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vintageindianclothing 8 months
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Back after a hiatus and tumblr layouts look quite different!
I haven't been posting much over the past few years and intend to just do a few posts now and then. I am more interested in longform of late and if that fructifies will definitely post the links here!
There have been a fair few queries that I will try and get around to, please bear with me.
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vintageindianclothing 8 months
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I wrote a bit about Sukhdev's documentary, India '67. Largely what ordinary daily life looked like in the late 1960s. In detail on wordpress.
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Notes on an Indian Autumn@wordpress.
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Help in analyzing a picture titled "Historical Attire vs Folk Costume"
I was going around Pinterest when I saw these pictures below. Since I have little to no knowledge of Indian fashion and its history, I would love to hear your thoughts聽 and analysis of the pictures. They are done by聽 the artist named "Arsalan Khan". There was a caption included with the pictures, it was written by聽@vishvajit.artem (Instagram) and聽 goes as follows:
Link to the pictures and the caption: https://arsalanactual.artstation.com/projects/aYVP6J
Thanks for the submission.
Regarding the pictures, the side by side comparison is I guess to show that historical costume lives on in folk costume? I am not sure the term "folk" is entirely applicable, nevertheless you could say that the old styles live on in a modified form. I guess the artist has chosen particular images to illustrate this, without specifying the time period.
Regarding the text, one of its lines says ; "All of these clothes purposefully made, reflects the pragmatism intertwined with culture and emotions" - I think part of the culture and emotions of an age is also the fantasies we see on screen (Bollywood). So I think cinema industries trade in something other than real life and the audience knows this. Real life, folk costume may be pragmatic but even there people do draw inspiration from many things, including Bollywood.
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Follow the link for a breakdown of the retro styles of Aaina (1993)
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Since the Ponniyin Selvan book was illustrated by Maniam, there are a wealth of images to rely on for the costumes of the movie. The book itself was a historical romance and there is some liberty and a bit of imagination in the illustrations. There is a definite 50s aesthetic in the illustrations, often mirrored in the movies of the time.
There are a large number of the illustrations on the web and loads of comparison posts too. Still I felt like digging into my old posts to see how the movie鈥檚 costumes compared.
Pic 3 (of Kundavai and Vaanathi) is from a blog, the author has translated Ponniyin Selvan. The excerpts give an idea of the novel for anyone interested.
As an aside, I am disappointed that they didn鈥檛 use the ketaki flower (pic 5 of Poonguzhali) since almost all the illustrations for the character feature it.
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vintageindianclothing 2 years
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Lily always nice to see your name when I return to tumblr!
@lilyavara / lilyavara.tumblr.com
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vintageindianclothing 2 years
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Hi, I am an historian working at Shiv Nadar University, and curently exploring the topic of women and cycling in India before the 1980s. I came across the picture posted here- Udaipur, 1976. I was wondering if you would be willing to respond to my research questionnaire. It has been a herculean task finding photos of women cycling! Any help is much appreciated. Best wishes, Divya Kannan
Hi there sure yes, if you are still working on it. My email is [email protected]. Or if you prefer to message on instagram https://www.instagram.com/vintageindianclothing/
I thought there were a fair few cycle ads like for Atlas?
A lot of movies back then featured cycling women - I think Khazanchi (1941) was one of the first.
Yes its difficult to get hires pictures.
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vintageindianclothing 2 years
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hello, really love the blog! do you have any suggestions for books/academic research papers that i can look into to get to know more about clothing trends in India and South Asia pre and post independence (i know it's a very vague and broad topic but would love any readings that you can suggest!)
Hi there thak you! For a broad historical overview I have always used some of the older works like Ghurye's Indian costume, Roshen Alkazi's books and some of Moti Chandra's work. Emma Tarlo's Clothing Matters covers 20th century India and is pretty good.
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vintageindianclothing 2 years
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Would you be able to do a summary or do you have resources for periods/schools of Indian art?
Hi there I think Partha Mitter's books cover a lot of art schools in colonial India (Bengal, Bombay, Company paintings etc). I also found a youtube link.
I used to use Benoy Behl's book for Ajanta paintings, I see he has a youtube channel.
I think the Met had made available some of Stuart Cary Welch's books on Indian miniature paintings.
There is obviously a lot more but I think for the lay reader these give a fairly good overview. To be honest, I only look at the material from a costume perspective rather than art.
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vintageindianclothing 2 years
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Anonymous asked: If you do not mind, I would love to hear your thoughts, insights, and analysis of the Indian clothes & ensembles shown in a YouTube video called聽 "London - Commonwealth Fashion Show 聽(1967)" by British Path茅. As well as any other country's traditional clothes in the video, that you may have some knowledge on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZYbhTUa47c "London - Commonwealth Fashion Show 聽(1967)"
I love the Pathe reels - bar the commentary! - so thank you for bringing it to my attention.
I think there are a fair few Indian clothes in there, understandable given the country's size and diversity.
