Indian Fashion

Fashion is a general term for a popular style or practice,

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Indian Clothing Culture

Clothing in India varies from region to region depending on the ethnicity, geography, climate and cultural traditions of the people of that region. Historically, men and women's clothing has evolved from simple Langots and loincloths to cover the body to elaborate costumes not only used in daily wear but also on festive occasions as well as rituals and dance performances. In urban areas,

History of fashion design in India

The beginning

Role in the enhancement of the art a variety of weaving techniques were employed in ancient India, many of which survive to the present day. Silk and cotton were woven into various designs and motifs, each region developing its distinct style and technique. Brocades of silk were woven with gold and silver threads and were deeply influenced by Persian designs. The Mughals played a vital role

Dyeing of clothes in ancient India was practiced as an art form. Five primary colours were identified and complex colours states five tonnes of white, Ivory, Jasmine, August moon, August clouds. The commonly used dies were indigo, madder red and sunflower.

Fashion in India

India is a country with an ancient clothing design tradition, yet an emerging fashion industry. Though a handful of designers existed prior to the 1980s, the late 80s and the 1990s saw a spurt of growth. This was the result of increasing exposure to global fashion and the economic boom after the economic liberalization of the Indian economy in 1990. The following decades firmly established fashion as an industry, across India.

Post-independence: Ethnic revival and Bollywood fashion

History of clothing in India, dates back of ancient times, yet fashion is a new industry, as it was the traditional Indian clothing with regional variations like sari, ghagra choli or dhoti that remained popular till early decades of post-independence India. As a part of larger revival movement in the Indian textile industry,

 Ritu Kumar, a Kolkata -based designer and textile print-expert started working on reviving the traditional hand block printing techniques of Bengal, and making it a part of the fashion industry, established "ethnic chic”. She opened her first boutique in Delhi in 1966. In 1973, she first showcased the Zardozi embroidery in his garments, which had its origins in the royal costumes dating back to the Mughal era. This led to the revival of this lost art. In time embroidery became prominent feature of Indian wedding attires, and also one of the biggest fashion exports. This was period of revival, where various organisations, NGOs were involved in reviving traditional Indian techniques, in weaving, printing, dyeing or embroidery, including ikat, patola (double-ikat), bandhani (tie & dye) and shisha (mirror embroidery)

An early trendsetter in fashion was Bollywood (Hindi cinema),Over the years, popular Bollywood trends have been the Madhubala's Anarkali-look with kurtas and churidars in Mughal-e-Azam (1960) where costume designers like Bhanu Athaiya, started experimenting with film fashion in the 1960s. Athaiya started working on period costumes in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) and Amrapali (1966), though went on to introduce varied trends through Teesri Manzil (1966), Chalte Chalte (1976), Karz (1980) and Chandni (1989). 
These were soon followed by the mass market. Also situations and themes in Indian cinema became westernized making way for the display of diverse fashion. , 
purple embroidered sari worn by Madhuri Dixit in Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994), to Rani Mukherji's short kurti-suits in Bunty Aur Babli (2005), Veer Zaara suits and blouses from Parineeta. This comes besides various fashion interpretation of the sari in films like Chandni (1989) with Sridevi, Main Hoon Naa (2004) with Sushmita Sen and Dostana (2008) with Priyanka Chopra, which became fashion trends

 However, in the recent decades, with increasing exposure to the West, its influence is no longer as strong as in the previous decades, by the 2000s, with rise in Indian Diaspora around the world and the non-resident Indians, Bollywood continues to exert far greater influence on the fashion sensibilities amongst Indians around the world

Post-1990s boom

By early 1980s, the first generation of Indian fashion designers started cropping up, including Satya Paul. However, it was Rohit Khosla (1958–1994), who became a pioneer in fashion industry, when we founded co-founded Ensemble" in 1987, with Tarun Tahiliani, Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla and others.

 Though, the "Anarkali-style" has been around ever since, it was first popularized after Mughal-e-Azam (1969), it was Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla, who inspired by costumes of Mughal courtesans and Meena Kumari's costumes in Pakeezah (1975), introduced the floor-length Anarkali-style of churidaar-kurta in 1988, which soon became the Indian version of the ball gown In 1986.

