Indian Accessories

Towards the end of every year the textile shops in India adorn a festive look because the festivals like Diwali, Id and Christmas are celebrated during that time followed by New Year and Harvest festival. You can see a sea of trendy latest arrivals in the

showrooms. Indian traditional wear SARI has a tremendous demand during this season and as usual 2007 saw the emergence of colorful saris with innovative designs and motifs.
Semi raw silk sari, a combination of cotton and synthetic material with zari embroidery work draws the attention of many women. Its price, around $13, is an added attraction.
Another latest arrival, Laser chiffon material sari, has fancy coins attached on the border. Slightly above and just like the border the sari has embroidery designs giving the sari a shining look. This type of sari with oil prints all over the body is priced at $48.
Women get thrilled at the sight of a brand new sari, a synthetic plain one having beautiful embroidery work of flowers and leaves. Laces in the shape of flowers and leather in the shape of leaves are stitched into the embroidery giving the sari a unique and enchanting look. These saris costing $70 are available in all colors.
For those who do not like to wear heavy weight silk saris, a new light weight known as Ahimsa Silk Saris have been introduced. In this sari of 80$ silk and 20$ cotton Japanese silk painting is done. So the designs will last longer even if washed with ordinary soap and water. The price starts at $48.
‘Mustrice cotton sari’, another new variety, with border half the size of it also attracts the ladies very much. The major advantage with this type is that it need not be starched and the price is also fairly low at $22.5.
A sizeable crowd is busy in buying a silk-cotton combination with starting price $37.5. The specialty of such sari is that while this is weaved, meenakari embroidery work is added to the border giving the sari a majestic look. Kalyani silk, just like real silk, but having a very low price $11 are semi-silk cotton saris and available in bright contrasting colors.
The new ‘Party Attraction’, in pleasing blue and pink combination, with sequence, kundan and mirror works is so beautiful that the women forget to take their eyes from it. The price is $62.5. ‘Shadow Shaded’ saris in pink, off-white combination, with zari patch and kundan work has a rich look, the price also a bit rich $65.
Designer saris are some of the costlier varieties. A designer sari in blue color with embroidery, georgette border attracts every body. The starting price is $141. Equally attractive is a red designer sari having kundan, beads and embroidery works in the border as well as on all over the body. The sari weighs about 2.5kg and costs $102. Imagine the works like metallic, antique, cut, sequence and stone all in one sari, An exquisite black color with all such works costs $155 and a blue sari termed as ‘Reception Special’ costs $150. The saris with a variety of embroidery works ranging from $12 to $375 are always in great demand.

As the wedding season approaches the textile shops in India compete with each other in the introduction of dazzling wedding saris. These saris are expensive coming in the traditional colors like red, orange, maroon etc with matching blouses and petticoats. These contain no synthetic materials. Here are a few latest arrivals in bridal sari collections.

This bridal wear elegant brocade sari is in beautiful and rare combination and has intricately woven borders. The full body contains designs made up of small motifs. Pallu’s unique design appears like a meenakari style woven in the background with similar borders on its two sides. Price is $ 259.00

A pure georgette bridal sari, in marvelous jacquard maroon, has golden color floral designs, bold eye catching border and a pallu having a bright floral galeecha design. The sari has a rich majestic look. Sari along with matching blouse is priced at $ 215.00.

A bride looks stunning in a very beautiful and rich looking brocade sari that has a golden color pallu having broad borders on both sides with delicate motifs all along. The delicately and intricately woven pallu is enchanting and the blue and golden color combination enhances the look of the bridal sari. The sari with fancy blouse costs $191

Fine crepe brocade sari in dark green makes a bride exquisitely beautiful. The sari has pretty designs all over the body and scalloped borders with intricate designs. Richly created pallu has huge borders with delicate designs and between the borders highly dense floral sequence are arranged. The price of this sari with matching blouse and petticoat is around $278.50.

Yet another latest release is an elegant brocade sari that has thick border on each side with intricate design all along and dots on the background having scalloped type motifs. This sari, in two rare contrasting combinations with a golden touch, has a pallu divided into three sections having bold designs in them and red tassels are attached on it. Sari with blouse is available at $250.

Again here is a superb brocade sari with a brilliant combination of copper and golden colors. The sari has on its each side well- embellished bold borders. Pallu is designed in a unique style called galeecha in which golden dots and golden motifs are arranged alternately allover. Sari together with matching blouse and petticoat costs $270.50

Simplicity is visible in this elegant wedding sari with a green, pinkish maroon and cream combination, the colors being arranged in a very rare manner. Sari has its extreme border on green base with fabulous meenakari work followed by pinkish maroon borders decorated with small motifs and the remaining part of the body is in cream color without any motifs. In the pallu also the green and pinkish maroon combination is done with exquisite motifs. Red tassels on it make it more attractive. Price of sari with blouse and petticoat is $175.
These are only a very few samples from hundreds of dazzling Indian Bridal Saris.

