It’s easy to take the idea of fashion for granted. Most of the world shares a similar sense of fashion; the clothing in the UK, in North America and even so far as the more metropolitan Asian regions all looks very much the same. Indian Fashion is very diverse.
Jeans and similar kinds of pants and a sweater or t-shirt make standard casual wear, while a dress or a suit are used for more formal attire, for occasions such as business meetings or formal celebrations like a wedding or anniversary.
However the world itself is a very diverse place, and contains within it many fashions. For example, Indian fashion is actually quite majestic, and has found a way to combine itself with the Western fashions mentioned above to create a unique sense of style.
The Sari
One of the most obvious pieces of clothing coming out of India, for example, is the sari. The sari is one of the most renowned examples of Indian fashion and is used quite often in mainstream media to represent India. It’s quite simple in concept as well, involving a single piece of cloth, usually between eight or nine meters in length, that wraps around the body in various ways. There’s no one specific way to wear a sari, yet they almost always manage to look very similar and telltale.
Salwar Kameez
For those women looking for something a little less formal in design yet still traditional and fashionable, look for these party wear salwar kameez. A salwar kameez is a full outfit consisting of fairly loose fitted trousers that get tighter around the ankles, and a tunic style top.
Dupatta
More traditional salwar kameez are also accompanied by a dupatta, which is a long and loose scarf used to cover the bosom area as well as the shoulders, depending on the culture and how much of their skin women are to show.
Lungis
For men’s fashion there is the lungi, which comes in a variety of styles. It’s a skirt-like piece of cloth that is worn around the waist, and can be closed or open depending on the desire of the wearer. Stitched lungis, however, are closed permanently, and are for the most part simply open at either end to be worn and to make way for the legs. They were typically worn in the warmer regions of India to allow proper air flow and to help cool down the workers in the fields and around the villages and towns.
Sherwani
Another piece of men’s fashion is the sherwani, which is a long coat-like garment that typically falls to just below the knees and is fastened up with buttons along the torso. Its collar is raised up and it’s worn with a pair of loose trousers called churidars.
Churidars
These loose-fitting trousers are designed to plume around the hips and the waist, remaining loose and airy, while getting tighter and bunching up more around the ankles.
There are many styles of Indian fashion that are combined with modern, Western fashion to achieve much more casual looks and be much less traditional. Mixing and matching is very common to take those formal looking garments and make them useable in everyday fashion.
Aesha is a part time blogger who enjoys writing about many different topics mainly fashion, design and traveling and especially loves to write about her main passion the most, which is Indian fashion designers.