A few of the screengrabs are above. The one with a group of women that is numbered is the clearest. 聽Most of the costumes seem to be from North/Western India - basically a tunic, loose trousers or a skirt and a head covering or dupatta. If you go to the end of the video link you can see the costumes more clearly.聽聽
1 which is clearer in later parts of the video seems Pahadi/Kashmiri (or is it the Bollywood version of it:). 2 which you can see in one of the screengrabs appears Kutchi, the black and red is quite typical and its a tunic paired with a skirt. 3, the dupatta seems like bandhani but the kurta appears to be paired with a lungi of the sort worn by men in Punjab. 4 is like a ghaghra, in the close up you can see the borla which is a head ornament worn in Rajasthan and Haryana. The top looks like a rabari choli so perhaps its drawing from Rajasthani costume. 5 is a salwar kurta, I thought the dupatta might be phulkari embroidery (Punjab). 6 is a nod to old India, very reminiscent of Shakuntala.聽 7 I think is from the Northeast - it鈥檚 a short, woven sarong but the silver jewellery threw me a bit.聽
In the staircase pics, you can see saree styles. The conventional Indian style, South Indian, seedha pallu as well as the white saree with motifs which in 1967 would have been a contemporary version of the saree.聽
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Surprisingly there was this silver gown which could easily fit in with fashions today.聽
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The Pakistani ensemble (left) which features heavy gold work was 100 years old at the time. I think the heavy kurta is worn over a chudidar, the dupatta is heavily worked too and a classic red.聽 On the right is an Indian ensemble at the show. Despite the Turkish style trousers and the kaftan style kurta (not visible here but it has gold work), it shares a common language with the vintage Pakistani dress.聽
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Sri Lankan costumes in the video include the saree, western style dress and the osariya. I have a screengrab of the close up of the osariya waist frill as well as the feet jewellery.聽
The men at the end of the video are in Kandyan costume.聽
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Of the other Commonwealth countries, more than a few had Western styles which I am not covering here. The Nigerian costumes were interesting since they combined Nigerian headgear (gele) as well as costumes with 60鈥瞫 sillhouettes. It totally piqued my interest so I think I now need to read up more on it!
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vintageindianclothing 2 years
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I would love to hear your thoughts on the Gangubai Kathiawadi film!
Anonymous asked:
Hi! May I request a post about the costumes in 'a suitable boy'? It's set in post british India and the clothes in it are just gorgeous! Especially all the sarees.
Firstly I apologise for the late replies. I blog infrequently these days and am also usually not on social media so I end up having a backlog.
To answer your question, when I do movie costume analyses, it is usually of old movies through which I can show the fashions of the time. Sometimes I do a period drama, e.g. Lootera or Byomkesh Bakshy!, when I feel part of the movie's appeal is in trying to recreate the milieu of the time it is set in.
Coming to Gangubai, there is no doubt that the costumes are arresting. The use of white is interesting, a nod to old films as well as a deliberate choice given the subject matter.
With many period films, the aim is to give the audience a feeling of the era the movie is set in but this is filtered through the modern aesthetic. From what I have seen of Gangubai this seems to be the case for this movie too. Of course there will be visuals that evoke the past clearly - example the poster of Alia in a blouse and petticoat which was common at the time among sex workers. However, by and large, it fits into the director's personal sense of aesthetics, which tends to be a bit dramatic.
There is an interview with the costume designer which most folk may be familiar with.
Coming to A Suitable Boy, I have had many queries regarding the TV series. As it happens, I am not really a fan of the novel. Coming to the TV series, I absolutely love Mira Nair's aesthetic. However, she is again a director who imprints her own aesthetic on period dramas (see for example Kama Sutra, Vanity Fair). I think this is the case with A Suitable Boy too. I am not at all critical of such an approach and it has its own appeal.
However, I usually don't review such films from a costume perspective. With the trailers and clips I have seen of ASB, I wasn't immediately drawn in from a fidelity to costumes perspective though the visuals are lovely.
One of the things I felt with my albeit brief viewing of ASB is that the body language felt a bit modern. Long time wearers of a saree or salwar move differently - if that makes any sense!
An interesting long interview with this movie's costume designer is linked.
TLDR I haven't reviewed these because I wasn't immediately drawn to the costumes from a analyses perspective, albeit I think they are well researched and fairly accurate from what I have seen. And I did enjoy the visuals a great deal.
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vintageindianclothing 2 years
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I wrote a bit about Rhea Kapoor鈥檚 pearl veil, hair nets of yore and the surprisingly few innovations when it comes to head coverings.聽 All at wordpress.
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vintageindianclothing 2 years
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A review of the costumes of Gaman (1974) and Uski Roti (1969) on wordpress.
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vintageindianclothing 2 years
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Hi, what's the provenance for J P Gangooly's wife 1940 portrait.
I usually link to the source but it seems to have gone awol with this post! #embarrassed
I think it was Delhi Art Gallery but it isn't on their site anymore.
UPDATE: It is from the DAG site but no longer available.聽
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vintageindianclothing 2 years
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Hello, while researching about the topic I am writing an article on, I came across your posts. I'd like to ask your comments on Gender Neutral/ genderless/Androgynous hairstyles that existed in india since Ancient times. Also can you tell me where do you find your sources from ?
Oh that's a tough one! Usually if I look at primary source like paintings or sculptures they seem quite gender differentiated (though both men and women had coiffeurs).
Usually it is google books (where available) or sites like Internet Archive. Some of my material is from Singapore public libraries, in fact I think many libraries or even places like the Met put a lot of stuff online.
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vintageindianclothing 2 years
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Hello! Hope you're doing good! I accidentally unfollowed you while asking this, oof. I found your 2017 post on Eastern and Western clothing influencing each other fascinating! I'm not sure how to ask this, but basically I'm curious if Indian women ever wore corsets and if there were Indian corset-makers. So did you perhaps ever come across instances of Indian women wearing proper European clothing during the 19th century or so? I'm not really sure where to look. Love your blog and thank you! :)
First up thanks for the appreciation!
Yes people did wear western clothing, the best example would be the poet Toru Dutt. I would assume the dress needed a corset. More likely than not corsets would be from the UK.
I don't think it lasted for long though, almost throughout the late 19th century and early 20th century the main emphasis was on devising Indian clothes that were suitable for a public space.
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