How Did The British Dress Got Indianised?

EDTR53

11 years ago

Digging a bit deeper into the Indian history takes us to a time where the stitched clothes barely existed&period; Those times people tied clothes together in order to make it wearable&period;&NewLine;But, it’s interesting to consider that the methods of sewing and stitching were used since the Indus Valley civilization, but it didn’t influence the clothing until the age of Muslims&period;&NewLine;Even today, you can see the men wearing Dhothi, a piece of unstitched cloth, and the women wearing Saree which is again an unstitched piece of cloth&period;&NewLine;From the ancient era, if we check the Indian clothing industry, we can see that the whole idea of Indian clothing revolved around two major ideas – simplicity and opulence&period; The choice of the person’s clothing completely was depended on his financial status, and religious orientation&period;&NewLine;Even then, the clothing tended to be simple – with the men wearing loin cloths, and the women were bare till the waist&period; The status of women could be analyzed by the kind of jewels they got to wore&period; In certain areas, the wealthy women got to wear jewels in such heavy quantity, that those jewels were enough to cover their bosoms&period;&NewLine;The complicated dressing was actually introduced by the Aryans&period; They had the clothing style covering both their upper and lower body&period;&NewLine;The ancient Indian cotton clothing very well adapts to the hot dry summer climate of the subcontinent&period; The Mahabharata which is estimated to be written during the 3000-4000 BC, did mention about the Saree being gifted to Draupadi to protect her dignity&period;&NewLine;The new trade routes with the Central Asia and Europe created a cultural exchange&period; The Romans bought the indigo for dyeing, and the Silk Road introduced Silk textile to India from China&period; The Arthashastra written by Chanakya during AD 140 briefly describes the norms followed in silk weaving&period;&NewLine;Indian fashion history is incomplete without mentioning the Kashmiri Shawl&period; The textiles of wool are mentioned in the Rig Veda&period;&NewLine;And, later as the trade with the Persians improved, the Indian fashion started to get influenced by Persian clothing style&period;&NewLine;But, a major change happened in the Indian clothing/fashion industry after the invasion of the British&period;&NewLine;And, with the oppressions following the Bengal partition sparked the Swadeshi movement&period; The Swadeshi movement influenced the Indian clothing industry with the widespread use and production of Khadi materials and cloths&period;&NewLine;Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay severed as the fashion capital of India, then&period;&NewLine;A fusion of the western and sub continental fashion brought about the new Indo-western clothing, creating new fashions like Churidar, dupatta, Khara Dupatta, Gamchha, Kurta, Sherwani, etc&period;&NewLine;<h2 style="text-align&colon; justify">Contemporary Clothing</h2>&NewLine;The western clothing made its way into the Indian fashion industry during the times of the British Raj&period;&NewLine;By the turn of 21st century, both western and Indian clothing had intermingled creating a unique style of clothing for the typical urban Indian population&period; Women and men started to wear more comfortable clothing&period; The Indian traditional styles entered into international fashion&period;&NewLine;A famous Indian fashion trademark is its Embroidery, an art of sewing distinct thread patterns&period;&NewLine;During the 1960’s, the Bollywood designer Bhanu Athaiaya experimented with the Hindi movie costumes (movies like Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, Amrapali, Chalte Chalte, etc) which became a trendsetter&period;&NewLine;During the 1980’s eminent designers like Satya Paul, Rohit Khosla and Tarun Tahilini emerged, giving a new meaning to the Indian fashion&period;&NewLine;It was later, with the Economic Liberalization, more jobs opened up, creating a demand for formal wears&period;&NewLine;<h2 style="text-align&colon; justify">Modern Style of Saree Draping</h2>&NewLine;As the time and new fashion emerged, the style of Saree draping also witnessed its change&period; This modern way of Saree draping was introduced by Gyanadanandini Devi, the wife of the first Indian ICS Officer, Satyendranath Tagore&period; And, during the social gatherings with the English officers, she adopted a new way of draping Saree, as the then prevalent way of Saree draping was not civil for that Victorian age&period; The record says that it was Gyanadanandini Devi, who started wearing Modern day Saree with Blouse&period;&NewLine;<h2 style="text-align&colon; justify">Conclusion</h2>&NewLine;The Indian Fashion industry went through many phases and changes, especially with its interaction with the outside world&period; And, today, thanks to all those eminent designers in the Indian fashion industry, our fashion holds a very elegant position internationally too&period;&NewLine;Hope you all enjoyed my article of the evolution of the Indian fashion industry and the Indian styles&period;&NewLine;Thank You&period;&NewLine;Diya Bathi, a Fashion blogger, has devoted her life in exploring and writing articles about Fashion and Style related topics&period; She also works as the style advisor for the Fashion store, Nallucollection&period;com&NewLine;