An outfit made of 45 kilograms of flowers is not part of a creation displayed at a fashion show. It is a uniquely styled garba dress, that Naresh Ramchandra Patel wore on the eighth day of the Navratri celebrations, at the United Way of Baroda (UWB) here on Tuesday.
Flowers such as rose, lily and chrysanthemum were used to make the dress. The flowers were stitched together on kurta and pyjama made of jute, said Patel.
Forty-year-old Patel himself weighs about 90 kg. “There was a feeling of pride when I wore this dress and did garba,” he said beaming.
Around 2,200 roses of five different colours — red, pink, yellow, green and orange — were used for the dress.
The turban, which is a part of the dress, alone, weighs nearly 3 kg.
The flowers have been stitched so well that even after a long dancing stint, no flower came out of the dress. The back of the kurta has a fringe made with lily.
Expert florists took nearly 12 hours to make this unique dress. “The flowers have been brought from Mumbai and I had to spend Rs 9,500 to get this dress made,” said Patel.
“The idea struck me after I visited the Pramaswami Mandir. I saw Lord Ghanshyam wearing a similar kind of outfit. I thought of getting a dress that would look like his,” said Patel.
Patel has been participating in garba for the past18 years now. His close associates say that he comes up with something different every year for garba. “I don’t even drink water when I start dancing. I am there till the programme ends. I came to the garba venue in an open auto-rickshaw so that the flowers wouldn’t crumble,” he added.