Why Salwar, Why Now?

[akirlu]

bibliofile is not the first to wonder about the sudden vogue among women of her acquaintance for salwar kameez, so, while I've posted what follows in direct reply, I thought I would also bring it up to the journal level to explain it all to anyone else who's been wondering.

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 would have bought salwar kameez sooner if I could have. I've admired salwar kameez since I don't know when. I have a Folkwear pattern (Jewels of India) for making one, though that pattern includes the more tight-legged churridar for pants, and you have to buy a separate pattern (Sarouelles) if you want the salwar. As with so many of my sewing projects, I just 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 luscious 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 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 just not on. So while for yonks I would have loved to have one, the confluence of money, and time, and tailors, and access to same to get me into a salwar kameez 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. As more of us have happy and successful experiences buying clothes this way, and wearing the results to conventions -- in my case, Corflu and Potlatch this year -- the effect will tend to ripple outward.

Comments

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

Actually, the next time you are down to visit Beth, you should make a stop in Little India (Pioneer south of the 91 fwy for several blocks). Lots of sari shops there.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Grrr. I've just spent some little time on the Folklife site and I want, among other things, the Blonde Bombshell dress. And who, drat it, am I going to get to make it for me?

MKK

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

You know people who sew. The main trouble is, the ones I can think of tend to be a bit backlogged and overcommitted and so forth. I'm willing in principle, but have no idea when it would actually happen. Gentle and persistent browbeating would probably be required. Possibly bringing it to a local tailor would get you a garment faster. I dunno if the woman who runs Fabu would be willing to work with someone else's pattern, but you could ask.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Libby at Fabu will cheerfully make up a dress using a pattern she didn't design. She'll also cheerfully make the necessary alterations so the dress will fit properly.

If my ribs were healing a tad bit faster, I wouldn't urge everyone to go to Libby; I'd say just bring it on down my way. I'm sewing these days, but I'm sewing very, very slowly. I've just finished the first cut on Elise's jacket (into the mail tomorrow, for her to ignore until she gets back from Scotland), and have gone on to work on a salwar kameez pattern for myself that will fit.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

By the bye, there's an eBay dealer called Quilter's Rags to Riches which carries quite a few of the Folkwear patterns for prices lower than what you pay if you buy direct from Folkwear. I just bought the Chinese Jacket, the Vietnamese Ao Dai, and the Sarouelles set and saved myself on the order of $20.

There should be a song about it

[anitar.livejournal.com]

"Salwar kameez, Salwar kameez..."

Too bad my brain can only put these lyrics to the tune about "Smokey, the bear."

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Comfort, elegance... yeah!

Not even part of fannish fashion trends, as I started wearing them whilst working in Pune on the Indian Deccan in 1996 :-)

Memsahib!

[del-c.livejournal.com]

I never knew you were in Injah!, or I forgot, sorry about that if so.

That'll be a meme soon: Tell Me Something You Didn't Know About Me Until Shockingly Recntly.

Re: Memsahib!

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

I was only there for 3 weeks :-) But it was all work bar four days. Fell in love with the clothes and the food - the research institute cafe served a different daal and a different bread every single day, and there was inexhaustible supplys of mango juice to drink...

I just realised that I don't know anything shocking about you :-)

Re: Memsahib!

[del-c.livejournal.com]

I spent a year or two in Scunthorpe one summer, working for British Steel. And if having to spend a summer in Scunthorpe isn't shocking, I don't know what is.

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

I wore my first salwar kameez back in the 1960s, SO comfortable. Then I lived in rural places where you didn't dare stand out and it disappeared somewhere during many moves. I bought an outfit a few years back from Indianexotica at eBay (2 Aussies living in India) and loved it, but forgot about them, what with life and all, until you mentioned it again.

I LOVE the colors and fabric first off. I'm sorry for those who love it, but Swedish fashion is BORING. Same colors, same style, whether it suits you or not, and if you're a tall, plump woman, forget it. With salwar kameez, you can be feminine and comfortable, I think they're sexy (the fabric) and yet you're as covered as you want to be (I don't do sun well, even in Sweden).

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Gosh. I never thought of not wearing one at home, which is a pretty small-minded town.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Not to get competetive or anything, but I suspect it's just possible that small-mindedness is just one of the things that Americans do better than Brits.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Also, idahoswede did say the 60s, which purpletigron might have found to be less swinging, particularly outside London, than legend would suggest.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Sir, do you mean to imply that England did not, in fact, swing like a pendulum do?

Well...

[del-c.livejournal.com]

it's true that when I was a kid, the bobbies would go two by two in Brixton, but that was mainly for self-defence.

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

Let's face it, Ulrika, you're a trendsetter. A bonafide bellweather. Even if you weren't wearing them visibly, you were sending out mind bullets to those around you to build up support for the day where you would finally wear them. The force is strong in you. ;-)

My question is: Do you wear them outside of conventions? If not, why not? If so, do you wear them to work? Or out and about? Dinner parties?

I love Sari fabric. It's soo bootiful.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Do you wear them outside of conventions? If not, why not? If so, do you wear them to work? Or out and about? Dinner parties?

Yup, I do wear mine outside of conventions. I've worn a couple of them to work --the less bright ones-- and to parties now that it's Clarion West season, and because of stopping to shop before parties, I've worn them shopping, as well. minnehaha K put a bee in my bonnet about the possibility that South Asians might take me to be engaging in unattractive cultural imperialism (or whatever it is when you're borrowing from another culture, rather than inflicting yours on them) but I haven't noticed anyone looking offended, even at Trader Joe's, which has lots of South Asian customers. (Which seems only fair, since they have several Russian Jews working the checkouts.)

When I was in San Francisco I certainly didn't pause to change before going out on street expeditions from the conventions, and I must say the rust-colored wool blend attracted quite a lot of admiration at Britex fabric when I went shopping with kate_schaefer.

I might hesitate about wearing one to a dinner party, but only because I tend to wear my food so frequently that I might be worrying about ruining the pink Thai Silk suit. That one, as with the two wool blends, is a candidate for dry cleaning. Happily, both the embroidered cotton and the paper silk suits seem to handle going through the washer on a gentle cycle.

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

I was finally tempted into buying one when I went to Bangalore for work and was pleasantly shocked at just how comfortable and flattering they are. The wide cut of the kameez hides a multitude of tummy/hip figure flaws, the narrowing at the ankle is flattering to the legs, and the tie waist is really comfortable. I'm looking forward to wearing mine for the first time at the Hugos.

One problem I am having is finding appropriate shoes: I can't comfortably wear sandals that don't have an ankle strap, and finding sandals that will match my purple/gold creation has been an issue!

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Possibly because of the uncommonly cool and wet spring and early summer, I haven't thought to try wearing sandals with any of mine. I just wear flat pumps with them, which makes it easy since I have skimmers in a couple of colors. Flat mary janes look fine, too, so there's always the possibility of getting a pair of the embroidered chinese satin ones to match yours.

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

Wish I could do that! My ankle is significantly narrower than the ball of my foot so I step right out of slippers and flats.

[intelligentrix.livejournal.com]

That's when you get the ones with the little strap across the top. Payless used to have (and may still for all I know) a ballet-slipper style flat with elastic bands across the top of the foot. Terribly comfortable. And cheap.

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

Oh, how I envy you all! The strap on shoes of this description that I've tried have been too high up on the foot, so what happens is that the back of my foot lifts out of the shoe until its stopped by the band, then goes back down again. While it's true that the shoe stays on my foot, it doesn't make for very graceful or comfortable walking.