Indian Women's Clothing - The Myths!

Indian women clothing has been a fascination for not only Indians but worldwide. However, nowadays, it seems Indian woman is slowly distancing herself from the traditional Indian sarees and other Indian dresses. With due respect to all western and other clothes adopted by the women in India, it seems that she has certain misconceptions about the dresses of her own country. This article brings out the reality behind these fashion myths about Indian clothing.

Myth#1    Saree is so unprofessional!

Reality    It is true that it takes a little longer to drape a saree and it also requires more care and maintenance. However, sari can never be said unprofessional. If draped properly, saree brings an unparalleled grace to one's personality. How else can you justify the charm of great personalities like Indira Gandhi, Gayatri Devi and more contemporary Sonia Gandhi? True, they are politicians and need to be seen as true Indian and so they can't shed the traditional Indian clothing! Then how will you justify the business personalities like Chanda Kochhar, the Joint MD of ICICI Bank and Neelam Dhawan, the MD, Microsoft India who are rarely seen in other dresses than saree. And no one can debate over how professional and successful top business executives are they!

Myth#2    Salwar Kameez is not for modern women!

Reality    There you see a girl clad in salwar kameez and here you give her the tag 'behen ji'. However, every girl secretly admires the fabulous churidars and patialas worn by their fellow beings. Fashion designers are doing more and more experiments with this fabulous attire of India. Models on ramps flaunt their designer salwar kameez. How could it happen then? If its not for today's woman, why the fashion industry wasting so much of its manpower and money on designing these salwar kameez? And I thought business runs on demand and supply principle and also that today's woman is 100 percent a modern woman.

Myth#3    Wearing skirts is non Indian!

Reality    Here people don't accept the salwar kameez and there they say that skirts are against traditional values of India! But look at them carefully, don't you find any resemblance between Indian skirts and lehenga? The long skirts are more like lehengas but with a little lesser diameter. Yes, one more difference- skirt is worn with shirts while lengha is worn with choli and dupatta. Did I hear someone saying stoles with skirts?

Myth#4    If you are slim, you'll look good in any clothing!

Reality    This myth prevails all over the world and not only in India. Although being slim provides an advantage of looking good in most of the dresses but if you wear a saree without proper pleets and pallu setting, I swear, you'll not like yourself in the mirror! Wear a blouse which is either too loose or too tight, and you finish off the whole charm of an elegant saree.  And just try a badly stitched salwar kameez to see how it coverts you in a hanger with clothes on it instead of a girl with lovely curves! The mantra to look good is ofcourse a good figure and properly stitched and worn dresses, whether Indian or western.