Salwar kameez
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shalwar kameez (also spelt shalwar kameez or shalwar qameez), Urdu: شلوار قمیض is the dress worn by both women and men in northern South Asia and Central Asia. It is a unisex dress similar in manner to shirt and pants worn by both women and men in the west. Traditionally, it has been worn in Afghanistan and areas comprising Pakistan. From the last century, the ladies of India have also adopted this dress in place of sari, the traditional dress of India. Shalwar or salwar (as pronounced in India) are loose pajama-like trousers. The legs are wide at the top, and narrow at the ankle. The kamees is a long shirt or tunic. The side seams (known as the chaak), left open below the waist-line, give the wearer greater freedom of movement.
Contents |
[edit] Description
Shalwar are gathered at the waist and held up by a drawstring or an elastic band. The pants can be wide and baggy or more narrow, and even made of fabric cut on the bias.
The kamees is usually cut straight and flat; older kamees use traditional cuts, as shown in the illustration above. Modern kamees are more likely to have European-inspired set-in sleeves. The neckline, sleeves and bottom edge (daaman) are many times decorated with embroidery or laces.
The integral part of shalwar kamees is the dupatta — a long shawl wrapped around body or to cover head in more conservative families. The shalwar kamees fashion has revolved around the cuts and lengths of shalwar and of kamees and the print styles and color palette of the dupatta.
As this dress was introduced to India through the Punjabis from its western origins, it is commonly referred to as Punjabi suit by Indian Punjabis and Indians in general. In Britain, especially during the last two decades, the garment has been transformed from an everyday garment worn by immigrant South Asian women from the North-West Frontier Province, Balochistan, Sindh, Kashmir and Punjab regions to one with mainstream, and even high-fashion, appeal.[1]
In India, the garment was originally confined to the North as a convenient and modest alternative to a sari — and as one that flatters practically any body type. It has become popular across the nation. By varying the fabric, color and the level of embroidery and decoration, the salwar kameez can be formal, casual, dressy, or plain; and it can be made to suit practically all climates.
[edit] Etymology and history
|
|
The pants, or shalawar, are known as shalvaar qameez Urdu: شلوار قمیض in Urdu, salvaar or shalvaar शलवार क़मीज़ in Hindi, salvar in Punjabi: ਸਲਵਾਰ ਕ਼ਮੀਜ਼ and salvaar or shalvaar શલવાર કમીઝ in Gujarati. The word comes from the Persian: شلوار, meaning pants.
The shirt, kameez or qamiz, takes its name from the Arabic qamis. There are two main hypotheses regarding the origin of the Arabic word, namely:
- that Arabic qamis is derived from the Latin camisia (shirt), which in its turn comes from the Proto-Indo-European kem (‘cloak’).[2]
- that Mediaeval Latin camisia is a borrowing through Hellenistic Greek kamision from the Central Semitic root “qmṣ”, represented by Ugaritic qmṣ (‘garment’) and Arabic qamīṣ (‘shirt’).
Garments cut like the traditional kameez are known in many cultures; according to Dorothy Burnham, of the Royal Ontario Museum, the "seamless shirt," woven in one piece on warp-weighted looms, was superseded in early Roman times by cloth woven on vertical looms and carefully pieced so as not to waste any cloth. 10th century cotton shirts recovered from the Egyptian desert are cut much like the traditional kameez or the contemporary Egyptian jellabah or galabia.[3]
[edit] English spelling
Transliterations starting from Urdu, Persian, Pashto, Turkish languages use "sh". Both spellings are found in common English usage. Transliterations starting from Punjabi often render the sibilant sound at the start of salwar/shalwar as an "s". The shalwar spelling seems to be most common in Canada and the United Kingdom, and is the preferred spelling in the Oxford English Dictionary. Salwar seems to be more common in the US and is found at many online stores selling salwar kameez. The word kameez is often spelled with an H, as in khameez.
[edit] Gallery
 Indian actress Kareena Kapoor in a Salwar Kameez at a function |
 Woman wearing a churidar and kameez |
 A man wearing a salwar kameez. |
 Indian actress Rani Mukerji wearing a sleevless Salwar at a function |
 Woman in green cotton salwar kameez. |
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Bachu 2004
- ^ "Online Etymology Dictionary: chemise". http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=chemise.
- ^ Burnham, Dorothy. 1973. Cut My Cote, Royal Ontario Museum. p. 10.
[edit] References
- Bachu, Parminder (2004), Dangerous Designs: Asian Women Fashion the Diaspora Economies, London: Routledge. Pp. xii, 196, ISBN 0415072212, http://www.aesonline.org/3635
- Breidenbach, Joana; Pál, Nyíri; Zcaronupanov, Ines (2004), "Fashionable Books", Identities: Global Studies in Power and Culture 11 (4)
- Walton-Roberts, Margaret; Pratt, Geraldine (2005), "Mobile Modernities: One South Asian Family Negotiates Immigration, Gender and Class in Canada", Gender, Place and Culture 12 (2).
[edit] External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Shalwar kameez |
