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Poor research. Buddhist monks and nuns carry needles to wear stitched monastic robes, in particular women. This means stitched clothes were quite common during the time of Lord Buddha. Tunics are mentioned by Lord Buddha.
Thank you @Vbirchwood for the opportunity you gave me to shed some light on the fashion history of India. And to all the viewers who appreciated this group effort. Thank you .
Mayankraj, Thank you for educating all of us on your culture's beautiful history in terms of history. I love how there seems to be so little in terms of clothing. It's very simple but so beautifully embroidered or beaded. You wear works of art, not clothes. I had the chance today to browse through your online atelier and your clothes very much reflect the love of your country and love of traditional ways of embroidery while keeping things more modern. For everything that India has been through, do you think that white people (or anyone not Indian) should wear traditional Indian clothes? If so, how should we wear them without disrespect?
@@KateandBree thank you for appreciating my efforts and sparing the time to go through the video and my atelier . It is with the Appreciation and good wishes I have been able to pass on my message to everyone . On your question about white people wearing Indian attire , I will simply like to put it like this :- White people can dress in the traditional Indian attire , if they are being put in them by an India person / persons . And before donning something it’s important to be educated about the history of it. Some attires however are beyond approach , like religious attires which have deep symbolic meanings. But even then the Vedic /Sanatan dharma ( Hinduism ) stresses upon adopting the Vedic life and then the garb.
i'm an indian-american and i love western historical fashion! i've never been able to find much on indian historical fashion, it's so fascinating to hear. thanks for featuring this!!
I really appreciate not only the awesome look through India’s garment history but also the calling to attention of prevailing colonialist ideals in history and how it’s still taught today. Like how the people of India fighting back after the British had taken over, committed atrocities and violence, and started sucking the country dry of its resources was called a “mutiny”. The fact that India went from like *the* top provider of the most skillfully crafted fabrics in the world to being forced to buy all their textiles from England makes a lot more sense when you learn that England desperately wanted control of India’s booming textile industry. After taking power, England kept India from trading their textiles with any other nations, stole all their techniques, and destroyed the trade in India. (~Minor trigger warning for loss of limb here~) It was common for the thumbs of Indian silk weavers to be chopped off so they could never work a loom again, among plenty of violence and looting against the craftspeople in general.
Definitely so many tragic things happened to India due to colonisation, and it’s so important to shine a real light on how it was/how it is today and not be afraid to have these conversations, as it’s vital that all know the truth of how colonisation impacted/is still impacting India.
Not me crying because of the talent and craft, and the textiles that we've lost because of colonialism. I had somewhat of an obsession with North Indian cinema in my mid-teens and as well as share so much about India's history, this video made me realise why so many of Indian period films focus on the times of the Mughal rule (simply because, like every nation, people want to revisit the times of their country's greatness). Thank you again for this video and for sharing so much knowledge and insight.
Sorry, the country was not great at the time of the Mongols. From 34% when they came, they reduced the Country’s economy to 16%when the British took over. The native population were reduced to poverty, and the Islamists from Iran, Türkiye, Arabia were the well off class, confiscating the lands and wealth of the Natives.
The Mughals only ruled the North there were empires like the Chalukyas in the Deccan that declined later.The Deccan was quite rich region in terms of gold and metals.
Thank you for covering history of non-European fashion. I would really love to learn more about what people wore around the globe. Such lovely variety!
I Legit SCREAMED when i saw this notification! You have no idea how GLAD and EXCited i Am! It's about time people started branching out of the evolution of Western fashion *coff coff* oversaturating the search results *coff* (not that its not iteresting or meaningful but anglocentricism IS A Thing) and im so so glad you two made this collavb!!!
Awww thank you! 😊 As a Tatar, it’s super important to me that available info for non-Anglocentric cultures is represented, so I’m going to continue to facilitate these important conversations and presentations.
I think you could have worded that differently so it didn't sound so targeted/ rude. I think its hard for people to discuss non-western fashion because they may not feel qualified discussing it or may feel like they are taking the platform away from someone else who comes from a different culture so they stick to the subject they know.
i will watch the whole thing later but can i say HELL YEAH to fashion history of more cultures! i’m southeast asian myself and there is soooo much history in the other parts of the world to look back on that is criminally underrated. Part of it is of course the language barrier for research and sheer timespan, so having some experts on to share their thoughts is wonderful.
Personally, I would love to hear from some experts on Chinese, Japanese and Korean fashion history (including the clothing of ethnic minorities from those regions - i am quite sure a lot was lost in the process of culturally homogenising China, etc). In particular, I think a short interlude discussion of 1930s cheongsam (qipao) in Shanghai and Hong Kong would be an interesting case study in the cross influence of western and asian fashions. But yeah Western designers have often taken inspiration from Asian fashions, east Asia in particular (Galliano immediately comes to mind for recent years, plus the entire Orientalism visual movement) which I have… very mixed feelings about. It’s something that can’t really be ignored, but at the same time when exploring the subject, I would prefer to shift the focus and hear more about modern designers who are doing creative reinterpretations of their own cultural fashions. And - although there may not be enough interest in the individual countries, I think *Southeast Asia* (maybe leaving out Vietnam as there is a fair amount of overlap w Chinese fashion due to all the conquering), *Central Asia and the steppes* (the modern day ‘-stans’), and *South America* could be interesting to cover in a region-based review of sorts. I think there ought to be decent enough records in those areas to have someone doing research there? Curse recent(ish) historical events for making it much harder to do History 😤)
So glad you enjoyed the video! Definitely many more videos on Asia to come. I’m Central Asian myself, so I have a real fascination with the clothing of the area too 😊
the good thing about unstitched garments is, no matter what body shape or size you are, you can fit into them and look good, cause the cloth hugs your body in the most sophisticated yet simple way.
