Indian Selections

…bringing India to you

Get Comfortably Stylish with Indian Kurtis

Posted by indianselection on September 17, 2012

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Indian women are some of the luckiest in the world. Why you ask? Well, considering the fact that they belong to a vast country with spectacular cultural diversities, it is evident that Indian women get a lot more choice in the dress sections than the women of any other nation. Having a wardrobe full of everything from various kinds of sarees to lehangas and from salwars to churidaars, is most certainly very satisfying.

However, there is still a lingering question that troubles every renowned designer in the industry. How to retain the charm and beauty of the Indian attires and yet make them comfortably suitable enough for daily use? Modern Indian women have come a long way from being lehanga-clad beauties who were content with just being expert home-makers.  With changing times their area and activity of work have also changed and gradually, a dire need for more manageable attire was felt. May it was this necessity that made them adapt to Western style pretty quickly. But it would be an offence to claim that Indian attires cannot be manageable yet stylish. The most prominent example in this regard would be the kurtis.

Available in a number of fabrics like cotton, semi-cotton, poly-cotton, and chiffon, kurtis have taken the Indian fashion world by storm within the last decade. Every second woman in India is now noticed sporting a beautiful kurti which adds to her personal style. Besides the bright colors of the fabric, the embroidery, the mirror-work and various types of embellishments work to enhance the beauty of the dress. The choices in style are unbound too. The varieties feature long and short sleeved kurtis, shirt-like kurtis and long-frock like ones. Each kind seems to be more beautiful than the other.

The uniqueness of kurtis can be attributed to a number of factors. Rarely has there been a garment that can pass as both a casual and a traditional wear. One look at it makes the blend of style and elegance absolutely evident. Flexibility is yet another area where kurtis seem to score high. As said earlier, it is undoubtedly a whole lot easier to wear and manage. As it goes well with salwar, leggings and jeans and is incredibly comfortable, it has fast become an absolute favorite of working-women. The fact that kurtis are also easily affordable and can be washed at home doesn’t hurt either!

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The Welcoming Beauty of Torans

Posted by indianselection on August 31, 2012

They say, “To err is human”. And err, we do! What is it but an error when we decide to decorate our entire house for a festival and leave the front door as it is? Even though, it is only recently that the property designers have started emphasizing the fact that a well-decorated front door can make the house look more welcoming and beautiful; Indian homes have been sporting decorative door hangings for centuries. Previously, these door hangings, known as ‘torans’, were used for warding off ‘evil forces of nature’. However, now they have taken up a merely ornamental purpose. It is a common practice in India to string up the home-made torans as a gesture to welcome Goddess Laksmi on the auspicious occasion of Diwali. Made with mango leaves, Marigold flowers, beads, bells, glass and cloth, these door hangings are considered to be auspicious and believed to bring in good-luck for the family.

While the torans used in religious ceremonies are fashioned from flowers and leaves, there are also other varieties of these embellishments flooding the market of home furnishings nowadays. It is interesting to note that these items have been beautifying Indian household for centuries, especially in Gujarat and Rajasthan; but they are slowly gaining considerable popularity in the international market only now.

The designs of these torans vary depending on the state or region of the subcontinent they belong to. The Rajasthani torans display a wonderful array of embroidery work, while the Gujrati ones focus more on the bead and mirror-work. Interestingly, the choice of the colors is linked to various Indian deities and mood or emotion. In its most basic form, a toran is a wonderful canvas of geometric patterns and discs of mirrored glass. The colors like red, green, orange and yellow are used for making them very vibrant so as to capture one’s attention instantly. Most pieces feature little leaf-like embellishments which are made to resemble mango leaves. However, apart from displaying the image of different deities, the torans are also available in various motifs and even shapes that look like birds, animals and flowers.

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The Art Form Called Kanjivaram

Posted by indianselection on August 22, 2012

India is a land of stunning cultural diversities and each aspect of these diverse features is clearly reflected in the daily lives of people who hail from different parts of the country. From food to décor and from languages to rituals – even though certain similarities are noticeable in these facets of regional life; it is the differences that attract us more. However, one has to admit that this diversity is most prominent in the dresses of the people in different parts of India. Women all over India wear the eternally beautiful attire called saree; but each part of the subcontinent has a special kind of saree of its own. While Bengal has Baluchari, Lucknow has Chikan; where Maharashtra boasts of Paithani, Rajasthan and Gujarat are proud of Bandhani, and so on. It has to be mentioned here that Kanjivaram of Chennai is arguably known as the ‘queen of silks’

The saree had got its name from the temple-town called Kanchipuram. It is situated a few kilometers away from the city of Chennai. The process of weaving a Kanjivaram saree is actually very interesting. It is woven from mulberry silk thread created by silkworms which feed on mulberry leaves. This form of ‘South-Indian silk’ is said to produce the most breathable, durable and comfortable saree there is.

The Kanjivaram sarees are generally embellished with ‘zari’ embroidery and patterns. The shiny threads are actually interleaved with the vibrant hued silk yarns and thus cultural motifs, flora and fauna are woven into the saree. These sarees are exceptionally noted for their bird and animal motifs and the eye-catching gold-brocaded borders and ‘anchals’ or ‘pallus’. The other kinds of motifs include intricately designed tribal drawings, traditional patterns of the Pallava temples, palaces and paintings and scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharata and Bhagwad Gita.

The unparalleled beauty and grandeur of the gold thread work, entwined to form intricate ornamentation on the glistening silk canvas, is the sheer testimony of the flawless craftsmanship of the weavers of Kanjivaram saree. This saree have been worn on special occasions and ceremonies for centuries and it continues to be coveted among Indian women.

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The Striking Beauty of Embroidered Wall Hanging

Posted by indianselection on August 6, 2012

So, you have just returned home – tired and exhausted from work! You sit on the couch, too tired to move and stare at the wall through drooping lids. It is then that you realize that the wide wall in your living room is just as blank. Aren’t empty walls boring and uninviting? Yes, it is time to give your room decor a facelift. The importance of an eye-catching wall decoration cannot be undermined. However, painting the wall red and blue or putting up some old framed photographs hardly qualifies as decoration. The wide expanse of the wall in the living room is the first thing that people will notice once they step inside your home. That is why, while choosing your wall décor you ought to be choosy, if not fussy.

Renowned interior designers opine that there is hardly anything better than Indian tapestries and wall hangings when it comes to stylizing your home with a bit of color. The sub-continent of India has always been famous for its abundance of diversity. It is this very diversity that reflects in the jazzy, vibrant and colorful accessories of Indian home décor. And the wall hangings are no exception to this rule. The semi-nomadic tribes of western India are known for their elaborately embroidered wall hangings which are usually adorned with different kinds of embellishments like mirrors, wood beads, cowrie shells and buttons. This style of embroidery is called the ‘Banjara’ style.

What started as a product of cottage industry; has now built a profitable sector and is even exported to other countries. One thing to note about Banjara embroidery wall hangings is that they use a much more symmetrical placement of textile patches than the readily available Indian sari beaded wall hangings. However, these wall hangings certainly evoke a feeling of warmth, fantasy and inspiration. Another good thing about these embroidered tapestries is that they can be hung on the wall, framed or unframed. Sometimes, these are also used as table spreads or sofa throws. So, don’t wait any longer. Get an Indian wall hanging and add glamour and vitality to your home décor.

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