Aaaaaaaaanyway, today has been kind of an odd day. I've been feeling a little under the weather lately, but I forced myself to get up and go to the gym because I skipped yesterday and I didn't want to start any more bad habits. However, I'm distracted and sulky and my work has been kind of suffering. Because I wanted to be comfortable, I decided to pull on another salwar-kameez. This is how I've looked all day:
This outfit has been perfect for lying around, feeling sorry for myself, inhaling gluten-free pretzels, taking a nap, working on my dissertation, and lounging on the couch to watch today's installment of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". Why did I watch this, you may ask? Well, one of my college friends (acquaintance? I dunno. Friends during undergrad, but we haven't talked since then but we're Facebook friends. Get it?) was on it today! And he did really well! He won $28,600 and will be back to play again, presumably on Monday. Woooooo!
Oh, so back to my outfit. This is another Fab India purchase from Pune, bought on my second (of three) excursions to the store. When I first went shopping there, I bought the salwar-kameez you saw last week along with another, fancier, kurta for special occasions. Because I was in India during monsoon season, I wanted to buy a more utilitarian salwar-kameez that would hide the wet mud stains I got every day on my rickshaw ride to school and back, but I didn't want to sacrifice quality, so I chose Fab India again and purchased this bad boy. I love the earth tones of this palette: the olive green salwar with the russet kurta. However, being broader of shoulders, fuller of bust, and brawnier of arms than I was when I was twenty-two going on twenty-three (and sick as a dog, since I had the traditional Delhi belly as well as undiagnosed Celiac Disease), the sleeves and chest of the kurta are a little tight on me, though nothing a good dupatta can't fix!
I didn't choose this dupatta. I make no pretense of having a sketchy idea, at best, at how colors and patterns go together, so whenever I chose a kurta in Fab India, I had a sales associate advise me on which salwar and which dupatta went the best. This time, with a rather drab, earthy color palette, my saleslady offered this choice:
Isn't that pretty? It's so subtle, because the colors are so light, but it's really a gorgeous (maybe even my favorite) dupatta and I love how it goes with the salwar-kameez. It's so unexpected, too, its vibrant pattern only visible from up close. And I especially relish how the only real color and pop of my outfit is the dupatta, which would be relegated to the place of an accessory in a Western outfit. The pattern detail you have up there is of the border and the main scarf. Here's how the dupatta looks when draped and natural:
Notice how it doesn't look that graceful on me. Oh, well - as I've said in the past, my draping skills do need work. Alas.
So that's my super-exciting Friday, folks. Just some more Indian clothes, dissertation-writing, and hanging out with the cat! I love Fridays...
Gorgeous dupatta. I've noticed that whenever my friends come back from abroad having bought scarves, the patterns and level of detail are always so much more striking than most of the pieces for sale in the states.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much! I've noticed that, too. I remember I once had a beautifully patterned and colorful handbag from Jordan that I got as a gift and a friend of mine admired it and said, "Yeah, you don't see that red in America."
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