Pogo, a traditional adornment of the Khakassian women

In south Siberia there is a small republic called Khakassia. As in many other countries married Khakassian women traditionally has a special adornment which signals about their married status - pogo. It is really impressive and looks a bit like a bib embroidered all over with beads, corals and mother-of-pearl. Pogo are highly formalistic in shape, size and decorative style. The central pattern is formed by the large mother-of-pearl circles or buttons easily recognizable as the eyes, nose and ears. A genuine pogo was always a costly garment. It used to be given as a dowry, and years were spent saving up to buy the corals, semi-precious stones and mother-of-pearl for its decoration.

Nepali brides and grooms in traditional dress

I've been lucky to attend many Nepalese weddings. And here are some photos of "heroes" of any wedding - brides and grooms. I suppose in any country these two have to look spectacular because it is their day and the eyes of all the guests are on them.
The traditional Nepalese outfit for the groom is Daura Suruwal. It used to be the official dress during the Rana regime. You will not confuse Daura Suruwal with anything else because it is made of a special fabric, dhaka. The groom wears mathching dhaka topi (a hat) and shoes along with a patuka (a belt) wrapped around his waist. Honestly, for me it is just too much speckled. Some tuck a khukuri in the belt while some not.

What women wear at Indian weddings

The short answer would be: their best. The most beautiful, rich and fashionable outfit and jewelry. For the Indians wedding is one of the most important events in life, and so to come in something casual would be considered as show of no respect. And if you are a member of the family organizing the wedding then you have to look even greater.
To be at an Indian wedding is a real pleasure for my eyes: to watch all those beautiful women in amazingly beautiful saris or lehengas of any imaginable colour, adorned with modern or classic types of jewelry. So much effort and creativity in wish to look special, to look different from others, to outstand.

Kameez and Patiala pants for Dashain (Dussehra) celebration

On the Dashain Day everybody is supposed to wear new clothes. So, I made this one at tailor's specially for this day: not too simple and not too fancy. The trousers are Patiala style of golden colour matching the embroidery on the kameez.

Traditional costume of Belarus

Being a Belorussian I dedicate my first post on this blog to a traditional costume of my country. Though it is not worn on every day basic nowadays, in some villages it is still possible to see old women in beautiful national dresses. As to the young generation, they like to appear in traditional costumes at folk festivals.
Woman's attire consists of a chemise (kashulya) made of homespun linen; a skirt (spadnitsa or andarak); an apron, and a vest. The chemise is usually shorter than the skirt worn on top, and so does not show below the skirt hem. Before the mid-nineteenth century the chemises were decorated on the upper part of the sleeves and the collar. The use of embroidery additionally on shoulder insets and bosom appeared only in the second half of the nineteenth century. The embroidered patterns are usually made in red and black yarn, the composition of ornamenting depending on the region where the set belongs.

Ethnic jewelry of the Tibeto-Nepalese

Turquoise, coral and amber beads head ornament

Nepal is a country of mixed population. Along its northern border in high alpine valleys like Mustang, Dolpo, Langtang, Solu-Khumbu and others live many groups of Tibetan origin. By the Nepalese they are called Bhote which means Tibetan. Besides, thousands of Tibetans migrated to Nepal following Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959.
The jewelry of Tibeto-Nepalese stands out due to its colourful materials. Most popular are bead necklaces strung from blue turquoise, red coral, yellow amber beads in all sizes and shapes. Strands in combination of the stones are common. In many cases bead necklaces serve as the support for an amulet container. The most valued beads are dzi and blood-coloured corals. Tibetans like to wear a dzi bead flanked by a pair of coral beads.

Bangles - the Indian marriage ornament

Varied in material and decoration, bangles are among the primary ornaments worn by Indian women and are an important indication that the wearer is a married woman. Gold is especially favoured material for bangels but is less common than other materials. Lac bangles have been widely used in India since ancient times. They are worn singly or in sets and made in many colours and with many forms of surface decoration including tiny mirrors and gold leaf. Iron bangles are sometimes encased in gold and those of conch shell are traditionally worn by married women in West Bengal.
In Rajasthan ivory bangles are common. In some places they are worn in sets that go from wrist to armpit. An ideal set of ivory bangles includes 17 worn on upper arm and 9 worn on the lower arm. A total of 52 in both arms. Because of its high cost ivory is being replaced by white plastic nowadays.

