Traditional Indian costumes & textiles

Clothes are natural to man and their proper decoration on his unclothed body is not ugly, on the contrary it is beautiful and pleasing, perhaps we should blame the serpent in the Garden of Eden, who was responsible for arousing Eve and making her aware of her body. Evolution of costumes and Textiles began the day Eve strategically covered herself with the first fig leaf! But her garments did not have a lasting quality and she probably changed them as often as her moods. We can see from ancient paintings and sculptures that the Indian woman was as fashion conscious as their European counter parts. History testifies that man has throughout been inventing and creating for their fulfilment. It is, therefore that his essential love of nature has been manifest directly or indirectly in all such creations. His needs, his socio-geographical environment, his economic status are all fully represented therein. Particularly, among these, his costumes show the utmost influence of the social life, the seasons and his field of work. It is the "costume which establishes his individual identity in society and which also links him up with the social hierarchy. Textiles have been produced in India since antiquity. However, very few of the old textiles still exist. One reason is that cloth has long been regarded solely as an article of consumption, rather than as an art form, and designs are lost through everyday wear and tear. The Indian village of now bears little resemblance to its predecessor of about four thousand years ago. Yet the bulk of early styles of costumes, such as embroidered, painted, dyed and printed textiles, may be described as genuine traditional art in the original sense of the term. As time went on, however, the cultural isolation of most of the villages decreased in proportion to their growing contacts with nearby towns, and consequently with the culture of the great temple complexes and the royal courts which represented the then prevailing phase of Indian hi