This does not cover the hugely vast and different styles across different regions in India. India is not only north india, or about the Mughals. This person only covered a very small aspect, mostly from his region, South indian silks, north east indian silks from Assam regions, Bengal's light woven-air muslin fabric, and the jute and breathable cottons , they were far ahead of the Mughal period. Our weavers, embroiders had immense talent, after Muslims came those styles merged with central asian styles which he talked about. Hinduism taught us that our body is a temple, and we should take care of it, adorn it.. so that is what ancient Vedic indians followed, rich with gold, silks. Indians generally still prefer original fabrics instead of synthetic ones
I'm Indo-Grenadian and am so happy you guys are sharing the history of Indian fashion. I want to know more about my ancestors' way of dress and life as it's become largely lost along the way. We were forced to give up all aspects of the Indian culture due to colonialism. I'm trying to relearn the culture. Thank you for creating the video!
I love how u bring on speakers knowlegeable in historical non western fashions because usually its very eurocentric in terms of historical fashion on youtube because not a lot of knowlege is known abt non european historical fashions or even sew them, so i really appreciate ur vids like this
This is really fascinating. There are so many assumptions those of us steeped in Western culture come to topics like clothing with, and it’s through discussions like this we learn they aren’t nearly as universal as we tend to think.
Thank you so much for covering this ❤ I’m an Indian and our history is very scattered because of all the invasions so to see such a video about the fashion of my land filled me with hope and happiness! Bless you!
Oh heck yes! I love learning about different cultures! So interesting! Edit: I just finished watching it there. Honestly so interesting seeing another point of view from a Country that was also taken over by the British and the difference between being "slowly" taking over vs how the UK aggressively took over my country (I'm probably phrasing that wrong but you get the idea) It shows that when the UK came to India how they valued the skill and the craft there. (In their own sick and probably "I want to show off that I went to India instead of appreciating the craft and the culture" type of way). In my country (Ireland) they didn't really value our culture as it was mainly based on survival and not in terms of decoration. I'm really glad that the Indian people are still able to understand what is their culture and what came from an outside force and I hope the designers of India get some recognition for their incredible work. P.S. Thank you to whoever did the captions. It makes it so much easier to research if I know how things are spelt.
This is so fascinating to learn. I’m from Jamaica (another former colony of the british) but we do have some cultural influences from India and China. And now I live in Japan. What fascinated me most was the fact that the British instilled this “morality” concept every where they went during the Victorian era and the pervasive idea that some ppl have that the less clothing you have, the less sophisticated a culture there is (i also do not believe that). Another thing i found interesting and i suppose i knew this before is just how much the british empire managed to destroy India’s economy and textile industry. Im really happy to hear that the industry is improving (and i hope that i can support it more in future…I’ve bought Indian shantung silk before and it’s such a gorgeous fabric) If you ever get to, I’d be so fascinated to see a video on West African clothing or East African clothing too
So glad you enjoyed the video! 😊 Those two aspects definitely really fascinated me as well, and also made me feel deeply sad. I also don’t agree with the sentiment that morality is based off of how one dresses (or what they aren’t wearing) and it’s heartbreaking how pervasive that belief was and still is in many places. I would absolutely love to make some video interviewing experts on West African fashions or just African fashions in general. I even started looking into a video on South African fashion, but due to colonisation, sadly a lot of the resources have been lost (not to mention South Africa hasn’t been a country for over 500 years) which led me to look into tribal fashions like Zulu fashion, but sadly there is so little in the way of research being done there too. I’m going to keep digging and trying to find experts on African fashion though, as I don’t want the information to continue to get lost due to colonisation.
I really enjoyed it! I’ve only recently found your channel and it’s been a great resource and so encouraging to see a platform given to poc makers as well. It would be amazing to see something on African clothing…also maybe how it feeds into the diaspora would be interesting. In my own culture we have mostly influences from Ghana but I’m not sure how that has affected fashion. I know the channel Not Your Momma’s History talks about the fashion and lives of enslaved people in the US, but Im unsure of anyone else. I hope you can find someone who can talk about African fashions (i know theres a lot of countries and tribes etc though) because I think it’ll be a great video! Also your videos have really encouraged me to improve my hand sewing! I also started learning historical stitches first lol but after getting a machine my handstitching got a bit shoddy. Working to improve the skill again
i’m ukrainian and having learnt about our traditional clothing, now i try to find some info on other countries, and i have to say that it’s as interesting as learning about your own roots. thanks for your amazing videos
I absolutely loved this collaboration! Indian textiles and fashion are a growing passion for me, so hearing from such a knowledgeable expert was a real treat! Thanks!
Wow, this was so fascinating! I'd love to learn more from Maayankraj Singh. I've heard a few things about how European textile makers tried to replicate and replace Indian imported fabrics and even destroy the superior cotton plants in South Asia to stop the competition. I've even heard some sellers would store their European-made fabric with Indian spices so it would smell like imported Indian fabric to unsuspecting buyers. But I don't know much about the source of these stories. I'd love to learn more about that history.
Thank you for this information, and to Mr Singh for coming on the channel to talk about it "in person". We definitely need to see more of this kind of stuff.
I do not know anything about real Indian fashion but it’s so gorgeous, especially the embroidery. I’ve seen some sari before but this was so much more enlightening, God bless his work.
I learned so much from this! Thank you for seeking out a local expert and wow is Maayankraj knowledgeable! I especially loved how they (pronouns?) explained important pieces of political/cultural history alongside the details about the fashions to ground us in the context of those fashions without pulling the focus. That takes skill to do and made this already great video really special. Thanks to y'all both!
I have read as much as I can about the history of India. It is a fascinating, beautiful, BIG place, with a rich spiritual culture. This was a fascinating talk! Thank you for adding to my understanding of the history of fashion throughout India.
This is a treasure of a video. Thank you Maayankraj for so generously sharing your extensive knowledge, and Vasi for providing a platform for me to learn about Indian fashion history from him!
thanks for this very informative interview! indias fashion history is the one culture i am most excited about and the least able to find good background on here in europe, thanks for bringing this information to me this way, i enjoyed this video very much
That was very interesting and informative. I have heard that some of the most well made linens and fabric come from India. They certainly use beautiful colors! Thank you so much for posting this and for the intrigue you put into your channel!