Coin jewelry of Nepal

As late as 50 years ago almost every woman in Nepal owned some form of coin necklace, called rupiya mala, paisa mala or kampani mala, "kampani" being for the British East India Company; today coin jewelry can still be seen. Indian silver one rupee, half-rupee and quarter-rupee coins of the first half of the 20th century are strung into necklaces, made into bracelets, earrings and rings and sometimes sewn onto hats and blouses. Until 1939 these coins were close to sterling in purity (92.5%) and until 1945 the silver content was 50%.

Nepalese ethnic jewelry: nose ornaments

In Nepal, except for the Tibeto-Nepalese and Newar women, all other groups wear nose jewelry. Here it is not just a piece of body adornment but a symbol of marriage as well. Ornaments for the nose in Nepal are of three basic types: the stud, the nose ring and the septum ornament.
The nose stud called phuli (that means "little flower") is worn in the left nostril, the female side in Hindu-Buddhist understanding. Designs and sizes vary greatly according to location. It can be simply a dot of gold, a small diamond or a flat disk whose surface is nicely decorated. In west Nepal the phuli has a shape of a seven-pointed star, sometimes with a red stone in the centre surrounded by more red or red and green glass stones. In rural areas the nose studs can be quite large (up to 3 sm in diameter) and heavy and pull the nostril down.

Nepalese and Tibetan amulets

Almost every man, woman and child in Tibet, Nepal and the Himalayan area of India carries a variety of charms and amulets on the body. An amulet is typically a small item or items of magic potency attached to the body. The materials , shapes, decoration for amulets are varied, as are the contents. The protective items are wrapped into cloth or placed into a metal container, a tube or a box. Amulet box in Tibet has the name gau and in Nepal - jantar. It is generally suspended from the neck as a central pendant on a string of beads and is made of copper, silver or gold with floral or iconographic designs. One of the sides or the back is left open, so that a protective item may be inserted. Jantar and gau sizes vary widely. Small containers between 2 and 4 sm per side are used as children’s amulets, while those for statues or deities may be as large as 15 sm per side or in diameter and 3 sm deep.

Traditional jewelry of the Newars

The Newars are said to be the first settlers in the Kathmandu valley, may be around two thousands years ago or more. Newars speak their own language and have their own deities, rites, customs and festivals. And of course, they have their own traditional costume and jewelry.
Newar jewelry is easily identifiable at a glance. All the important events are marked with precisely prescribed rituals. In these situations special pieces of jewelry enhance the sacred nature of the event.
The ihi ceremony is for girls of 3-10 years old. During this ceremony they marry to the god Suvarna Kumar, a form of Vishnu and representative of the soul of the future husband. This way Newar allow their daughters to avoid the hard destiny of widows in Hinduism: if they are already married to an immortal god, they can never become widows, even if their future “earth” husband dies.
For the ceremony, the girls are dressed as brides, in red and gold brocade or silk dress with elaborate jewelry, including the following most popular.

Nepali glass beads jewelry

There is an unusual market in Kathmandu, called "Pote bazaar." In the area of ​​750 sq m, exclusively glass bead jewelry is being sold. Its name "pote" came from the name of jewelry worn by all married women of Nepal. Pote is a necklace made of at least 20 strands of coloured glass beads with a golden hollow "tube" called "tilahari" attached to it as a pendant. This necklace is symbolic of the married state of a woman. Tilahari is given to the bride by the groom on their wedding day and the wearing of it by a married woman symbolizes the wish and the prayer for a long life of the husband. When the husband dies a woman will stop wearing the tilahari and will give it to the goldsmith to be melted down as it is taboo for a widow to wear tilahari. In everyday life many women do without this golden "tube", and wear just beaded necklace. And they do not remove it even at home.

What the Sri Lankans wear

While visiting another country, it is always interesting to see how people dress there. And in the Asian countries it is double interesting. So, during my travel in Sri Lanka I walked around with my eyes wide open and my camera ready.
 In Sri Lanka many girls and women wear skirts, mostly long and wide, with shirts or blouses over them.

