The Kurta Conundrum.

I have 30 yards of three different kinds of trim, all in a Mughal motif, and all destined to become border for the late-Mughal/British Raj era kurta churidar for a Tawaif/kathak.

The picture doesn't even remotely do justice to the fabulousness of these trims

So what's the problem with this kurta?
Well, it really comes down to this: It's not a kurta at all.

Constructing an Elegant Entari (part 5, The End!)

Author's Note:

I've been very bad. I left for a family trip over the entire week leading up to Thanksgiving weekend, and left this post here, finished, yet unpublished. Shame on me. So rather than rewrite the entire thing I'll just post it as it should have been posted, and leave some footnotes at the end.

Constructing an Elegant Entari (part 5, The End!)

It's finished, finally!

Well, finished for now that is. It needs a good run through the washer (which will happen in a week when I have access to a washing machine that won't destroy silk*) before I can stitch the appliques to it, and consequently each time it will need to be washed, it will probably have to have them removed, then replaced later.

 You're just going to have to wait, now aren't you?

A Momentary Break from Orientalism (And a Move from the Age of Steam to the Age of Diesel for that Matter)

It's been a while since I last posted here. Shame on me, as I was SUPPOSED to be sharing with you the finished entari.

But things got crazy here, and there was that election thing, which meant a day out for sewing and a few hours spent waiting in line and what not. Well, you know.

There was also a problem with the entari that previously reared its ugly head (hint: the trim) and it came back again, causing my very optimistic "I'll have it done in 24 hours" to become more of an "oh.... crap...."

But more on that in another post. Now we address our momentary break from Orientalism to bring you......

Movember and the Qajar Mustachio Project

It's November now, and before I go on to post the updates for the Entari, I figured I'd take a little time to talk about Movember - November's alter-ego designed to raise awareness of men's prostate health by growing fantastic mustaches - as mustaches were quite prevalent during not only the entire Middle East and South Asia, but it seems the entire world during the 19th century.

 Mangal Pandey, famous Indian freedom fighter,. Image via Parda Phash