Indian Garb

Rule #1 when dressing appropriately for India: COVER YOURSELF.

In India, although it seems that it is perfectly fine to show your stomach at any moment, it is not fine to have your butt (in pants) showing, therefore shirts must be long. You may not show your arms and any clothing must be loose fitting. It's almost as if you should have no known figure whatsoever. So, even though I went shopping before we departed, it turned out that none of the clothes I got were actually appropriate. SO, we went shopping on one of the first days and all of us gals got some clothes that were appropriate. Every single Indian outfit comes with a scarf, which at times I used to cover my arms, but mainly I had to wear long-sleeves under these outfits (even though it is in the mid-80s there).

The pants in India are quite different than ours. They are really huge and baggy, although often tapered. They are made of silky flimsy material which is really comfortable, but hard to get used to. For the most part, I just wore my jeans, which, unfortunately offended some of the locals. :)

Here is a pic of the pants that came with this top, but they were too short and I did not wear them out in public.

Here are the ladies of the team on our first day actually dressed appropriately. Actually, my arms should not have been showing. Oh well.

Here we are at the Mini-Taj-Mahal. I liked this top a lot and the scarf it came with was very pretty.

I really loved the color of this one. It was a bit tight, but by the end of the day it stretched out a bit and I could breathe. This picture was taken at the beautiful Ellora Caves.

The girls at the orphanage surprised us all with outfits as gifts. Here I am (bad pic, sorry) demonstrating the pants. M.C. Hammer, here I come!

The complete (Easter-y) ensemble.

Marcus in his shwermani (which could have fit three of him)...he was told at church that morning by an Indian man, "This is more than your size."

This one has some sparkles which I like. I dressed it up with some khakis and think I might actually wear this to work.

I wore this on the last day. It is my fave, I think. It's quite dressy, but I guess you can't really tell that in this pic. I also loved the scarf that came with this one.

Many of you were asking to see the clothes I got, so there you go! :) Hope you enjoyed. What I love about the Indian clothes is the bright colors. We were told that in India, what you wear reflects what is on the inside of you. This is why, other than in the Muslim religion, you rarely see black in India, which would reflect that you are "sinful" on the inside. So, the brighter and more vibrant your clothes, the more happy and good you are on this inside (supposedly). I think in America we should adopt the bright colors. The scarves are also beautiful and I think it's neat how they incorporate them into every outfit. They are used for many purposes: beauty, prayer, work, and more. We were shown they many ways to wear them for the different purposes. It brings a flair of femininity to every ensemble, which I think is great.

I'll be posting much more today and this weekend, and will try to group the posts by topic like this one.