Salwar Kameez

[akirlu]

A couple of fans around Seattle were particularly taken with the Thai silk salwar kameez I recently bought from India Shop on eBay. Alka, whose business it is, is wonderful to deal with and is the first person who has been able to get me salwar with a pocket, albeit only a coin pocket in the waistband. Still, for those who particularly liked the odd, pinky-peachy gold shot color of that one, there's another up for bidding right now. The opening bid is .99, but that won't last, I promise. (NB if you haven't seen mine, the color is decidedly pinker than it appears in the photo.)

Comments

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

While I love the way the garments look, period, I am slightly confused by the sudden popularity amongst femmefans on LJ and at WisCon. Is there any particular impetus beyond the beauty and comfort of the garments?

I am reminded about a job I had years ago, where a South Asian family lived across the street from our area's big picture windows. When the family was outdoors once, a couple of my coworkers remarked that those people really oughta wear American clothes now that they're in Amurrica. (Oy.) The rest of us were jealous, because the women looked so comfortable in the hot weather (and we had to wear nylons with our skirts, or else slacks).

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

While I love the way the garments look, period, I am slightly confused by the sudden popularity amongst femmefans on LJ and at WisCon. Is there any particular impetus beyond the beauty and comfort of the garments?

I've admired salwar kameez since I don't know when. I have a Folkwear pattern for making one, though the Folkwear pattern includes the more tight-legged churridar for pants, and you have to buy a separate pattern if you want the salwar. As with so many of my sewing projects, I haven't gotten around to making it up yet.

When I was in the UK on my TAFF trip, and staying in the East End with Rob and Avedon, I was positively tortured by the beautiful dip-dyed Punjabi suits in the shop windows, but it seemed utterly pointless to ask in the shops. East Indian women tend to come up to my chin, and have bones so small that the bangles made for them that a friend brought back from India had to be given away because they wouldn't go over my hand. Even if I weren't also carrying around the excess of avoir du pois I would rate my chances of squeezing into an off-the-peg salwar kameez at approximately nil. In L.A. and Orange County, there just isn't much of a South Asian population, so even finding sari fabric, let alone a tailor who could make salwar kameez, was not readily feasible. So while for yonks I would have loved to have one, the confluence of money, and tailors, and access to same never seemed to arrive all at once.

Then Teresa Nielsen Hayden posted at Making Light about her success buying them on eBay. From eBay tailors in India and Pakistan, you can buy custom garments in your choice of fabrics made to measure, and at prices that often seem absurdly cheap. And as Teresa points out in a follow-up post, there are lots of good liberal and libertarian capitalist reasons for throwing business their way.

So I suspect that the mini-vogue you're seeing in salwar kameez is the sudden meeting of rather a lot of fannish pent-up demand as women like me discover that even if they don't live near an Indian tailor and even if they don't have a lot to spend, and even if they don't get around to all of their sewing projects, they too can enjoy the comfort and not inconsiderable elegance of salwar kameez.

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

I've got three on order now, by the way, from 3 different tailors, so we'll see what happens. Indianexotica (who I am familiar with already), Rungday and Bassantbazaar I think is the spelling of the last one. Between about $26 and $40, you cannot go wrong for beautiful fabric and something made to measure in a style YOU choose.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I have one from Indianexotica and am quite pleased with it. I'll be interested to hear what happens with the Bassantbazaar item. I've been tempted by their fabrics, but redbird got one from them which, despite accurate measurements, was so much too small for her that she had to cut herself out of it because she tried it on while home alone. Still, they get lots of positive ratings, so I'll be curious to know if that's a fluke.