I enjoyed this video so much! I watched it several times to really examine the images. Such a beautiful and rich history of clothing and fashion. I hope you do more of these.
👍👍👍👍👍 What a refreshing guest. Finally someone who can and is willing to speak the truth about India's history. Every bit of India's history I have come across (in my limited way) has not matched what I see in the pictures included with the narrative. This time they matched and made sense. This revelation (for me) of India's history I will never forget and am so happy to finally know the truth.
Wow I learned so much from this video. Way more than I learned through Cathy Hay's peacock dress series. Ever since I read The Secret Garden and A Little Princess as a girl I always had a fascination with India and its various cultures. When I was married we met a guy selling Chai Tea at the local farmers market who had spent a lot of time in India. He talked a little bit about some of their culture. When my oldest was Bern before he learned to shake his head or nod he would bob his head from side to side. The gentleman who sold chai weekly coined it the Indian head bob as the indians didn't really nod or shake their heads it was a similar move Monet if bobbing their heads side to side. The phrase that it was associated with meant it is what it is. We had friend that we went to school with who went to the Kashmir region of India as a missionary. He lived here for 3 years. He said the people were so culturally rich that you had to experience it for yourself to truly appreciate it. He said that one thing you should experience is the festival of holi. People of all religions of all levels of wealth come together as a people and celebrate. When I got into belly dancing I looked a little bit at the indian culture too. I remember reading somewhere that the sari was a length of fabric, usually about 12 meters long, was worn as a garment by both men and women. When I started studying my genealogy I discovered one of my ancestors was King Alfred the great also known as the Saxon King. Through him I was able to trace my lineage to a girl born in India in 4 AD. It has been something of a dream of mine to go to India. I have seen some of the various areas that are just breath taking. Especially when you get away from the cities and get into the more remote areas. Where people still hang into their culture. I've seen vast deserts and beautiful forests. I've seen videos of cultures who live inside the preserves who live with the threat of tiger attacks who worship the tigers. Videos of plantations that have watch towers for elephants. So many unique cultures and sub cultures out there. It really is a shame that India isn't recognized by much of the western world.
I'm Indian American and I am in an art class asking me to study fashion from a different eras so I decided to do some research on the history of Indian fashion. I really appreciate you shedding light on a different culture and giving those of us who struggled with our culture identity in western states a chance to learn about our history.
this was incredible, im ashamed to say i know next to nothing about indian fashion throughout history and in the modern day, and this video introduced me to new ways to think about clothing and new information about a culture i know shamefully little about. i had never throught about a distinction between stitched and unstitched garments even though the celts (my ancestors) wore kilts and similar garments which were originally completely unstitched, i had never thought about it like that. the idea of clothing adorning the body rather than hiding it is so beautiful and i cant believe that the history of this country and its textiles, clothes, and people are known so little in the us.
Super interesting! It was great to get an overview over Indian fashion history but I sometimes struggled to keep up. It made me realize how much knowledge about Indian history and politics I am lacking.
Thank you! It seems like there's a flood of information about western European fashion history & pretty much nothing about any other culture. It boggles my mind that anyone could look at a sari & think "unsophisticated". Just the weaving & embroidery processes alone... ! Add in that there are so many ways to tie one, all effective for different ways of life & expression... !
Extremely interesting to watch this topic covered. He has tried to cover it comprehensively. Wonderful research. Mughal clothes had real jewels and some laces like gotta was made with real gold and silver thread. But I think the cotton, lawn and voile is any ones best friends in Sub continent. I think dhoti and lungi was worn by common people in the villages.
This is amazing and so so helpful! I'm researching historical costumes before the 1600 and this was so so useful in defining what terms I should be searching for, giving me the context of what was happening in India at the time. Thank you so much!
This is such an interesting conversation. Thanks for talking to people with knowledge in different clothing styles and fashion. I enjoy learning about them.
It was more than 33% before all the invasions started. It came ro below 27% after the mughal invasions. You can watch how it all came down or what happened in the video “The unmaking of India.” By odd compass on UA-cam itself 👍🏻✨
His knowledge is limited to North Indian Fashion mainly limited to North Western India. There is a more diverse way of fashion across Southern India, Eastern India and North east, which isn't accounted.
Loved the insight into the evolution of fashion over such extensive time period. Still feels like its just a tip of iceberg and still lot of info can be learnt on regional basis
Much appreciated. Just watched a review of a red carpet at a 2023 gala in India and look forward to learning more about contemporary and historical Indian fashion.
I just looked up Aari work , very pretty ! I wish we could have had more pictures along side the talking as its very hard for a visual type person like myself to know what the speaker is talking about without various forms of visual representation. However thank you for putting this up! Indian culture is very rich and beautiful !
Wonderful video - thank you! The Sari Safari shop in Portland Oregon has a fabulous inventory organized by region and also has (used to?) a book on Sari Draping by Chantal Boulanger. Great reference if you can find it!
This video was incredibly interesting! Maayankraj Singh makes the point that current Western leaders overlook the potential of Indian youth, their creativity and skill - but when Western leaders (both in government and corporations) overlook the youth of their own countries, as they most certainly do, it goes without saying that they'll do the same to the youth of all the world. As for the fashion, textiles, and beading/embroidery shown in this video, it emphasizes, once again, that there is no substitute for making things by hand, individually - by an individual artist, for an individual whom, hopefully, the artist really loves.
I've only just found this now, and it really was so much to learn. Especially fascinating to have it all connected to the wider historical picture, not just the colonial history but for example the parallel with baroque and rococo which immediately makes it easier to remember what was happening when for a "Western" viewer. I already knew a little bit about the cultural exchanges happening, I've just learned a lot more (especially the early Mughal era - I have not made the connection with them coming from a much colder climate before - and then the 20th century). India certainly has a lot to be proud of when it comes to textiles, and I hope they'll hold on to their traditions for many years to come.
