As a girl, Dolly Jain was fascinated with her mother's sarees.
She learnt the art when she got married into a household which 'only allowed to wear sarees'.
To keep things different and exciting, she started to drape her saree differently regularly.
"Fortunately, I got married to a family where I was allowed only to wear a saree. Then I thought if this is my garment and I have to wear only thing, then let me style this," she tells SBS Hindi.
"I started to wear sarees in different drapes and everybody loved the way I carried my saree. That’s how I got into it."
Over the years, she mastered the skill of draping a saree in different styles - ranging from Gujarati to Hyderabadi, Rajasthani to Assamese, Lehenga style to a more contemporary style.
With different styles, came the speed. Ms Jain became the fastest saree draper (18.5 seconds) and got the record in the Book of World Records in 2011.
That is when she decided to turn her art into a profession.
But friends and family members laughed her off when she shared her idea.
"My father stood by me. I approached the Limca Records but they did not take me seriously. I sent them a CD, they came to Kolkata and I received my first certificate from Limca records," she says.
Today she claims she holds a record of knowing 357 styles of draping and for draping a saree in just 18.5 seconds.
Source: Supplied by Dolly Jain
"In saree draping, one can earn a lot"
Dolly has dressed some of the most glamorous, high-profile personalities – Sonam Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone and Isha Ambani, former Tamil Nadu chief minister Lt. Jayalalithaa and many more.
Ms Jain strongly believes that if you have the 'right' draping skills, it can uplift an outfit and the entire look.
Ms Jain has draped Bollywood celebrities and members of India's business families at their weddings.
She says she charges anywhere between Rs 10,000 and Rs 2 lakh.
"Saree is coming back as a fashion trend, so when young girls want to wear a saree, they nowadays call beauticians from local beauty parlours…and here is the opportunity to develop this profession,” she says.
"Depending on personal abilities anyone can earn from thousands to lakhs," she adds.
Besides her high profile clients, Dolly has also dressed brides across the world.
Dolly narrates her most memorable incident when the father of a bride called her from a small town in India and told her that he clearly couldn’t afford her.
"He said it was his daughter's desire to have Dolly’s drape for her wedding. I was touched and managed to go to that village at my own expense.
“I told her father to keep it secret, and when the bride saw me I can’t describe her emotions but she was overwhelmed. The joy I saw on the brides’ face made everything worthwhile. It’s moments like this that you treasure all your life,” she says.
This incident made Dolly realise that it was difficult for her to be there for every bride on her D-day, so she started training a team of women. Today, she employs 25 women who specialise in draping sarees.
Learn to drape the 'Dolly's drape'
She is also working on a coffee table book where she will share 365 drapes so that people can’t say they don’t have enough clothes!
