Traditional dress of the Rabari

First time I got to know about Rabari was when browsing the internet I accidently found a photo of a rabari girl in festive costume. The dress and the adornments of that little princess simply delighted me and I decided to make research and to find out more about these people and their traditional costume.
Semi-nomads in the Thar Desert in the Indian states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, the Rabari are a tribe of about 400 000 people. They are known for impressive embroidery which is very vigorous, with many bold shapes. Designs are taken from mythology and from their desert surroundings. They use glass mirrors in various shapes: round, lozenge, rectangular, square, triangular, and beak shaped. Rabari women decorate with embroidery literally everything: their own clothes, men's clothes, children clothes, bags.

Rabari dresses differ depending on the region but usually they wear bright coloured ankle-length skirts ghagra which is eight meters wide, with richly embroidered blouses and head veils which fall loosely to the ground. The blouse is a short, waist reaching backless piece tied together by two ties at the back. On special occasions an embroidered apron petia is also worn tied at the waist on the right side.

Jewelry is worn in the Rabari community since early childhood: earrings, large necklaces, bracelets and anklets are put on little kids to protect them against the evil eye. There is also a special very beautiful head adornment for girls which they wear during an important name-giving festival.
The pieces of jewelry which are of either of silver or gold are made by the goldsmith in the village and some are decorated with coloured glass but never with stones. Most of the jewelry pieces are old as they are passed down as heirlooms.

photo from  here

Rabari men wear a pure white cotton dress. Although white might be an impractical choice keeping in mind the dusty desert, but it is the most practical when it comes to warding the desert heat. The dress consists of a long-sleeved double breasted shirt, which may be quite long or short, a loincloth called pacheri and a red turban eight meters long. The shirt and the loincloths may be decorated with embroidery in various floral and animal motifs. Old men, when their beards have turned white, usually change their red turbans to white one. The turban is versatile in use, keeping the head protected from the heat of the desert, and being used as a pillow when needed. Simple jewelry like small gold ear rings along with amulets around the neck to ward off evil eye is usually worn by Rabari men.

Photos by Nirmal Masurekar
If you have taken great interest in the Rabari traditional dress this site could be very useful.