It's painful to imagine how much torture India faced During much of its history India contributed over 30% of entire world's GDP so you can now imagine the kind of plunder and looting that was done to Indin cultural sphere India is truly a great civilisation that still continues even after all the mistreatments it experienced in the past it's a truly remarkable culture
33:06 that's not an actress!! That's Amrita Sher-Gill, an iconic painter of Indo Hungarian descent. She had amazing fashion sense in both Western and Indian styles
That was actually my fault. I believe I put the wrong photo as there are others in the sources I was provided that have a similar depiction of the “bobbed hair” and sleeveless saris.
This is incredible, I've been curious about historical Indian dress for ages but there's so few english ressources, and this just- it gives such great basics, and also it's absolutely infuriating, by the time you reach the late 1800s. Oof.
I appreciate this episode so much. I was always under the impression that the Mughals rule started waning with the rise of the Maratha Empire in the 1700s...until British invasion in 1800s
That was very interesting. I applaud & appreciate you bringing us 500+ yrs. of Indian dress! We got a mini history lesson too. I get excited about the guests you bring on, they always have a lot of knowledge, and many have been people from the culture, which adds a bit of richness to the discussion. Of course any knowledge ( as long as it's fact based) is happily received. Someone obviously does not have to be from the time period or culture to gain a rich and deep knowledge of something. I love to learn, and the traditional Indian dress is so rich and beautiful the colors and materials used are beautiful. I liked the thought of clothing being the " jewelry", the adornment. I hope your favorite season is bringing some joy to you. The official start to Winter is right around the corner. I wonder if you do anything special or if you celebrate any of the old traditons? I enjoy some of the very old traditions, such as the lighting of candles, a Yule log, I different candles and bundles of sticks to light in special groupings, that signify events like our darkest time of the year, going into the beginning of it getting lighter each day now, and for events and emotional needs. We also do a very safe bonfire, and a winter feast. I apologize, this went completely around a corner to a completely different topic! I will think of you with a special candle, knowing you are going through something big in your life. Thank you for always bringing us something worthwhile, interesting and enjoyable!! ☃️ Every one on this channel, I hope your Holiday Season is filled with light, love and health ❤ With hope, Audri
Thank you so much Audri! ❤️ As for traditions, I generally love to celebrate the solstice and also cook/eat a lot of hearty foods. I also love to be with friends, but that isn’t always very easy when you live in separate countries from them, but it’s possible to keep them in your thoughts nonetheless. I hope you have a lovely holiday season! 🥰
The whole video was so eye-opening and interesting, but at the end, it was also very emotional. I struggled not to choke up (and failed). Yes, throughout the video there's a bit of poking at the empires that have influenced clothing styles, for better or worse...but near the end especially you could tell he's quite upset at not just the physical invaders but at those who've culturally colonized India, or rather those that have mined the resources and then sold it back to them, to the world, in an inferior product. You may not see so much blatant copying now, but I'm kinda old & I remember wearing a madras jumpsuit as a child, seeing women wearing turbans as an accessory, & adorning their faces with Bindi...so it wasn't long ago that their culture was being copied, without care for the purpose or intention assigned to such garments, fabric, headwear or jewelry. And tho not explicitly stated (and again, not so often seen recently) it must have been frustrating to see designers in the limelight that copy Indian styles or embellishments - who aren't Indian, don't use Indian-made materials nor do they hire the highly talented people that inspire those designs in the first place. And yet through it all, you can also hear how he's so very proud of his people, as well as the clothing & textile industry; that this opportunity to share meant a lot to him. Thank you. 💜
This was very interesting. I have ALWAYS found the fashions of India to be beautiful & graceful. They look like they are worn to be not only beautiful but comfortable vs ours & others that somehow beauty is painful (uncomfortable) to wear so much of it.
It was great to see this. I think a great follow up could be the ways that Indian fabrics and styles influenced European, especially English fashion. The Regency era’s muslin dresses were made possible by Indian weavers. I do want to make a comment about contemporary Indian politics and culture and while I don’t know this particular scholar, there has been growing anti-Muslim discrimination and bias to the extent where ordinary (Hindu majority) notice or believe it (the Modi govt strictly censors journalists who are critical.) One minor clarification where the scholar says Muslims are not allowed to wear silk, that prohibition is only for men, and there are no restrictions on women.
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Poor research. Buddhist monks and nuns carry needles to wear stitched monastic robes, in particular women.
This means stitched clothes were quite common during the time of Lord Buddha.
Tunics are mentioned by Lord Buddha.
Thank you @Vbirchwood for the opportunity you gave me to shed some light on the fashion history of India. And to all the viewers who appreciated this group effort. Thank you .
Thank you so much for everything! It was a pleasure to have you on the channel!
I think India has the most beautiful clothing in the whole world! I wish they had more of it in the USA.
This was wonderfully instructive, thank you so much!
Mayankraj, Thank you for educating all of us on your culture's beautiful history in terms of history. I love how there seems to be so little in terms of clothing. It's very simple but so beautifully embroidered or beaded. You wear works of art, not clothes.
I had the chance today to browse through your online atelier and your clothes very much reflect the love of your country and love of traditional ways of embroidery while keeping things more modern. For everything that India has been through, do you think that white people (or anyone not Indian) should wear traditional Indian clothes? If so, how should we wear them without disrespect?
@@KateandBree thank you for appreciating my efforts and sparing the time to go through the video and my atelier . It is with the
Appreciation and good wishes I have been able to pass on my message to everyone .
On your question about white people wearing Indian attire , I will simply like to put it like this :-
White people can dress in the traditional Indian attire , if they are being put in them by an India person / persons . And before donning something it’s important to be educated about the history of it. Some attires however are beyond approach , like religious attires which have deep symbolic meanings. But even then the Vedic /Sanatan dharma ( Hinduism ) stresses upon adopting the Vedic life and then the garb.
i'm an indian-american and i love western historical fashion! i've never been able to find much on indian historical fashion, it's so fascinating to hear. thanks for featuring this!!
