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An important aspect
that helps in understanding a nation’s culture is the clothes
she dons in general. Whether it is an understanding of the
historic past, or the present, one can get a fair understanding
of the various aspects of the nation’s people meter. This
includes the fashions and differences in class-wise dressing,
caste dressing, age-wise dressing, seasonal-dressing, etc. Not
only that but even the way the people generally dress up during
festivals and special occasions speak about and important aspect
of their life.
Take for instance, during festivals, and especially the regional
New Year celebrations, families are seen flocking garment shops
purchasing colorful and expensive garments. |
No matter which strata of society they
hail from everyone has something new to wear on a festive occasion.
However, while festive clothing is traditional, formal and rather heavy,
the daily wear seems to have a blend of the east and west. This has been
popularly termed as indo-western range. While college going girls and
boys wear jeans and t-shirts/shirts, the little older youth would team
the jeans with a short kurta. In fact, in smaller towns wear people are
recognizing the comfort level enjoyed by women wearing jeans, they are
letting them do so however with a kurta that reaches to a few inches
above the knees.
And so, there has been a lot of changes in the clothing in India. Gone
are the days when western fashions reached Indian shores a few years
later, or for that matter a season later. Today, people of all ages
here, especially in the larger towns and cities are at par with other
trend setting cities of the world. Not only are the western designers
known for setting fashion trends for current seasons, but there are a
number of Indian designers who are also responsible for current fashions
that dominate the scene.
Today, clothing from India is not restricted to the typical styles that
represent Indianess, but also the western styles with streaks of
traditional Indian weaves. There are also the Indian styles with streaks
of the western weaves, too. And importantly, India clothing for women
has become more practical. She no more has to drape a sari and run
around all day whether at work or completing her household chores. She
too is allowed to wear a gypsy skirt teemed with a modern style top, or
then linen trousers with a kurta, or simply jeans and whatever she
likes.
India womens clothing makes her feel like she can rub shoulders with any
woman from the western world. And the latest breed of boardroom women in
the nation has changed the concept in the world that the women from this
nation are limited to their homes. Today, she dons many hats and has an
almost equal status as the man..
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