"The sari," said Puneet Nanda in Tokyo, "is a most elegant and amazing garment."

Literally it is not a garment at all, but a length of material wrapped around the body in a basic style dating from antiquity. Simple though the sari seems to be, its wrapping and folding incorporate intricacies and subtleties. With bracelets, anklets and necklaces, the sari is undyingly popular with Indian women in all circumstances and for all occasions.

Nanda is a modern young man from New Delhi, red-sandstoned capital city of India. He was born into his family's business of selling saris, "and grew into it." His artist father, who established the brand label Satya Paul, took the boy to America for six of his teen years. That was a period during which he "trained in the arts without an agenda," he said. "I was independent, a student of many arts, really. There was no milestone to say when I had arrived."