India - the Prequel - Part 3 - 12/05

Dress

Being a huge color and pattern and texture addict ─ as are all you fiber-lovers and artisans/
craftspeople - I was just agog for the first 3-4 days at the amazing clothing of the women here. Every conceivable color and pattern combination are worn and they are so beautiful and graceful! I used to think “sari” and figured it was a lovely silk garment with yards of cloth draped around the body ─ all the same way. I was in the ballpark at least. Every region in India is known for different styles of sari and different ways of draping them. Are the pleats horizontal or vertical? Does the shawl piece come from front to back or back to front? Tons of subtle differences…..TONS! Besides the sari, another popular garment is the Salwar Kameez. This consists of a pair of pants that are baggy around the hips and close-fitting around the ankle (the Kameez). Over the top is a very long tunic (the Salwar) which can have short sleeves, ¾ sleeves, or be sleeveless. Short sleeves seem to be the most common. The tunic falls below the knees and often has slits on the sides to make movement easier. The completing piece is a shawl/scarf piece called the Dupatta. In current styles the Dupatta is scarf width and very very long. It’s worn front to back in reverse of the way we wear scarves. As I may buy one of these I was terribly relieved to see that some ladies pin their scarves in place on their shoulders to keep them on. I was picturing a death by Bugati thing where the long end gets caught in a passing wheel of whatever’s going by and they have to mail me home as checked baggage. The Salwar Kameez are very very comfortable and about a quarter or a fifth of the women here wear them. I think they are much more popular in the North of India, but Pondy is considered a much more traditional town. I couldn’t figure out how all these women walked around, took care of children and did everything they have to do and still the pleats are in place and they look immaculate at all times! Once I started going into the shops to look at the fabrics, I was told that there are three main fabrics. A high percentage of the Saris and Salwar Kameez are made of nylon for every day. All the drape and none of the wrinkle. Even women I see in semi-construction jobs breaking up rocks and bricks and carrying the rubble out in bowls on their heads look great in saris with not a pleat out of place! The next type is silk – usually done in stripes or large plain areas bordered with stripes and a few patterns. These glow in beautiful subtle ways. In Salwar Kameez ensembles, the fabrics are coordinated so that the pants are one pattern, the tunic a closely matched pattern and the scarf a third coordinate. In the shops you will see the three fabrics lined up next to each other and grouped as they’ll look in the final outfit – ready to be run up to fit your size. Similarly with saris – coordinating fabrics for the under blouse, the skirt and the over piece that drapes over all. It’s just mind-boggling that there are so many beautiful combinations. I walk down the streets behind groups of women and my eyes never get higher than the shoulders of these petite women (unless I’m trying to avoid death by traffic) because I’m constantly studying them. The third type is cotton. The cottons are so fine that they often look like silk. Often embroidery of all types is added to the borders or the front bodices of the tunics and under blouses. The men I’m sad to say are a big disappointment. Men in business wear suits or white shirts and slacks. The majority of men are wearing plaid or checked shirts and plain pants. Since we’re not far from what was Madras, I’m assuming a lot of these are traditional plaids but colorful they are not. Plain pants and sandals completed the outfit for them. Other men wear the shirts with dhotis ─ long lengths of fabric wrapped around like a sarong and then tied up to form something the length of shorts…..sorta. I’m not seeing a lot of men in Kurta – the long long shirts that look like tunics with a Nehru type of collar. Perhaps not popular in this region? Footwear….most people of either sex wear sandals or flip flop/zorri things. Very few shoes and socks on men. Women have lots of pretty slip-on shoes that we would term mules, that are embroidered or decorated in some way. Perhaps they are for dressing up as I don’t see many women wearing them but I see them in store windows. Realize that I am just scratching the surface of Indian dress and culture here and I may be only seeing something that is particular to Pondy. Many many men, women and children go barefoot, regardless of style of dress. In Chennai, I saw countless people driving on bikes, scooters and cycles barefoot. I couldn’t tell from the clothing on women or men if this was an issue of choice or poverty. The saris on many women who seem as though their circumstances are impoverished still look very pretty, clean and dressy to me so I don’t have enough understanding yet. For families that are living on the street or in little palm frond tents or doing manual labor, sitting or sleeping on dirt or concrete is just the way it is. It would seem to me way too hot to lie on concrete in the sun instead of in the shade of a park, but people are often stretched out with nothing to pad them on the ground.

Today I bought a shawl that is made of viscose – the feel is as if it’s silk and pashmina. Many expat women living in this area will wear loose clothing but not necessarily of Indian origin ─ then they’ll top it off with an Indian shawl. Each region has their own specialty of pattern, weaving, color, style….it’s just amazing. Did I mention I’ve always been a fool for paisley?

Jewelry

In Northern India, women wear a necklace called a Mangalsutra ─ given to them by their husbands on the wedding day. This is the jewelry symbol of a married woman rather than a ring as Americans wear. They may be given a ring too but it does not indicate marital status. The traditional Mangalsutra in the North is made up of small alternating onyx and gold beads with a gold pendant of some design at the bottom. The pendant is often religious in nature but can be purely decorative. I made one to wear before we left and have been wearing it here. The necklace is not so bad but I couldn’t locate an appropriate pendant. As I’ve never succeeded at keeping a wedding ring on, I decided to make one to show my martial status while here. Thanks to Dear Reader Anita, I had a fairly good idea of where to start. The state we are staying in is called Tamil Nadu. The primary language is Tamil, not Hindi. Often Tamil people are Muslim, although because of Pondy’s origins, many of them are now Catholic. The traditional necklace for a Tamil woman is called a Thali (not to be confused with the Thali platters of different foods that Americans are often served at Indian restaurants). The necklace is made of a heavier braided gold chain and the pendant design is definitely religious and almost has a small reliquary quality to it. Women in other regions also signify their marital status by colored bangles of a particular style. I’m leaving the whole bindi (red dye mark on forhead) and dye in the hair parting alone for now as I don’t understand what’s what very well. Women here mostly wear their hair either in one long braid down their back or with the braid folded and rolled up underneath into a kind of braided chignon. They buy a length of jasmine flower buds that they attach to the top of their braid vertically. As they wear them the heat from their head opens the buds and they have this lovely-smelling jasmine bouquet on their hair at all times. I see women sitting in the streets with bowls of tiny jasmine buds and a roll of string, tying one to the next until they have a double rope of them that they sell for the hair. I don’t know if they last one or two days or if they have to buy them fresh each day. Many women wear silver ankle chains with tiny bells. A surprising amount of people go barefoot. This is not always connected to poverty as the poorest people on the street seem to mostly have sandals ("Chappals"). The barefoot thing is scary as there are so many people relieving themselves in public places and it gets swept into the gutters and the street. I'd be barefoot at all times if it was possible - but not here.