Hope you enjoyed the video! 🥰
Follow the blog Vintage Indian Fashion. They focus mostly on the 20th century, so you can see a lot of retro styles 😊
I really appreciate not only the awesome look through India’s garment history but also the calling to attention of prevailing colonialist ideals in history and how it’s still taught today. Like how the people of India fighting back after the British had taken over, committed atrocities and violence, and started sucking the country dry of its resources was called a “mutiny”. The fact that India went from like *the* top provider of the most skillfully crafted fabrics in the world to being forced to buy all their textiles from England makes a lot more sense when you learn that England desperately wanted control of India’s booming textile industry. After taking power, England kept India from trading their textiles with any other nations, stole all their techniques, and destroyed the trade in India.
(~Minor trigger warning for loss of limb here~)
It was common for the thumbs of Indian silk weavers to be chopped off so they could never work a loom again, among plenty of violence and looting against the craftspeople in general.
Definitely so many tragic things happened to India due to colonisation, and it’s so important to shine a real light on how it was/how it is today and not be afraid to have these conversations, as it’s vital that all know the truth of how colonisation impacted/is still impacting India.
No other civilization did as much damage to us as the british did.
Not me crying because of the talent and craft, and the textiles that we've lost because of colonialism. I had somewhat of an obsession with North Indian cinema in my mid-teens and as well as share so much about India's history, this video made me realise why so many of Indian period films focus on the times of the Mughal rule (simply because, like every nation, people want to revisit the times of their country's greatness). Thank you again for this video and for sharing so much knowledge and insight.
Sorry, the country was not great at the time of the Mongols. From 34% when they came, they reduced the Country’s economy to 16%when the British took over. The native population were reduced to poverty, and the Islamists from Iran, Türkiye, Arabia were the well off class, confiscating the lands and wealth of the Natives.
The Mughals only ruled the North there were empires like the Chalukyas in the Deccan that declined later.The Deccan was quite rich region in terms of gold and metals.
wow i learned so much. the dichotomy of clothing as a means to adorn the body vs a means to cover the body is such an interesting concept
Such a fascinating topic! Glad you enjoyed the video 😊
Thank you for covering history of non-European fashion. I would really love to learn more about what people wore around the globe. Such lovely variety!
Many more of these episodes of global places to come 😊
I Legit SCREAMED when i saw this notification! You have no idea how GLAD and EXCited i Am! It's about time people started branching out of the evolution of Western fashion *coff coff* oversaturating the search results *coff* (not that its not iteresting or meaningful but anglocentricism IS A Thing) and im so so glad you two made this collavb!!!
Awww thank you! 😊 As a Tatar, it’s super important to me that available info for non-Anglocentric cultures is represented, so I’m going to continue to facilitate these important conversations and presentations.
@@VBirchwood If you could find someone to talk about historical Romani dress in Central and Eastern Europe that would be amazing.
@@VBirchwood I lovelistening to you talking with others.
I think you could have worded that differently so it didn't sound so targeted/ rude. I think its hard for people to discuss non-western fashion because they may not feel qualified discussing it or may feel like they are taking the platform away from someone else who comes from a different culture so they stick to the subject they know.
I was glad before he called us "primitive" because we were "scantily clad" before colonialism
i will watch the whole thing later but can i say HELL YEAH to fashion history of more cultures! i’m southeast asian myself and there is soooo much history in the other parts of the world to look back on that is criminally underrated. Part of it is of course the language barrier for research and sheer timespan, so having some experts on to share their thoughts is wonderful.
Personally, I would love to hear from some experts on Chinese, Japanese and Korean fashion history (including the clothing of ethnic minorities from those regions - i am quite sure a lot was lost in the process of culturally homogenising China, etc). In particular, I think a short interlude discussion of 1930s cheongsam (qipao) in Shanghai and Hong Kong would be an interesting case study in the cross influence of western and asian fashions.
But yeah Western designers have often taken inspiration from Asian fashions, east Asia in particular (Galliano immediately comes to mind for recent years, plus the entire Orientalism visual movement) which I have… very mixed feelings about. It’s something that can’t really be ignored, but at the same time when exploring the subject, I would prefer to shift the focus and hear more about modern designers who are doing creative reinterpretations of their own cultural fashions.
And - although there may not be enough interest in the individual countries, I think *Southeast Asia* (maybe leaving out Vietnam as there is a fair amount of overlap w Chinese fashion due to all the conquering), *Central Asia and the steppes* (the modern day ‘-stans’), and *South America* could be interesting to cover in a region-based review of sorts. I think there ought to be decent enough records in those areas to have someone doing research there? Curse recent(ish) historical events for making it much harder to do History 😤)
So glad you enjoyed the video! Definitely many more videos on Asia to come. I’m Central Asian myself, so I have a real fascination with the clothing of the area too 😊
the good thing about unstitched garments is, no matter what body shape or size you are, you can fit into them and look good, cause the cloth hugs your body in the most sophisticated yet simple way.
This does not cover the hugely vast and different styles across different regions in India. India is not only north india, or about the Mughals. This person only covered a very small aspect, mostly from his region, South indian silks, north east indian silks from Assam regions, Bengal's light woven-air muslin fabric, and the jute and breathable cottons , they were far ahead of the Mughal period. Our weavers, embroiders had immense talent, after Muslims came those styles merged with central asian styles which he talked about. Hinduism taught us that our body is a temple, and we should take care of it, adorn it.. so that is what ancient Vedic indians followed, rich with gold, silks. Indians generally still prefer original fabrics instead of synthetic ones
👏🏿👏🏿
I'm Indo-Grenadian and am so happy you guys are sharing the history of Indian fashion. I want to know more about my ancestors' way of dress and life as it's become largely lost along the way. We were forced to give up all aspects of the Indian culture due to colonialism. I'm trying to relearn the culture. Thank you for creating the video!