Choli-lehenga - an Indian everfashionable outfit

One of the popular Indian outfits is so called lehenga choli. It is ensemble of a long skirt called lehenga, a blouse called choli and a shawl called dupatta. This costume was originally worn by Indian women since Mughal era. Since those times the lehenga has undergone very little alteration. Traditionally the skirts were umbrella shaped. Nowadays there is amazingly big choice of lehenga’s styles: straight cut, fish tale, mermaid, paneled, circular, full flair and so on. Lehenga choli can be made out of a wide variety of fabric: silk, georgette, crepe, chiffon, satin, brocade.

Nepal's fashionable jewelry

One of the most fashionable jewelry pieces in Nepal at the moment is a special golden hairpins. On the head of almost every woman at a party you can see this gleaming ornament. It looks really stunning on the black hair. The required design element of this fashionable item is a crescend moon. Further different variations are possible: it can be supplemented by a star or a sun, decorated with filigree, several rows of chains, semiprecious and precious stones. The idea of this jewelry was borrowed from the Gurung and Magar: women of these ethnic Nepalese groups traditionally decorate their hair with a large pin called chandra ma which means "mother moon". The moon expresses a blessing that the mother moon may rest on the woman. The chandra ma is usually worn just above the nape of the neck. The eastern Nepalese version called tara displays a scalloped upper arch. There is also a small version of the moon design which is worn as a single pin near the forehead.

Ethnic dress of the Tibetans

Recently I've bought a book by Marion H. Duncan "Customs and superstitions of Tibetans". The author spent twelve years in the Eastern Tibet, between the years from 1921 to 1936, as a missionary, traveller and explorer. He gives interesting personal glimpses of Tibetan life including marriage, festivals, customs, religion. I have written a post about traditional Tibetan costume but still I think a few small excerpts from the book describing ethnic dress of the Tibetans would be interesting to read. So many years have passed since that time but the costume has not changed that much as you can see from the photos taken at Bouddhanath this year during Losar festival.

Traditional costume of Tibet

The national dress of Tibet is the chuba, a long-sleeved loose coat worn by both men and women. The men wear a shorter version with pants underneath.
Chubas are often made oversized to accommodate the Tibetan way of living. When tied around the waist by a belt or sash, the upper part of a chuba turns into a huge pocket for carrying things, from personal items to small livestock and even a baby. When it is hot in the daytime, Tibetans undress the right arms to disperse heat. If it is even hotter, then one may undress both arms and tie the sleeves around the waist.

Perak, a traditional headdress of the Ladakhi women

photo credit Sandro Lacarbona

Some time ago in one of the jewelry shops of Kathmandu I saw something unkown to me and looking very unusual. As it turned out it was a perak, the head ornament of women of Ladakh, India. I was curious to find out more about this amazing headdress.
The perak is a status symbol for a Ladakhi woman, her wealth and position are shown by the number and quality of the stones decorating it. Turquoise is the perak's dominant element. In fact, the word "perak" is said to be derived from the word "per", an old Ladakhi term for turquoise.
The perak is worn by young girls starting at the age of five or six, but these are small and simple. The full perak is worn by a married woman as her most valued possession, if possible, untill old age. The value of the perak's turquoise stones acts as a form of old-age security. The perak also has a practical function: it protects against cold weather.

About me and the blog

Though my blog name contains word "fashion" it is not exactly about fashion. Rather, it is about my personal style and about how people dress across the globe. Hence, additional word "local" in the blog name. Dress is a broad category that includes clothing, jewelry and accessories such as hats, shoes, bags. Hairstyles, make-up, tattooing, piercings and other body modifications can also be put into this category.
My love for studying dress started in my 20s. After getting married at the age of 19 I had to follow my husband whose job required much travelling at the time. So, the next decade I spent moving from one country to another. Mostly, those were Asian countries: Thailand, Malaysia, China, Singapore, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka. During those journeys it was inevitable to meet local people who often were dressed absolutely differently from what I used to see in my home country Belarus. Some costumes fascinated me with their stunning embellishment, others amused with their ridiculousness , thirds mesmerised with amount and unusualness of accompanying jewelry. I got curious at first. I wanted to know more. I started to study the topic. And the more I learnt the more fascinated I became. And thus my love and passion for dress study was born.

Nowadays I reside in Nepal and don't travel much, just occassionally. Means I have more time for research, writing and sharing with you.

Thank you for your visit and hope you will come again.

Have a nice day!

you may contact me at  rani_olga@yahoo.com