Women of Southern India

By cathie | February 17, 2017

Girls having lunch at a temple in Thanjavur
Women of Southern India

I just returned from a month in Southern India. In general women seem to wear more traditional clothing such as the sari and pants with over dresses/tunics in the South. Many of the sari dresses sparkle with a lot of glitter and gold on them day and / or night. Indian women have many more opportunities today and seem to be living full lives. In the large cities, such as Mumbai, there are many Indian women traveling, women tourist guides, students and working women. However not a lot of Indian women in Western clothing were evident. From time to time you see a younger person wearing denim jeans.

You can see from the photos above that reds, yellow and pinks are favorites. Indian women love their beautiful, colorful traditional style clothing. It is very feminine!

The people of India are very friendly and love having their picture taken with tourists. Most of the info I got on the trip came from guides. It was not always clear to understand everything they said if they were speaking fast. However most guides, women and men were in arranged marriages and their wives lived with the male’s family and took care of his parents. One of the guides said his parents had a lingerie store for Muslim women but his mother liked to help with their grandchild. He told me that his wife wore traditional Indian clothing in their home out of respect for his parents. However when they were out-of-town on vacation his wife wore jeans and a tee-shirt. They lived in a smaller city, Aurangabad.

Women love their cell phones and like to take selfies as they visit temples and sites.

Women from large cities have more freedom to wear modern women’s clothing. I was surprised to see one girl wearing cut off denim jeans. I spoke to her and she was on her honeymoon in Southern India from Delhi where she works in IT. She still had henna designs on her skin and was wearing a lot of bracelets which Hindu brides wear for a period after their wedding. I am hoping that I can write more about Indian weddings in the future. Indian weddings can be performed any day of the week and brides wear colorful clothing. Below is a bride in a Catholic wedding ceremony in Pondicherry.

Blog about Indian Fashion