Blondes- to dye or not to dye? & women's wear, women's safety etc

Nick-H

Being reminded of how things are in other parts of the world, yes, India has a looooooooong way to go! And it is also true that "small-town" attitudes are likely to be much more conservative than the big metros.

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

Aishah

If your arts performance is in one of the big cities it might be quite a dressy affair - women are now dressing more in smart pants with a kurta top, smart looking handbag and good shoes, in fact very 'modern' compared to five years previously. Black is now an 'in' colour. However, middle-aged and older women are still fairly traditional. SK will go anywhere at anytime I find - and even a nice embroidered cotton can be worn to functions.

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brishti

actually, theres a massive misconception, [ i'm a-guessin ] that cottons are not 'formal' enough.
that aint true
depends on the weave/colour/thickness and of course - how you wear it.
an armani can look like a bag of sack - if 'worn' like a sack
and silk - dont necessarily guarantee good dress sense... and in the heat

in india - the range of cotton fabrics with a variety of bright colours - always, always a winner.
and in summer - nothing can be more comfortable.
you just may need [ if at all ] a decorative dupatta/scarf to accessorise.

more than the salwar, ladies, try out them cotton churidars - looks smarter.
besides, salwars, if they're not the right length, can look if short or trailing.

avoid t-shirts for any formal do [this is for em women!]


:brishti

Nick-H

Cotton-silk --- a great compromise, and a fabric from which many beautiful clothes are made.

MrsC_772

Churidar are great for people with short legs like me (who normally have trouble finding trousers the right length). However, salwar would be cooler IMHO.

the opoponax

I tagged along to a performance at my Kolkata hosts' country club and felt tragically underdressed. A lot of women there (at what back home I'd consider a fairly casual event) were in silk saris, full-on jewelry, etc.

Post-India, I'm of the opinion that it's not a bad idea to carry a nice kurta or kameez (or even just a nice blouse from home) in your pack just in case you need to dress up. Fabindia is great for this. They usually fold up pretty small and with a little notice can be ironed by your hotel's laundry-wallah. Also useful for those days when you have the blahs and want to feel pretty. I finally picked up something like this at the end of my trip and in hindsight really wish I'd had it the whole time.

I'm with Nick, by the way -- cotton silk FTW!

Editing to add that, while churidar are in fact lovely and stylish, you will NOT be able to do yoga in them. They can be pretty confining. Of course I wouldn't choose to do yoga in salwar, either, because I feel like the excess fabric would be everywhere.

bndancer108

I don´t really remember who said it (and given the lenght of this thread, no way I am gonna search through it ), but it´s true - we girls (and boys too ) can go on and on about SKs....
I would like to add that besides the tradicional pants styles, the churidar (tightey tightey) and the salwar (loosey loosey), nowadays they have others different designs for the pants. The shops are making it in straight pants style (very nice for all body tipes, good for yoga or if you plan to use the pants with tighter tops later), and the bellbottom style (most used by kids and youngsters - very bollywood)...

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machadinha

I guess even for men a short-sleeved shirt (blouse) would go down better than a T-shirt, is that right? Or a long-sleeved one in a formal setting I imagine.

Actually I'm pretty clueless about local male attire, which would be fun to cover. I'd personally better save it for when I ever return though, I mean I'll have to ask again by then. (I can just see the thread title: Brunets -- To bleach or not to bleach? ) I guess a complication may be that my feeling was while many women go around in elegant local styles, most men just wear fairly non-descript western attire, and those few you see in traditional clothes tend to be lower class, contrary to appearances maybe (except for your local be-dhoti'd babu perhaps).

But so anyway it would be nice to know how a (foreign) man can dress up to a casually stylish local effect, without looking like a dressed-up tourist. I mean I've been reading about salwar kameezes being worn by men too, I wonder how far this would get you in practice though. The churidar as well for that matter, which looks very elegant to me. Kurtas? The sherwani I like, but I guess this would be very formal? A Nehru jacket? And again, what pants to wear with them? A salwar or churidar, after all? Or better settle for the run-of-the-mill pants and shirt after all? I mean I've worn lungis but would keep it to very informal and off-beat settings, as a tourist I wouldn't suggest trying this in downtown Delhi.

