yet another "what to wear" question

terreneuve

thanks cardamom for mentioning H&M too! i stopped by there yesterday and found the perfect pair of loose linen pants. not to mention a sunhat and a pair of sunglasses. the first thing i did when i got home is rolled them up into the smallest ball possible and stuffed them in my 70% packed backpack!

3 pairs of fresh new undies are next on the list

on a semi-related note: has anyone here gotten henna done in delhi? any comments/suggestions on where to go?

NeeliAankhen

Are you sure of being in only-hot places?

I was in Rajasthan the 2nd week of February and the best thing I'd packed was: silk long-johns and a silk sleeveless undershirt wearable under most of my tops -- it was very very cold at night, indoors as well as outdoors. And the places we wanted to eat in were outdoors, as well as a whole two-day wedding. Thank goodness you can wear anything under a sari or long kameez!!

I wore the longjohns under pajamas to bed in Varanasi, too. Bombay was warm-to-hot.

manali4now

I think you can get away with jeans...and the dress.

The issue is not only of seeing skin but of seeing the OUTLINE or body shape, curve of legs, tight tops...

Get to India and have a salwaar made. tailoring costs 150 rupees, and a standard salwaar suit, nothing fancy, cotton, will cost 350 to 650 rupees. DON'T PAY MORE THAN THIS.

MrsC_772

Go to Fabindia in Greater Kailash market on your first day in Delhi. It's not particularly cheap, but they do have nice stuff. Upstairs they have more western tops and skirts, including long ones, and downstairs salwar, churidar and kurtas. I found more nice clothes there than Anokhi.

A pashmina is also really handy - for covering up and cold evenings, and doesn't take up much space in your luggage (especially compared with fleece jumpers).

I bought a long kurta & churidar outfit from Fabindia, with a lovely black and gold dupatta. You buy the tops and bottoms separately. If you have short legs, churidar are great, since the whole point is that they're supposed to be wrinkly round the ankles.

I then had a short sleeve kurta and salwar made up.

If you're more worried about feeling cool than looking cool, salwar are a good bet. They seemed cooler than my baggy hippieish western trousers, and I noticed a lot of Indians dressing up to go to e.g. the Taj Mahal (one young woman in what looked like a wedding outfit - heavily embroidered red and gold sari, and lots of gold jewellery). In Western clothes I felt a bit of a scruff (which I suspect was why my ex-pat hosts were happy to take me shopping my first evening in Delhi).

Salwar would be cooler than churidar (although churidar potentially better at keeping mosquitos away from ankles).

Drawstring waist and bagginess at top of both churidar and salwar are great, given the amount I ate. With a kurta on top, they're also perfect for hiding a moneybelt (let it hang relatively low, over knickers, rather than high, over navel). I picked up a silk moneybelt from a Nomad travel shop in London, which wasn't too sweaty either. My passport, tickets and a spare credit card lived in the money belt out of sight.

I got the impression that extra-baggy patiala salwar probably need to be made to fit, to avoid being hideously unflattering, even with a kurta on top. (I tried some in "Cottons", virtually next door to Fabindia - you could have fitted at least 2 more women in there, and still left room for a baby elephant!) Your bum will look big in patialas!

AwayFromHome

How on Earth did you learn that word, Karuna?

L&L

I had the same question as terreneuve.....does anyone have recommendations to get henna in delhi? also, is there any negative feelings about westerners with henna on their hands? i'm not out to offend any locals!

thanks

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Leanna & Larry

Nick-H

No problem with causing offence --- in fact it is not that easy to cause offence!

Suggest you check out posts by our member Mehndi Masala as not all henna mixtures are safe.

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team