In its long history India has produced a large variety of traditional dresses; some are in the national level while others are in the state levels. Kurta/kurti, the evergreen Indian costume, comes in the first category and also is a traditional

wear of countries like Pakistan, Bangla Desh and Afghanistan. Kurta is the name for the male wear and Kurti, the female name. Kurti is a long lose fitted shirt that reaches just above or below the knees. Kurta is normally worn over salwar, jeans or trousers. A versatile garment like this is suitable for both formal and informal occasions.

The original traditional Kurti consists of rectangular fabric pieces with some gusset inserts and is usually very simple and plain; only certain forms come in decorative patterns. The sleeves are also very simple and plain and fall straight to the wrist without narrowing and are not cuffed. But you can see certain kurtas with embroidery and decorative works. The Kurti has its side seams left open for 10-12 inches so that the wearer can move about freely.

Almost all kurtis have front opening, often a hemmed slit in the fabric either tied or buttoned at the top, though certain types might feature plackets instead, with or without buttons at shoulder seam. You can see the opening centered on the chest in most of the kurtis while in other cases it is little away from the center. The traditional kurits do not feature a collar whereas some designs are seen with stand up collars called “Mandarin collars”

Kurti is an ideal dress for both hot summers and chilly winters. Summer wear kurtis are made of thin silk and cotton fabrics while thicker fabrics like wool or khadi silk, a thick coarse hand spun and woven silk mixed with other fabrics, is used for making winter wears.

The modern version is available in almost all fabrics, various designs and patterns. The designs might be simple and plain or moderately to richly decorated to satisfy a wide variety fashion tastes of the people and to suit the various occasions. Embroidery is the most common decorative work done on the kurtis. Especially several light summer kurtis come in chikan embroidery around the hem and front opening. The embroidery work is usually done on light semi-transparent textures with matching threads. This Kurti is a blend of traditional looks and subtle nuances of modernity.

The ultra-modern kurtis for women are short, just touching the waist, with short sleeves or without sleeves and come in various enchanting color combinations, designs and vibrant colors. These kurtis, worn over churidars, jeans, parallels or capris, look extremely magnificent and fit for any casual or formal wear.

The women in Haryana state, India, wear a traditional costume termed as Daman-Kurti-Chunder. While daman and chunder represent lehenga and dupatta respectively the kurti is a shirt-like blouse in white color. This decent daman-kurti-chunder costume beautifies the Haryana girls with its rich outlook.

Indian Ghagra/Lehenga- choli consists of a long skirt, lehenga, having flair towards the bottom resembling a flowing robe. Starting from the waist it touches the ankle. The top of the lehenga is a short or long- length Indian blouse

called choli. Along with these is a dupatta, a long rectangular piece of cloth that is draped over the head or around the neck to cover the front upper portion. Both ghagra/lehenga and choli are tailored exquisitely in matching colors and beautiful designs made in expensive materials like tusser, silk, crepe, georgette etc. The dupatta also enhances the look of the wearer with its matching shade, fabulous designs and embellishments.

In fact one lehenga choli differs from another in the distribution of designs and patterns. The designs of the costume vary according to the concept of the designer or the manufacturer and also to the demands of the consumers.

Usually the lehenga choli is adorned with various types of embroidery works such as mirror, art, kundan embroidery, colorful beads, enchanting zardozi embroidery and zari work. Zardozi, zari is the Indian name for it, is an embroidery work using gold and silver threads usually practiced in Persia. A proper blend of tradition with modern techniques can produce a lehenga in shot- colors, a base consisting of two different colors, one intermingling with the other. Again you can view the wonderful intermingling display of zardozi and boota works. This is the latest innovation created in lehenga-choli by the modern dress-designers. As time continues its journey human tastes also take new forms. Now days women are more concerned about the simple, yet the perfect mixing and matching of colors and the attractive looks of the drapery.

Sparkling expensive accessories like gold, kundan or gem-studded ornaments highlight the beauty of the lehengas. In a majestic looking ghagra/lehenga-choli a bride looks like a beautiful queen on her wedding day. The ornate look of this pretty costume is preferred as bridal dress among the brides in most of the communities in India. The gorgeous outfit is also suitable for various religious functions, and other special ceremonies. Lehenga-choli is used as a daily wear among the Banjara, the traditional Indian tribe, the beautiful women of Rajasthan and the young girls and women in North Indian villages.

In South India little and teen girls wear a long lehenga-like skirt known as Pavada or lenga. In parts of North India girls wear this long majestic attire called ghagra/lehenga while celebrating weddings. In the East, lehenga is termed as “mekla”, their traditional wear, available in eye-catching designs. The cost of a lehenga depends on the texture used. It may be anything between $7.5 and $750 or even more. Today’s brides wear glittering bridal lehengas ranging $3000-5000 or above.