Clothing

Men's Clothing:


A dhoti or lungi, is a loose skirt or shorts-type wrap for men. It is common in rural areas and in high heat, and is most often worn alone, without a shirt.  Some men also wore turbans on their heads. Many men wore man-buns and kept their beards short or shaved.






Women's Clothing:
Women across India often wear traditional outfits called saris.  Saris are made out of silk, cotton, or factory blends and use up to five to seven yards of fabric.  The fabric is wrapped on the body in countless ways depending on where the woman lives in India.  Hindu women wear petticoat-type garments underneath and tuck the ends of fabric into the waistbands. Women who live in more urban areas wear salwar kameezes. A salwar kameez is a pant and long-tailed  (to the knees) shirt made out of lightweight fabric.

A Blast to the Past

Women used to wear lungis like the men.  Women would also never wear anything from the waist up.  That is until the salwar kameez was introduced.  In the Guptan period of India, women started to wear saris.  The rich women wore saris made from silk imported from China. The poor women wore saris made from pure cotton.  





Modern Clothing

Modern day clothing styles in India are now more Western styled.  Many students, male and female, wear western style uniforms.  Many women can be seen wearing pants like jeans with t-shirts and casual tops.  However, there are still some traditional people who will wear saris or lungis.  Nowadays, when men wear their lungis, they most often then not wear shirts like wife beaters.  



During ceremonious occasions, women wear heavily embroidered saris with heavy jewelry.  Men wear embroidered clothes called kurtas.  Most Indian people wear heavily embroidered clothing for weddings.  They wear the embroidered clothing for all three days of the traditional wedding time.