Sridevi was the queen of the "multi-layered" look.

Looking back at the style gallery of old Tamil actresses, one realizes it was not about following fleeting trends. It was about —the world's most versatile garment—to every mood: the piousness of Savitri, the power of Jayalalithaa, the playfulness of Vanisri, and the modernity of Sridevi.

The 1980s brought a gust of fresh air. The gallery wall here is softer, sun-drenched. enters in cotton sarees—handloom Coimbatore cottons, simple Kanchipuram cottons with thin borders, worn without heavy jewelry, often just a kumkum dot and a single black bead chain ( mangalsutra as a style piece). Her fashion was radical in its simplicity. She made the open hair (wavy, untied) and the no-makeup look a statement of intellectual, grounded femininity. She proved that a heroine did not need to be a glittering goddess; she could be the girl next door who smelled of coffee and jasmine.