Bengali duds

As part of my preparations to leave, I am trying to acquaint myself with various cultural details. The style of dress in Bangladesh is very different from the US. Women wear either salwar kameez or a sari. Here is an image of salwar kameez, the pajama pants and long top with matching scarf (dupatta):
The sun looks pretty hot there, huh?! The dupatta (scarf) is good for sun shade and modesty. I have (coincidentally? ironically?) worn shalwar kameez on a couple of occasions. I own two "fancy" outfits with beading and sequins and I have a couple of plain, cotton versions. They are actually very effective in keeping you cool when it's very hot by shading your skin from the sun and creating a breeze around you. They come in a lot of various styles, fabrics, colors and cuts.

The other main form of dress for women in Bangladesh is the sari (a 6-8 yard length of fabric wrapped in a specific way). They are very beautiful but somewhat difficult for a westerner to wear and pull off. I will certainly experiment, but I need to be around women who know what they are doing to assist me in the folding and pinning procedures involved:



This website might come in handy, as well, however I plan on wearing more shalwar kameez because they are easy and comfortable.
There are also other various styles of dress for south Asian regions such as Pakistan, Kashmir and India. Here is a link to a nice explanation of the various styles for both women and men.

I am looking forward to getting rid of (most all) of my clothes and wearing some new, comfortable styles of dress. I plan on bringing some limited sewing supplies, mostly things to hand-sew and embroider. I think it might be fun (if i have time) to embroider and/or embellish some of the plain shalwar kameez to personalize them. Stay tuned for sewing updates!