I love how u bring on speakers knowlegeable in historical non western fashions because usually its very eurocentric in terms of historical fashion on youtube because not a lot of knowlege is known abt non european historical fashions or even sew them, so i really appreciate ur vids like this
Thanks so much! More to come 😊
This is really fascinating. There are so many assumptions those of us steeped in Western culture come to topics like clothing with, and it’s through discussions like this we learn they aren’t nearly as universal as we tend to think.
So true!
Thank you so much for covering this ❤
I’m an Indian and our history is very scattered because of all the invasions so to see such a video about the fashion of my land filled me with hope and happiness!
Bless you!
Oh heck yes! I love learning about different cultures! So interesting!
Edit: I just finished watching it there. Honestly so interesting seeing another point of view from a Country that was also taken over by the British and the difference between being "slowly" taking over vs how the UK aggressively took over my country (I'm probably phrasing that wrong but you get the idea)
It shows that when the UK came to India how they valued the skill and the craft there. (In their own sick and probably "I want to show off that I went to India instead of appreciating the craft and the culture" type of way). In my country (Ireland) they didn't really value our culture as it was mainly based on survival and not in terms of decoration.
I'm really glad that the Indian people are still able to understand what is their culture and what came from an outside force and I hope the designers of India get some recognition for their incredible work.
P.S. Thank you to whoever did the captions. It makes it so much easier to research if I know how things are spelt.
Learning about other cultures is the best! 😊
Wow! The amount of fabric that could go into a single skirt, the fineness of the fabric to make that width possible. Serious flex!
I could listen to him talk on Indian fashion for hours! He'd make a fabulous lecturer, if he isn't one already
I love watching Indian movies, and am always amazed at the fashions. I wish we had that over here. It's so beautiful!
Such a lovely conversation! I learned so much ♥️
Indian weavers throughout history to this day are so incredibly skilled!
This is so fascinating to learn. I’m from Jamaica (another former colony of the british) but we do have some cultural influences from India and China. And now I live in Japan. What fascinated me most was the fact that the British instilled this “morality” concept every where they went during the Victorian era and the pervasive idea that some ppl have that the less clothing you have, the less sophisticated a culture there is (i also do not believe that). Another thing i found interesting and i suppose i knew this before is just how much the british empire managed to destroy India’s economy and textile industry. Im really happy to hear that the industry is improving (and i hope that i can support it more in future…I’ve bought Indian shantung silk before and it’s such a gorgeous fabric)
If you ever get to, I’d be so fascinated to see a video on West African clothing or East African clothing too
So glad you enjoyed the video! 😊
Those two aspects definitely really fascinated me as well, and also made me feel deeply sad. I also don’t agree with the sentiment that morality is based off of how one dresses (or what they aren’t wearing) and it’s heartbreaking how pervasive that belief was and still is in many places.
I would absolutely love to make some video interviewing experts on West African fashions or just African fashions in general. I even started looking into a video on South African fashion, but due to colonisation, sadly a lot of the resources have been lost (not to mention South Africa hasn’t been a country for over 500 years) which led me to look into tribal fashions like Zulu fashion, but sadly there is so little in the way of research being done there too. I’m going to keep digging and trying to find experts on African fashion though, as I don’t want the information to continue to get lost due to colonisation.
I really enjoyed it! I’ve only recently found your channel and it’s been a great resource and so encouraging to see a platform given to poc makers as well.
It would be amazing to see something on African clothing…also maybe how it feeds into the diaspora would be interesting. In my own culture we have mostly influences from Ghana but I’m not sure how that has affected fashion. I know the channel Not Your Momma’s History talks about the fashion and lives of enslaved people in the US, but Im unsure of anyone else.
I hope you can find someone who can talk about African fashions (i know theres a lot of countries and tribes etc though) because I think it’ll be a great video!
Also your videos have really encouraged me to improve my hand sewing! I also started learning historical stitches first lol but after getting a machine my handstitching got a bit shoddy. Working to improve the skill again
i’m ukrainian and having learnt about our traditional clothing, now i try to find some info on other countries, and i have to say that it’s as interesting as learning about your own roots. thanks for your amazing videos
My father is about half Ukrainian! 😊 and I am a Kazan Tatar on my other side ❤️ glad you enjoy the videos!
I’ve been dying to hear more from Mayaankraj. Thanks V!
Hope you enjoyed the video! 😊
I absolutely loved this collaboration! Indian textiles and fashion are a growing passion for me, so hearing from such a knowledgeable expert was a real treat! Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed the collab Carolyn! 😊
Wow, this was so fascinating! I'd love to learn more from Maayankraj Singh. I've heard a few things about how European textile makers tried to replicate and replace Indian imported fabrics and even destroy the superior cotton plants in South Asia to stop the competition. I've even heard some sellers would store their European-made fabric with Indian spices so it would smell like imported Indian fabric to unsuspecting buyers. But I don't know much about the source of these stories. I'd love to learn more about that history.
I really love the idea of clothing not hiding the body.I love their products
Thank you for this information, and to Mr Singh for coming on the channel to talk about it "in person". We definitely need to see more of this kind of stuff.
I do not know anything about real Indian fashion but it’s so gorgeous, especially the embroidery. I’ve seen some sari before but this was so much more enlightening, God bless his work.
It’s absolutely gorgeous and Maayankraj’s work is amazing!!
timestamps:
pre 1400s - 1:32
1400s - 8:29
1500s & 1600s - 11:01
1700s - 16:19
1800s - 22:32
1900s - 30:37
I learned so much from this! Thank you for seeking out a local expert and wow is Maayankraj knowledgeable! I especially loved how they (pronouns?) explained important pieces of political/cultural history alongside the details about the fashions to ground us in the context of those fashions without pulling the focus. That takes skill to do and made this already great video really special. Thanks to y'all both!
So glad you enjoyed the video! 😊
I'm hoping to get an essay I wrote about how the British used clothing as a colonial tool published in a journal soon so this is right up my alley!
