Every Indian Woman's Accessories MUST HAVE

My hoard of accessories. Well, partial hoard actually.

In this part of the world, several of the most striking things about the local women are their accessories that they put on no matter what the occasion is even if they are just going about their daily activities. And because I want to somehow blend in with the local and get a taste of what it's like to be a local settler, I bought some of their MUST HAVE accessories and let me share it with them with you here so keep on reading.

KAJAL (kohl)

Yours truly applying kajal on my eyes for the first time.

I consider this as the most used and most common accessory that local women here (and even men and children at times) enjoy. Basically, a kajal is an eyeliner made up of kohl and even if its main purpose is to highlight the eyes, there are some locals who wear kajal for religious purposes. There are so many make-up brands that sell kajal here and the prices range (as far as I know) from as cheap as less than 20INR to as pricey as 300INR.

Lakme Kajal - affordable and made by a trusted brand

Maybelline Colossal Kajal - specifically made for Indian women's kajal needs.

BINDI

Another very famous and a definitely must have accessory for every Indian woman is the bindi. A bindi is worn on the forehead and again, while it is considered as a fashionable accessory for women, it is also worn for religious purposes by some well, religious people. In a local market, bindis come in different sizes, shapes, colors and of course, price. The cheapest bindi set will cost you around 20INR and a pricey one can cost an individual thousands of bucks or even millions if it is made from gold and expensive stones such as diamonds.

I hoarded some bindis. Price range is between 20 - 180 INR

BANGLES

A local fashion experience will never be complete if you will not wear a beautiful set of bangles. Aside from bangles being a type of fashion accessories for women, it can also serve as an indicator that a woman got married recently. A newly wed woman will wear a set of white and red bangles to symbolize her marriage that recently took place. In addition to that, people who are more on the traditional side believes that every bangles color signifies something such as wealth, power and prosperity. But if an individual, a foreigner like me for example, wants to wear a set of bangles just like that, I think that is just fine although I should be ready to receive the inquiring looks and weird stares from locals when I am passing by especially if I chose to wear a white and red set of bangles.

Can you count how many individual bangle makes up the entire set?

EARRINGS

People can actually consider India as the accessory capital of the world especially when it comes to earrings. There's just so many kinds of designs, colors and sizes of earrings in here. If you are willing to submit your pair of ears for a couple of hours of torture, you can buy those big and heavy looking pair of earrings that will definitely pull your lower ear lobes down. I only bought those cheap fancy earrings found on the sidewalks since I don't find the huge, heavy and chunky ones appealing and there's really no event where I can use them and most of all, I don't want to harass my ears. Hehehe!

Some of my cheap but beautiful Indian earrings.

Close up shot.

So there goes my take on the MUST HAVE accessories if ever you find yourself one day traveling towards this part of the planet. These accessories are pretty affordable to even dirt cheap, if you know where to buy and you are not afraid/shy to haggle, that you will not have to worry about not having enough budget for these trinkets.

What about you? What is the MUST HAVE accessories in your side of the world?

Hope you enjoyed this post!

Other than the Saree

The national costume is one of the things that will show the rest of the world how beautiful, colorful and vibrant the culture of a certain country is. And in this place where I am currently located, they certainly have one of the most colorful and most lively national costumes in the entire planet and even up to now, men and women still wear those costumes not only during special events but even in their daily lives.

However, in this post, I will not be tackling about the most famous national costume for women in this country, the saree, and instead, I will be showing you some of the many other traditional attires that the female population in this part of the world still enjoys wearing up to this date.

My other than saree traditional suits.

The moment I set foot in this country, one of the things that I am looking forward to experiencing is wearing the traditional clothes of the locals and I am happy to tell you that I was able to!

First up on the list is the lovely Anarkali suit. The origin of this traditional costume is from a famous historical story long time ago where a dancer named Anarkali in Lahore long time ago allegedly had an illicit affair with the prince in their kingdom and that she was put to trial for having such illegal affair with a royalty but in the end, since there was not enough evidence to prove that she's done something wrong, she was freed by the king. Anarkali wears a dress called mujara whenever she performs and once her story started spreading all over the place, people started calling the mujara dress as Anarkali in honor of the dancer who fell in love with the prince.

Yours truly in an Anarkali suit during a friend's wedding ceremony.

A typical anarkali suit has embellishments both on the top and bottom parts of the dress. It also comes with a dupatta (scarf) and an inner pants called churidar. When you buy an anarkali suit, it usually comes with a pair of long sleeves that is not yet sewn on the dress which means that it is actually optional. As you can see below, I had mine sewn just to really be on the traditional side but modern women these days prefer a sleeveless anarkali.

An up close shot of the Anarkali's bottom embellishment.

The second traditional costume is called a kurta (long and loose top) and churidar (pyjama). Usually, women wear a salwar, another type of pyjama that is tight at the bottom and loose in the middle. Kind of like Princess Jasmine's pyjama in the Disney cartoon Aladdin. However, I prefer a pair of churidar, think leggings, because I think it looks better that way. A kurta can have a full blown pair of sleeves or 3/4 sleeves or without sleeves at all. I both have the sleeveless and the 3/4sleeves kurta only the latter looks almost like a full blown one because I am on the smaller side if you know what I mean. Hahaha! Anyway, when wearing a kurta and churidar, a dupatta or a multi-purpose scarf usually comes with it. And that the dupatta is of the same color of the suit. 

Yours truly in what is supposed to be a 3/4 kurta, churidar and dupatta ensemble.

Yours truly wearing a sleeveless kurta.

The last type of traditional costume that I will show you is called a Lehenga. A lehenga aka ghagra is a long skirt that is pleated and has embellishments on the bottom part. It is usually worn with a choli, a tight top that bares the wearer's navel. Think of the top that women wear inside their saree, that's a choli. Anyway, the kind of lehenga that I bought is not really intended for special occassions such as weddings hence it is not as dramatic as the ones that you can google up. Aside from that, I opted to wear a usual blouse with just the right amount of tradition in it and that's about it. If given the chance, someday, I also want to wear the full lehenga choli suit. 

I'm in love with my hand painted Lehenga!

Now, as for the saree, the most well known traditional costume in this place, I will make an entire post just for it in the near future so don't worry about it!

Hope you enjoyed this post!