Working the basics

When it comes to garb and pulling it together a certain amount of thought has to go into it for me to pull it off successfully. Not quite I imagine, in the same way as our personas actually did in their time periods. Their choices were probably motivated by a slightly different set of criteria and most certainly a very different eye to aesthetics.

My approach depends on what is available for a wardrobe that I have in my stash versus what can be easily sourced, in terms of equable contemporary fabrics.

Defining rules for myself, are physical comfort when wearing garb combined with a understanding of some of the cultural background of the culture and period that I've chosen to represent. For conviction a resonance with your era and nationality that you're interpreting is the first step.

Here is an outfit anticipated for a future event.

The dhoti is a crimson ikat, probably Balinese manufacture rather than Indian, bought at John Lewis. For the chaddar I will be using tussah, mail-order from Whaleys. Ditto for the lawn sash and turban.

Current thought is to change the colour of the sash - a white sash on a wide girth is not flattering. The turban will be white lawn, stamped in crimson. (Although a black version worked over with gilt foils is tempting. And for once those adhesives would have an another use ie starching the pallu!)

The maquillage is based on several illustrations. The red forhead is indicative of being a follower of the Mother Goddess, the tattoo dots above the eyebrows indicate rank as does the round red circles on the arches of the feet.