Indian Woman's clothing In India, woman's clothing varies widely and is closely associated with the local culture, religion and climate.

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wedding clothes are the set of clothes worn by the bride, bridegroom and other relatives attending the wedding during a marriage. The wedding rituals and clothes make the wedding as much as that of the bride and her groom. Both look their splendid best in gorgeous clothes. The bride wears a saree or a lehenga according to the region. Red is considered to be the most auspicious colour in among Hindus. While the saree is preferred as the bridal dress in India, West, East India, most brides of other parts of India prefer Lehenga, Ghaghara Choli and Odhni as bridal dress. A wedding sari is the traditional wedding dress of Indian women. The sari is traditionally red, with golden embroidery. Christians from Kerala usually wear white/cream saris with gold embroidery.

Sari / saree

A saree or sari is a female’s garment in the Indian subcontinent. A sari is a strip of unstitched cloth, ranging from four to nine meters in length that is draped over the body in various styles. There are various traditional styles of saree: .The most common style is for the sari to be wrapped around the waist, with one end then draped over the shoulder baring the midriff. The sari is usually worn over a petticoat. Blouse may be "backless" or of a halter neck style. These are usually more dressy with a lot of embellishments such as mirrors or embroidery and may be worn on special occasions. Women in the armed forces, when wearing a sari uniform, don a half-sleeve shirt tucked in at the waist. Teenage girls wear half-sarees, a three piece set consisting of a langa, a choli and a stole wrapped over it like a saree. Women usually wear full sarees.Traditionally Sari fabric was of silk. Over the time, colour options and fabric choices have expanded. Today fabrics like crêpe, Georgette, tissue and satin are used, and colours have been expanded to include gold, pink, orange, maroon, brown, and yellow as well

Ghagra Choli (lehenga choli)

is the traditional clothing of women in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Punjabis also wear them and they are used in some of their folk dances. It is a combination of lehenga, a tight choli and an odhani. A lehenga is a form of long skirt which is pleated. It is usually embroidered or has a thick border at the bottom. A choli is a blouse shell garment, which is cut to fit to the body and has short sleeves and a low neck.Different styles of ghagra cholis are worn by the women, ranging from a simple cotton lehenga choli as a daily wear, a traditional ghagra with mirrors embellished usually worn during navratri for the garba dance or a fully embroidered lehenga worn during marriage ceremonies by the bride. Popular among unmarried women other than shalwar kameez are Ghagra choli and Langa odhani.

Salwar Kameez 

is the traditional wear of women in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal-Pradesh. The suthan, similar to the salwar is common in Sindh and Kashmir. Salwar is a generic description of the lower garment incorporating the Sindhi-suthan, Dogri-pajamma and the Kashmiri-suthan. The salwar kameez has become the most popular dress for females. It consists of loose trousers (the salwar) narrow at the ankles, topped by a tunic-top (the kameez). It is named as "Punjabi suit" or simply "shalwar" in the north and "churidaar" in Southern India. Women generally wear a dupatta or odhani (Veil) with salwar kameez to cover their head and shoulders It is always worn with a scarf called a dupatta, which is used to cover the head and drawn over the bosom. The material for the dupatta usually depends upon that of the suit, and is generally of cotton, georgette, silk, chiffon among others. This dress is worn by almost every teenage girl in lieu of western clothes. The salwar kameez is most common in the north-western part of India. Many actresses wear the salwar kameez in Bollywood movies

Churidaar Kurta

Churidaar is a version of salwar, which is loose up to knees and then fits the calf below. A salwar is a baggy pyjama with pleats which gets narrow at the ankles whereas churidaar fits below the knees with horizontal gathers near the ankles. Usually a long kurta, which goes below the knees, is worn with the churidaar

