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

[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.