Sounds very interesting
I have read as much as I can about the history of India. It is a fascinating, beautiful, BIG place, with a rich spiritual culture. This was a fascinating talk! Thank you for adding to my understanding of the history of fashion throughout India.
Yes! So exited for this! Let’s learn about Indian fashion history. 😊
I hope you enjoyed it!! 🥰
This is a treasure of a video. Thank you Maayankraj for so generously sharing your extensive knowledge, and Vasi for providing a platform for me to learn about Indian fashion history from him!
And thank you for watching! 😁
thanks for this very informative interview! indias fashion history is the one culture i am most excited about and the least able to find good background on here in europe, thanks for bringing this information to me this way, i enjoyed this video very much
Glad you enjoyed the video!! 😊
Thank you, Mr. Singh! I loved learning so much about your country's beautiful fashions.
That was very interesting and informative. I have heard that some of the most well made linens and fabric come from India. They certainly use beautiful colors!
Thank you so much for posting this and for the intrigue you put into your channel!
I enjoyed this video so much! I watched it several times to really examine the images. Such a beautiful and rich history of clothing and fashion. I hope you do more of these.
Definitely more to come! 😊
👍👍👍👍👍 What a refreshing guest. Finally someone who can and is willing to speak the truth about India's history. Every bit of India's history I have come across (in my limited way) has not matched what I see in the pictures included with the narrative. This time they matched and made sense. This revelation (for me) of India's history I will never forget and am so happy to finally know the truth.
Wow I learned so much from this video. Way more than I learned through Cathy Hay's peacock dress series. Ever since I read The Secret Garden and A Little Princess as a girl I always had a fascination with India and its various cultures. When I was married we met a guy selling Chai Tea at the local farmers market who had spent a lot of time in India. He talked a little bit about some of their culture. When my oldest was Bern before he learned to shake his head or nod he would bob his head from side to side. The gentleman who sold chai weekly coined it the Indian head bob as the indians didn't really nod or shake their heads it was a similar move Monet if bobbing their heads side to side. The phrase that it was associated with meant it is what it is. We had friend that we went to school with who went to the Kashmir region of India as a missionary. He lived here for 3 years. He said the people were so culturally rich that you had to experience it for yourself to truly appreciate it. He said that one thing you should experience is the festival of holi. People of all religions of all levels of wealth come together as a people and celebrate. When I got into belly dancing I looked a little bit at the indian culture too. I remember reading somewhere that the sari was a length of fabric, usually about 12 meters long, was worn as a garment by both men and women. When I started studying my genealogy I discovered one of my ancestors was King Alfred the great also known as the Saxon King. Through him I was able to trace my lineage to a girl born in India in 4 AD. It has been something of a dream of mine to go to India. I have seen some of the various areas that are just breath taking. Especially when you get away from the cities and get into the more remote areas. Where people still hang into their culture. I've seen vast deserts and beautiful forests. I've seen videos of cultures who live inside the preserves who live with the threat of tiger attacks who worship the tigers. Videos of plantations that have watch towers for elephants. So many unique cultures and sub cultures out there. It really is a shame that India isn't recognized by much of the western world.
I'm Indian American and I am in an art class asking me to study fashion from a different eras so I decided to do some research on the history of Indian fashion. I really appreciate you shedding light on a different culture and giving those of us who struggled with our culture identity in western states a chance to learn about our history.
Yay!! Thank you so much for this! So much is focused on European fashion. ❤❤❤
Very true! One of my goals is to change that 🥰 hope you enjoyed the video!
@@VBirchwood Yay!! I look forward to seeing more and sharing them as well!
this was incredible, im ashamed to say i know next to nothing about indian fashion throughout history and in the modern day, and this video introduced me to new ways to think about clothing and new information about a culture i know shamefully little about. i had never throught about a distinction between stitched and unstitched garments even though the celts (my ancestors) wore kilts and similar garments which were originally completely unstitched, i had never thought about it like that. the idea of clothing adorning the body rather than hiding it is so beautiful and i cant believe that the history of this country and its textiles, clothes, and people are known so little in the us.
Super interesting! It was great to get an overview over Indian fashion history but I sometimes struggled to keep up. It made me realize how much knowledge about Indian history and politics I am lacking.
So informative and fascinating! Thank you both!!
Glad you enjoyed it!😊
Thank you. This was wonderful. I learned a lot and had fun as well.
Thank you so much for this!
Thank you! It seems like there's a flood of information about western European fashion history & pretty much nothing about any other culture.
It boggles my mind that anyone could look at a sari & think "unsophisticated". Just the weaving & embroidery processes alone... ! Add in that there are so many ways to tie one, all effective for different ways of life & expression... !
Extremely interesting to watch this topic covered. He has tried to cover it comprehensively. Wonderful research. Mughal clothes had real jewels and some laces like gotta was made with real gold and silver thread. But I think the cotton, lawn and voile is any ones best friends in Sub continent.
I think dhoti and lungi was worn by common people in the villages.
This is amazing and so so helpful! I'm researching historical costumes before the 1600 and this was so so useful in defining what terms I should be searching for, giving me the context of what was happening in India at the time. Thank you so much!
thank you and your guest for this!
Thanks for watching! 😊
This is such an interesting conversation. Thanks for talking to people with knowledge in different clothing styles and fashion. I enjoy learning about them.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I knew India was rich historically speaking, but 30% of the world's GDP at 1 point?!
Impressed me so much too! Also shows how much colonisation absolutely destroyed their economy (and so much more).
@@VBirchwoodyes 😢🙏🏼
It was more than 33% before all the invasions started. It came ro below 27% after the mughal invasions.
You can watch how it all came down or what happened in the video “The unmaking of India.” By odd compass on UA-cam itself 👍🏻✨
You can search it
Everything changed when the fire nation attacked
His knowledge is limited to North Indian Fashion mainly limited to North Western India. There is a more diverse way of fashion across Southern India, Eastern India and North east, which isn't accounted.
