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Onnara is a traditional form of underwear for women [1] [2] of all ages worn among Hindu women in Kerala (the southernmost state of India). Onnara is a dothi (sarong) tied in such a way that it is tight, and can't be accidentally untied.
A cotton (handloom) cloth of size 6 muzham × 3 muzham (1 muzham = 1.5 ft approximately) is used to drape around the waist, in a particular style under the outer garment (pavada, saree, or mundu).
Onnara is also called thaar in some parts of the state. The word is more often used in the southern part of Kerala; onnara is mostly a northern Kerala usage. However, there are certain differences in wearing thaar compared to onnara. The style of wearing thaar is simpler than that of onnara and there are different types of thaar.
In the olden days,[ when? ] tradition said that people should visit the temple in the morning and evening, wearing onnara, because having a dip and coming to temple with wet garments was strictly prohibited as it exhibited the body parts to others. Both men and women wore it, but women in particular wore it at home and as an inner garment while going out. [3]
Nowadays it is increasingly being used by women of all classes of society.
Onnara provides enough support and covers the vulva completely, giving enough space for absorption of secretions and at the same time giving ample space for air circulation as it is worn loose in those areas. Even during menstruation, it prevents leakage from the sides and a feeling of uneasiness due to its breadth. [3]
A tallit is a fringed garment worn as a prayer shawl by religious Jews. The tallit has special twined and knotted fringes known as tzitzit attached to its four corners. The cloth part is known as the "beged" and is usually made from wool or cotton, although silk is sometimes used for a tallit gadol.
A sari is a women's garment from the Indian subcontinent, that consists of an un-stitched stretch of woven fabric arranged over the body as a robe, with one end tied to the waist, while the other end rests over one shoulder as a stole (shawl), sometimes baring a part of the midriff. It may vary from 4.1 to 8.2 metres in length, and 60 to 120 centimetres in breadth, and is form of ethnic wear in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. There are various names and styles of sari manufacture and draping, the most common being the Nivi style. The sari is worn with a fitted bodice commonly called a choli and a petticoat called ghagra, parkar, or ul-pavadai. It remains fashionable in the Indian Subcontinent today.
A wedding dress or bridal gown is the dress worn by the bride during a wedding ceremony. The color, style and ceremonial importance of the gown can depend on the religion and culture of the wedding participants. In Western cultures and Anglo-Saxon cultural spheres, the wedding dress is most commonly white, a fashion made popular by Queen Victoria when she married in 1840. In Eastern cultures, brides often choose red to symbolize auspiciousness.
A kaftan or caftan is a variant of the robe or tunic. Originating in Asia, it has been worn by a number of cultures around the world for thousands of years. In Russian usage, kaftan instead refers to a style of men's long suit with tight sleeves. It may be made of wool, cashmere, silk, or cotton, and may be worn with a sash. Popular during the time of the Ottoman Empire, detailed and elaborately designed garments were given to ambassadors and other important guests at the Topkapı Palace. Variations of the kaftan were inherited by cultures throughout Asia and were worn by individuals in Russia, Southwest Asia and Northern Africa.
Clothing in India is dependent upon the different ethnicities, geography, climate, and cultural traditions of the people of each region of India. Historically, male and female clothing has evolved from simple garments like kaupina, langota, achkan, lungi, sari, well as rituals and dance performances. In urban areas, western clothing is common and uniformly worn by people of all social levels. India also has a great diversity in terms of weaves, fibers, colours, and material of clothing. Sometimes, color codes are followed in clothing based on the religion and ritual concerned. The clothing in India also encompasses the wide variety of Indian embroidery, prints, handwork, embellishment, styles of wearing clothes. A wide mix of Indian traditional clothing and western styles can be seen in India.
The lungi is a type of sarong that originated in the Indian Subcontinent. The multicoloured lungi is a men's skirt usually tied around the lower waist below the navel, it can be worn as casual wear and night wear, in places and climates where the heat and humidity increase sweating, and make it unpleasant or uncomfortable to wear closed and tight clothes such as trousers.
A bodice is an article of clothing traditionally for women and girls, covering the torso from the neck to the waist. The term typically refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the 18th century, or to the upper portion of a modern dress to distinguish it from the skirt and sleeves. The name bodice is etymologically an odd plural spelling of "body" and comes from an older garment called a pair of bodies.
The hanbok, also called Chosŏn-ot in North Korea and China, is an umbrella term which is used to refer to traditional ethnic Korean clothes, including the traditional clothing of the chaoxianzu, an officially recognized ethnic minority in China. The term "hanbok" literally means "Korean clothing". Due to the isolation from each other for about 50 years, the styles of hanbok in South Korea, North Korea, and China, worn by the Korean ethnics from these three countries have developed separately from each other. Since the 1990s, the South Korean-style and the North Korean-style have been looking more and more similar to each other. Similarly, since the Chinese economic reform of China, there have been more exchanges with both Koreas leading to both the development and changes in Korean-Chinese-style Chosŏn-ot in China; some of designs of the Korean-Chinese-style Chosŏn-ot have been influenced and inspired by both South-Korean and North Korean hanbok designs.
