Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Designer Salwar Kameez (Shalwar Kameez) Indian Clothing

Shalwar kameez have been in use for at least 2,000 years. The women from the royal graves found at the site of Tillya Tepe in northwestern Afghanistan, dating from c. early 1st century CE, were wearing shalwar kameez. 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to Dorothy Burnham, of the Royal Ontario Museum, the "seamless shirt," woven in one piece on warp-weighted looms, was superseded in early Roman times by cloth woven on vertical looms and carefully pieced so as not to waste any cloth. 10th century cotton shirts recovered from the Egyptian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.

Wide legged pants with drawstring were worn in many areas ruled by Turko-Iranian horse riding steppe peoples of Central Asia. The Ottoman Empire was ruled by Turks; many Iranian dynasties, including the recent Qajar dynasty, were of Turkic origin. Their characteristic clothing became court dress and eventually popular dress. Their wide-legged pants have been called Turko-Mongol and Turco-Persian. This style is still worn in contemporary Turkey and Iran.


No comments:

Post a Comment