Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Indian Menswear


For my last topic I kept talking about kurtas. Most of you might not be familiar with it so I decided to post on what they were. A kurta is a traditional item of clothing worn in most parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It is collarless. It is usually loose fitting and falls close to the knees (sometimes below the knee, sometimes above the knee). It can be worn casually or formally (think sports shirt and dress shirt). Picture 1 shows a more formal one and picture 2 a little less formal. Steve Mcqueen wore a modified version of this in The Great Escape (the scene celebrating the 4th of July). It was shorter than the traditional kurta. If you would like to know about more types of Indian menswear please do leave a comment.

3 comments:

Matthew Spade said...

but they don't have the zip and that lovely blue colour, thank you for the link though!

mat

Martin said...

Kurtas are fascinating but what do you call those shorter versions, Indian inspired I would say but I can imagine people wearing them to the beach?

Some kind of tunic? I've always wanted one.

Jonas Fred said...

Martin - Are you talking about a shorter version of the kurta? Collarless. Buttons like a polo t-shirt in the front and not full length like a shirt. And how is the bottom? Is it rounded like a shirt or is it straight like a kurta? Oh and how long is it? Knee length or shorter?

Maybe what you are looking for is a short kurta or a kurti(specify men because kurti's are usually for women)

Jonas Fred