Osariya

Sri Lankan Kandyan wedding, Colombo, 2020 In Colombo, a Kandyan bride wears the osariya, the Kandyan way of draping a sari, worked in gold thread, with a jeweled band across her brow. Her groom wears the Nilame costume: a jacket heavy with embroidery and stones, a matching hat, and yards of white cloth wrapped around the waist over frilled trousers. That attire was once reserved for the highest families, which is why a Kandyan wedding still feels courtly, even at a photo shoot in the open air.