Pattu Pavadai/Reshme Langa /Langa davani is a traditional dress in south India and Rajasthan, usually worn by teenage and small girls. The pavada is a cone-shaped garment, usually of silk, that hangs down from the waist to the toes. It normally has a golden border at the bottom.Girls in south India often wear pattu pavadai or Langa davani during traditional functions. Girls in Rajasthan wears this dress before marriage (and after marriage with slight modification in certain section of society. )

Langa - Voni is a type of South Indian dress mainly worn in Andhra Pradesh and also in some parts of Tamilnadu, Kerala and Karnataka. This dress is a 3- piece apparel where Langa or Lehenga is the cone shaped long flowing skirt that covers the body from the waist, reaching the feet. In some cases, it might be as long as knees or just lower than the knees too. The second part is the blouse, or a jacket, that covers the upper part of the woman's body. There are many varieties in a blouse like the one that has long sleeves, short sleeves, sleeveless etc. The length of the blouse is usually short- from lower neck to a few inches above the belly button/ navel.

Mundum Neriyathum is the oldest remnant of the ancient form of the saree which covered only the lower part of the body, a traditional dress of women in Kerala, South India. The basic traditional piece is the mundu or lower garment which is the ancient form of the saree denoted in Malayalam as 'Thuni' (meaning cloth), while the neriyathum forms the upper garment the mundum

Mekhela Sador is the traditional Assamese dress worn by women. It is worn by women of all ages. There are three main pieces of cloth that are draped around the body. The bottom portion, draped from the waist downwards is called the Mekhela . It is in the form of a sarong—very wide cylinder of cloth—that is folded into pleats to fit around the waist and tucked in. The folds are to the right, as opposed to the pleats in the style of the saree, which are folded to the left. Strings are never used to tie the mekhela around the waist, though an underskirt with a string is often used. The top portion of the three-piece dress, called the Sador is a long length of cloth that has one end tucked into the upper portion of the Mekhela and the rest draped over and around the rest of the body. The Sador is tucked in triangular folds. A fitted blouse is worn to cover the breasts. The third piece is called a Riva, which is worn under the Sador. It is narrow in width.

Patiala salwar (also called a pattian walee salwar) (Its also pronounced as Shalwar in Urdu) is a type of female trousers which has its roots in Patiala City in the Northern region of Punjab state in India. The King of Patiala in earlier times had its Royal dress as Patiala Salwar. The Patiala Salwar has a close resemblance to the pathani Suit which has similar loose lowers as salwars and long knee length top known as Kameez. Over the decade the dress now is not worn by men but has classically transformed itself with new cuts and styling into women's Patiala Salwar.The reason why the Patiala dress is preferred by most of the women of punjab and other regions of Northern India is its comfort-ability and durability in summers. Since the Patiala salwar is very loose and stitched with pleats it is a very comfortable outfit to wear. Its distinguishing characteristic is folds of cloth stitched together that meet at the bottom. Patiala salwars require double the length of material to get stitched. The fall of the pleats of the Patiala-Salwar is such that it gives a beautiful draping effect.Patiala salwar with lots of pleats is also referred to as Patiala "Shahi" salwar since it was worn by the shahi (royal) people of Patiala city in state of Punjab. The Patiala salwar is worn as an alternative to the traditional Punjabi Salwar Suit

Western clothing made its foray into the Indian society during the times of the British Raj. Indian professionals opted to wear western clothing due to its relative comfort or due to regulations set then. By the turn of the 21st century, both western and Indian clothing had intermingled creating a unique style of clothing for the typical urban Indian population. Women started wearing more comfortable clothing and exposure to international fashion led to a fusion of western and Indian styles of clothing. Following the economic liberalisation, more jobs opened up, and created a demand for formal wear.

Nowadays Women's clothing consists of both formal and casual wear such as gowns, pants, shirts and tops. Traditional Indian clothing such as the kurti have been combined with jeans to form part of casual attire. Fashion designers in India have blended several elements of Indian traditional designs into conventional western wear to create a unique style of contemporary Indian fashion. Both miniskirts and shorts are now worn by girls in bigger urban areas. Western clothing is common and uniformly worn by people of all strata.

 India also has a great diversity in terms of 

weaves, fibers, colors and material of clothing.