A himation was a type of clothing, a mantle or wrap worn by ancient Greek men and women from the Archaic through the Hellenistic periods. It was usually worn over a chiton and/or peplos, but was made of heavier drape and played the role of a cloak or shawl. When the himation was used alone, without a chiton, and served both as a chiton and as a cloak, it was called an achiton. The himation was markedly less voluminous than the Roman toga. It was usually a large rectangular piece of woollen cloth. Many vase paintings depict women wearing a himation as a veil covering their faces.
Mundum neriyatum is the traditional clothing of women in Kerala, a state in southwestern India. It is the oldest remnant of the ancient form of the sari which covered only the lower part of the body. In the mundum neriyatum, the most basic traditional piece is the mundu or lower garment which is the ancient form of the sari denoted in Malayalam as tuṇi, while the nēriyatu forms the upper garment the mundu. The mundum neriyatum consists of two pieces of cloth, and could be worn in either the traditional style with the nēriyatu tucked inside the blouse, or in the modern style with the nēriyatu worn over the left shoulder.
The Ezhavas are a community with origins in the region of India presently known as Kerala, where in the 2010s they constituted about 23% of the population and were reported to be the largest Hindu community. They are also known as Ilhava, Irava, Izhava and Erava in the south of the region; as Chovas, Chokons and Chogons in Central Travancore; and as Thiyyar, Tiyyas and Theeyas in the Malabar region. Some are also known as Thandan, which has caused administrative difficulties due to the presence of a distinct caste of Thandan in the same region. The Malabar Ezhava group have claimed a higher ranking in the Hindu caste system than do the others, although from the perspective of the colonial and subsequent administrations they were treated as being of similar rank.
Kamala Surayya , popularly known by her one-time pen name Madhavikutty and married name Kamala Das, was an Indian poet in English as well as an author in Malayalam from Kerala, India. Her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography, while her oeuvre in English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for the poems and explicit autobiography. She was also a widely read columnist and wrote on diverse topics including women's issues, child care, politics, etc. Her liberal treatment of female sexuality, marked her as an iconoclast in popular culture of her generation. On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at Jehangir Hospital in Pune.
Khmer traditional clothing refers to the traditional styles of dress worn by the Khmer people from ancient times to the present.
Ghagra choli is a type of ethnic clothing for women from Indian Subcontinent, notably in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, as well as in the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh. In Punjab, the lehenga is traditionally worn with a kurti. It is a combination of the gagra or lehenga and the choli (blouse), however in contemporary and modern usage lehenga choli is the more popular and widely accepted term by fashion designers, trend setters, and boutiques in South Asia, since ghagra is synonymous with the half-slip worn as an undergarment below the sari.
Religious clothing is clothing which is worn in accordance with religious practice, tradition or significance to a faith group. It includes clerical clothing such as cassocks, and religious habit, robes, and other vestments. Accessories include hats, wedding rings, crucifixes, etc.
Ruqun is a set of attire in Hanfu which consists of a short jacket typically called ru worn under a long Chinese skirt called qun. However, when use as a general term, ruqun can broadly describe a set of attire which consists of a separated upper garment and a wrap-around lower skirt, or yichang, in which yi means the "upper garment" and the chang means the "lower garment". In a broad sense, ruqun can include the shanqun and aoqun in its definition.
Sbai or phaa biang is a shawl-like garment or breast cloth worn in mainland Southeast Asia. Sbai is worn by women as a silk breast wrapper in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand, while in coastal Sumatra and Malay peninsula, the same term is used to describe a shoulder cloth. The sbai was derived from the Indian sari, the end of which is worn over one shoulder.
Hanfu is the traditional styles of clothing worn by the Han Chinese. There are several representative styles of hanfu, such as the ruqun, the aoqun, the beizi and the shenyi, and the shanku.
History of clothing in the Indian subcontinent can be traced to the Indus Valley civilization or earlier. Indians have mainly worn clothing made up of locally grown cotton. India was one of the first places where cotton was cultivated and used even as early as 2500 BCE during the Harappan era. The remnants of the ancient Indian clothing can be found in the figurines discovered from the sites near the Indus Valley civilisation, the rock-cut sculptures, the cave paintings, and human art forms found in temples and monuments. These scriptures view the figures of human wearing clothes which can be wrapped around the body. Taking the instances of the sari to that of turban and the dhoti, the traditional Indian wears were mostly tied around the body in various ways.
After the fall of the Tang dynasty, the Khitan, a branch of the Eastern Xianbei tribes, established Liao dynasty in Northern China and Northeast Asia. The Liao dynasty comprised two regions: the Northern and Southern Divisions. The Northern divisions of Liao was mainly composed of tribal Khitan people while the Southern regions was composed of Han Chinese and other sedentary groups. The rulers of the Liao dynasty adopted a clothing system which allowed the coexistence of Han Chinese and Khitan clothing.
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