo. It wasn’t because it was the fashion-forward Sex and the City spinoff’s first-ever episode to center one of New York City’s biggest populations. No, it was because Sarita Choudhury, who plays real estate mogul Seema Patel, said she was in a sari shop with Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw, who ends up wearing a lehenga instead. 

Sarita Choudhury was absolutely stunned by the uproar. “What I don’t understand is [this conversation of], ‘why is she wearing a lehenga and why did we call it a sari shop?’ But…when we show up at a location, there are both saris and lehengas, whether we show them in the shot,” she told The Juggernaut.

The conversation is back — thanks to Alia Bhatt’s recent jaw-dropping look at the 2025 Cannes closing ceremony, where she donned the first-ever Swarovski-encrusted Gucci “sari” — as she told press. The outfit featured a bralette top and skirt with a long, trailing dupatta. Onlookers called it a lehenga, not a sari. Gucci called it a “gown.” South Asian netizens preferred to call it a Scandinavian scarf with a crop top and skirt, in jest.

Both moments brought up recurring themes: the long history of European fashion houses “borrowing” South Asian traditional attire without due credit, as well as what it means when our own people reenvision classics. The Juggernaut spoke to designers, drag queens, and disruptors who are doing the latter, proudly. They have a deep love for the traditional six-meter-long garment. Indeed, they are sari crusaders.