Indian brides’ preoccupation: the dress

The Indian bridal outfits are very important in the Indian culture. It represents the richness of the family and the Indian wedding bridal dresses are representative of the social status, more than any garments.

Indian wedding dresses are colourful and decorated with embroideries and embellishments. The colours mostly used are the red, pink or orange because those colours are bringing good luck to the couple. The embroideries are frequently in gold and the dress in cotton or silk.

The Indian bridal garments for the bride are often lehengas or sarees, which are traditional Indian clothes. The Indian wedding bridal dresses are often the both of them. In the first part of the wedding, the bride wears a lehenga-choli, the two parts Indian wedding dresses. Then, the sarees are worn after the principal wedding ceremony because of its practicality and lightness.

The Indian wedding bridal dresses are very important, but the groom has to be also well dressed. So the Indian bridal clothes for men are the Sherwanis, the Jodhpuri suits or the Kurta. But nowadays, men often wear western suits because the western style is more and more present in the Indian culture. 

Lehengas for wedding

The lehenga, which is worn with the choli, is a common dress for women in some regions of India. This Indian clothing is considered as an elegant dress and is worn during events like weddings.

If your wish is to have Indian wedding dresses, the lehanga is the perfect garment for the event because the colours and embroideries are really attractive on those Indian bridal clothes. The lehenga is one of the three parts of Indian bridal clothes called lehenga choli or gagra choli. Those parts are the lehenga, the choli and the dupatta. The lehenga is a long skirt which is reaching from the waist to the ankles. The choli is a top fitted to the chest, decorated with mirror work and coloured embroideries and leaving the back naked. The dupatta is a scarf which covers the top of the body.

The interest in the lehenga in the whole Indian fashion world is due to the different styles proposed for this dress. The lehengas are mostly worn in bright tones; the cut and the textile used create the difference in each region of the country. The lehenga has a great signification in the culture of India, like the wedding which is the greatest ceremony of a woman life. To respect the tradition and the culture of the Indian weddings, the Indian bridal clothes have to be colourful and glamourous.

As a fact Indian bridal clothes in general are considered sacred for the Indian population and the lehengas are one of the most worn Indian wedding dresses.

What about Indian clothes?

The Indian clothing has a lot of specificities. It changes with the region, the social-class based on the religion and the community and with the climate too. But, the trend is to have a western business style to work across the country.

We are going to start with the traditional Indian clothing for women, like the saris and lehengas which are dresses adapting to the occasion. Women can wear those indian clothes to work or for a festive occasion. The silk is the most sophisticated material to make elegant Indian clothing. With Mumbai as the capital of indian clothing, like Bollywood that is one of the most fashion launcher in India and generally in the south of Asia. In rural regions, women are dressed in a traditional sari with differences between the periods of the life: girls, teenagers and women can’t wear the same clothes because of the customs.

The sari is the traditional dress of the Indian sub-continental women. This clothing is strip of unstitched, measuring between four and nine meters and draped over women bodies in different styles with the Nivi which is the most popular. But there are other ways to wear a sari depending in the region of India or South Asia you are. The common way to wear a sari is to wrap the Indian clothes around the chest and formerly dress it over the shoulder. To wear the sari, the women have a underskirt with short or long sleeves and halt or low neck style. The length of this Indian clothing is varying according to the social status of the woman or the using of the cloth. The length of the sleeves and the neck is one of the choice for a dressy or daily using sari.

Besides, the most current clothing Indian women wear is the salwar kameez. Those Indian clothes are composed in two parts: the salwar which is the trousers and the kameez which is the top or shirt. We can call it Punjabi suit or Churidaar in some region of South Asia. It was at the beginning a Pakistani clothing, but then their appearance in Bollywood movies made it popular in whole India. So, this Indian clothing is liked by women in the Indian world.

On the other hand, the Indian clothes are traditional for men too, even if the western way of wearing is developing in South Asian countries.

The traditional Indian clothing for men is the kurta. It’s a long sleeves shirt, which can be used every time with the dhoti, which is a draped cloth that forms trousers.  This style of Indian clothing is less and less dressing people in main metropolis cities, but it is still a ceremonial cloth.

The colours worn by men are more sober. They often wear cream, light ivory or gold, while the women are dressed in colourful Indian clothes as orange, green or pink saris.

In conclusion, the Indian clothes are still fashion in the South Asian countries, but the western way of life is taking a big part of the traditions. Now, you know more about Indian clothing.