Anyway as another afterthought, if Renee is really going in summer, I hear keeping your stuff dry in the monsoon can be notoriously difficult, due to the humidity alone if nothing else. Keeping your stuff in several plastic bags inside your pack is handy to keep some order, and obviously to keep your things dry. Carry a few extra for odds and ends. You might want to stuff those bags in a garbage bag and put that in your pack. Put your stuff out to dry whenever you can. And you may really need some extra clothes to change after being drenched, either from sweating or after a downpour.

Well, so much for today's motherly advice

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Nick-H

Sadly true! The length of the sleaves, though, probably says more about the climate than the formality.The lunghi may say lower-class, unless just worn around the house/garden. The vesti or dhoti, no. It may say traditional, it may say old-fashioned. To me it says (and feels) comfortable (see profile pic) and the ideal thing to wear with a kurta, equally others wear it with a shirt.

Sherwani, nehru jacket --- very smart, yes, and more formal too, yes. Perhaps more Northern, but certainly not out of place at a formal Southern do. A nice Sherwani is much more expensive than the way I dress, they are usually more decorative, and more tailoring is involved. I was nearly persuaded into one for wife's son's wedding, but in the end refused to spend a lot of money on something I'd only wear once. Even so, the silk kurta vesti was expensive!

Nick-H

For the foreign lady I saw at the airport today.

She was certainly well covered in her ankle-length cotton-print "dress". In fact, very smart to the foreign eye.

It's just that to any Indian it would have been immediately recognisable as...






a nightie !


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machadinha

Heheh. I may be wrong, but isn't this the classical thing of Western women wearing what's-it-called, what is considered to be the undergarments to a sari? While this may be stylishly informal in the west (mostly in [post-] hippie quarters), I take it this is the equivalent to walking out in your underwear indeed.

ps Thanks for your thoughts on men's wear above; will be back on it. I can't remember there ever having been a good thread on it here; maybe it's time we had one.

bndancer108

Hi machadinha
that is called a petticoat or underskirt...Yes it is to be worn under a sari or even under a nightie for a walk to the corner market, but in my lifetime I´ve seen my quota of ladies without a clue wearing it like a skirt -not just in india but in many hare krishna temples around the world as well - make me I want to go and ask them : where the h... is your sari??? It is suposed to be UNDERWEAR
another indian fashion faux-pas (sp?) I´ve seen, luckly just once, a tourist wearing a choli (saree blouse-SHORT !) with a salwar pants... needless to say she was the main atraction of Jaipur that day....

wonderwomanusa

About menswear, Mach, last time I was in Delhi, I saw a young-ish man wearing churidar and a long, very white and very elegant kurta, that appeared to be allover Lucknowi "chikkan" embroidery. This was near one of the CP coffeebars, and he met friends when he arrived, perhaps after an important event. I wish I had a photo of him ... and actually, I wish I'd gone closer to him for a better look!

bndancer108

Nick (hi!) we can´t also forget that there are many beautiful dhoties with golden embroidered borders (esp. gorgeous south indian ) that make it fancy enough to go to a formal ocasion... my husband usually pairs them to a nice handloomed cotton silk kurta and a chaddar or angavastra and he´s ready to go I also like sherwanis and jackets but I find them a little "stuffy", I don´t know if you get me, but I think they are good only for weddings,and most if you are the groom .But then it´s just my opinion .For me nothing beats the south indian look....

Nick-H

It certainly suits me! ---well, I mean, I'm comfortable with it, whether it suits or not is in the eye of the beholder, of course .

My speciality is Kerala vestis (mundus), which come with a considerable variety of coloured stripes not found in TN vestis. Thus I can match the stripes to the kurta and feel well co-ordinated

The profile pic shows a Tamil vesti, with a rather lovely swan border, of which you can get a clue from the angavestrum (thing over the shoulder). I do not normally wear the angavestrum, but this was a special occasion. The cow thought I looked OK, anyway!