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The Indian Wedding Dress | Wedding Outfits | Wedding Apparel | Wedding Wear
Shopping for Indian
Wedding Dress is a nightmare for any bride. The challenge in shopping for the
perfect combination of the Indian Wedding Outfit is that it has to be perfect
and yet must be affodable. See following guide line for choosing right Indian
Wedding Dress.
The very first
thing that needs to be kept in mind when you shop for the Indian wedding wear is that you should divide the
list into three sections:
- Indian formal
- Western formal
-
Semi-casual.
In the Indian
weddings there aren't too many occasions for casual dressing for the Indian
bride. And while choosing the Indian wedding apparel, you must keep in mind that
the silhouettes must be ultra feminine.
It would be a good
touch to have whites and pastels dominate your formal bridal wardrobe. The
latest Indian fashion in the Indian Bridal Wear for the formal occasions
is a break away from old traditional Indian fashion phobias. In fact the latest
fashions in the Indian Wedding Wear moves towards bolder definitive
statements. Another look that
is in when it comes to Indian wedding dresses is that of nets, transparent
fabrics and a general feel of lightness. The days of chunky gold are soon giving
way to the fashion of white gold and silver look.
In the formal
section for the Indian Wedding clothes, you can afford to get as dramatic as
possible. Go ahead and get yourself a judicious mix of sarees, salwar kameez, Lehenga choli and lachas.
The Indian
handlooms have some offerings that are must haves in the trousseau variety of
saris, like the Banarasi, the Paithani, Tissue, Kanjeevaram and the Bandhni sari
in silk. But of course you must remember that the good saris in these
traditional weaves all come at a heavy price tag. So it would be good to plan
the colors that you need and buy some of the traditional weaves classic shades,
which never tend to go out of style.
Try a
lacha in tissue and zardozi
in shades of pastels. And make sure the wedding outfit you choose is not too
cumbersome.
Salwar Kameez | Shalwar Kameez | Salwar | Shalwar
What is Salwar / Shalwar & what is Kameez?
Following definitions will explain you all about salwar kameez
and embroidery, workmanship used in shalwar kameez.
Kameez - A three-quarter-length tunic for
women, usually knee-length or longer. Plural is also "kameez
Salwar or Shalwar - Loose
pants, broad at the top and narrower at the ankles
Sharara - A very full, flowing pants which
look like a long skirt, worn under a short tunic and with a dupatta.
Churidar - Closely fitted pants, with bunches
of folds at the ankles looking like a stack of bangles
Dupatta - An unstitched length of material for
the upper body traditionally worn by both sexes, but now mainly worn by women as
part of a salwar kameez (paijama and tunic) ensemble.
Kurti or Tunic - A short
kurta usually worn by women a type of grass fiber)
Zari or Jari - metal wrapped
yarn used for zardozi embroidery
Badla - Flattened gold or silver wire
A question of culture
The sari is, without argument, the most
graceful form of attire invented by homo sapiens. That is why the Begums
Jinnah and Bhutto wore it on formal occasions. They were also wearing Salwar
Kameez in other occassions. Over time, however, the salwar came to
replace the sari even in public. Was there a larger significance in this? The
respected Pakistani columnist M.B. Naqvi thought so. Fascinating piece by him on
how Pakistani society was torn between identifying with West Asia or South Asia.
Naqvi suggested that a woman's choice of Pakistani dress intimately embodied
this dilemma; thus to wear a sari was to see oneself as part of a wider
subcontinental culture, while to don a salwar was to place oneself in an
Islamic world alone.
The sari was once viewed as something that could be owned by
all Indian women, Hindu or Muslim, Christian or Parsi. The salwar kameez
, on the other hand, was viewed by some as a dress worn exclusively by
Muslims. Hindu and Sikh women knew often wore the salwar kameez. Salwar
Kameez is also called Shalwar Kameez in countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,
UAE, etc.
Salwar Kameez Islamic, Sari
Hindu?
 After Jemima Goldsmith married Imran Khan and went to live in
Lahore, she was visited by her close friend, Diana, Princess of Wales. Soon
afterwards, Jemima and Diana were photographed wearing the shalwar
kameez. Surely it must be a hard job teaching Lady Diana how to get into
shalwar kameez.
Earlier in 60s & 70s Salwar Kameez or Salwar were seen as
Pakistani dress or Punjabi dress (also known as Punjabi suit), the sari as an
Indian dress or Hindu dress. But in recent decades the salwar kameez has
spread to parts of India. Same is the case with saree, it has become very famous
fashion attire around the world. Shalwar kameez fashion has not only taken India
by storm but it's becoming famous around the world. Salwar has now become very
famount Indian Fashion.
The victory of the salwar
kameez (shalwar kameez)
Salwar Kameez has now become
so famous as Indian dress that in the smallest town of Gujarat, Karnataka,
Maharashtra, Punjab, Hariyana, Andhra Pradesh, etc. school going girls wear
salwar. Earlier in 60s they wore the pavade, a kind of long skirt sometimes
called the half-sari. Yet within one generation they had so easily, and
comprehensively, shed an older, so-to-say traditional, form of dress for a
previously alien one.
Is it better to see the salwar kameez as a peasant
dress, worn by women in the Punjab countryside because it made their work
easier, rather than as a specifically Islamic dress? What is the significance of
the Bengali term dhoti-panjabi? When did the shalwar kameez first
come to rural South India? What has been the role of television and film in
facilitating its spread? And how and why has it become so popular among young
girls, regardless of caste or religion?
These questions call for serious investigation. Why has the
salwar become so ubiquitous in a region where it was unknown only a
generation before? The answer must be that this is a dress not seen as "Western"
or immodest, and yet a dress that allows one to go to school or college, and to
participate in the work force. Jeans and tops can be worn in cosmopolitan cities
like Bombay, Delhi, Banglore, Madras. The salwar kameez is suitably
"decent", yet it allows far more mobility than either the pavade or the
sari. One can walk in it, one can bicycle in it, one can even run a 100-metre
race in it.
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