Thank you for such a great video. It is lovely to hear about fashion history in other countries and how it relates to the rest of the world.
This video has the least amount of views but it was the one that immediately excited me the most.
So glad to hear it!
I am a devoted fan of Maayankraj Singh ji's work.🌼
That is very kind of you .
Loved the insight into the evolution of fashion over such extensive time period. Still feels like its just a tip of iceberg and still lot of info can be learnt on regional basis
Much appreciated. Just watched a review of a red carpet at a 2023 gala in India and look forward to learning more about contemporary and historical Indian fashion.
That was excellent! Thank you!
Amazing talk! Thank you so much for the video. Very informative and enlightening on Indian culture/history ❤
Glad you enjoyed it!
Loved the explanation of the hand-long crop tops! We indians still use handsbreath as a casual method of measuring cloth ❤
fascinating. Thank you both.
I just looked up Aari work , very pretty ! I wish we could have had more pictures along side the talking as its very hard for a visual type person like myself to know what the speaker is talking about without various forms of visual representation. However thank you for putting this up! Indian culture is very rich and beautiful !
Wonderful video - thank you! The Sari Safari shop in Portland Oregon has a fabulous inventory organized by region and also has (used to?) a book on Sari Draping by Chantal Boulanger. Great reference if you can find it!
Love this show! I follow him and he is very. talented, passionate and informative. Love this!
Thank you. It’s always fun to learn something about other cultures
Glad you enjoyed it!
I enjoyed this so much.
I truly appreciate this video. My new goal is to always think of clothing as adornements for my body. 💜
This was so interesting and informative!!
This video was incredibly interesting! Maayankraj Singh makes the point that current Western leaders overlook the potential of Indian youth, their creativity and skill - but when Western leaders (both in government and corporations) overlook the youth of their own countries, as they most certainly do, it goes without saying that they'll do the same to the youth of all the world.
As for the fashion, textiles, and beading/embroidery shown in this video, it emphasizes, once again, that there is no substitute for making things by hand, individually - by an individual artist, for an individual whom, hopefully, the artist really loves.
So this is what you've been up to. How marvelous! Thank you for doing this collaboration.
I've only just found this now, and it really was so much to learn. Especially fascinating to have it all connected to the wider historical picture, not just the colonial history but for example the parallel with baroque and rococo which immediately makes it easier to remember what was happening when for a "Western" viewer. I already knew a little bit about the cultural exchanges happening, I've just learned a lot more (especially the early Mughal era - I have not made the connection with them coming from a much colder climate before - and then the 20th century).
India certainly has a lot to be proud of when it comes to textiles, and I hope they'll hold on to their traditions for many years to come.
I love the way the world is looking andfor knowing the Indian culture and the knowledge .
Excellent video, thank you
This is really interesting and thank you so much for sharing this discussion with us
Thanks so much for watching! 😊
need more for fashion and art, textiles! this was amazing
It's painful to imagine how much torture India faced
During much of its history India contributed over 30% of entire world's GDP so you can now imagine the kind of plunder and looting that was done to Indin cultural sphere
India is truly a great civilisation that still continues even after all the mistreatments it experienced in the past it's a truly remarkable culture
I’ve always been a fan of the elegance but confort of indian fashion.
Very fascinating!
Really interesting, thank you to you both.
Thank you too for watching!
The UK really owes so much of our wealth to India. They colonised and stole from many countries (inc my own Nigeria) but India was the richest.
33:06 that's not an actress!! That's Amrita Sher-Gill, an iconic painter of Indo Hungarian descent. She had amazing fashion sense in both Western and Indian styles
That was actually my fault. I believe I put the wrong photo as there are others in the sources I was provided that have a similar depiction of the “bobbed hair” and sleeveless saris.
Thank you! It was very interesting!
This is incredible, I've been curious about historical Indian dress for ages but there's so few english ressources, and this just- it gives such great basics, and also it's absolutely infuriating, by the time you reach the late 1800s. Oof.
I appreciate this episode so much. I was always under the impression that the Mughals rule started waning with the rise of the Maratha Empire in the 1700s...until British invasion in 1800s
This was so fascinating!! Loved this collab
Glad you enjoyed it! 😊
Would you consider covering 500 years of turkish fashion next please? :-)
That was very interesting. I applaud & appreciate you bringing us 500+ yrs. of Indian dress! We got a mini history lesson too. I get excited about the guests you bring on, they always have a lot of knowledge, and many have been people from the culture, which adds a bit of richness to the discussion. Of course any knowledge ( as long as it's fact based) is happily received. Someone obviously does not have to be from the time period or culture to gain a rich and deep knowledge of something. I love to learn, and the traditional Indian dress is so rich and beautiful the colors and materials used are beautiful. I liked the thought of clothing being the " jewelry", the adornment.
I hope your favorite season is bringing some joy to you. The official start to Winter is right around the corner. I wonder if you do anything special or if you celebrate any of the old traditons? I enjoy some of the very old traditions, such as the lighting of candles, a Yule log, I different candles and bundles of sticks to light in special groupings, that signify events like our darkest time of the year, going into the beginning of it getting lighter each day now, and for events and emotional needs. We also do a very safe bonfire, and a winter feast. I apologize, this went completely around a corner to a completely different topic! I will think of you with a special candle, knowing you are going through something big in your life.
Thank you for always bringing us something worthwhile, interesting and enjoyable!!
☃️ Every one on this channel, I hope your Holiday Season is filled with light, love and health ❤
With hope,
Audri
Thank you so much Audri! ❤️
As for traditions, I generally love to celebrate the solstice and also cook/eat a lot of hearty foods. I also love to be with friends, but that isn’t always very easy when you live in separate countries from them, but it’s possible to keep them in your thoughts nonetheless. I hope you have a lovely holiday season! 🥰
The whole video was so eye-opening and interesting, but at the end, it was also very emotional. I struggled not to choke up (and failed).
Yes, throughout the video there's a bit of poking at the empires that have influenced clothing styles, for better or worse...but near the end especially you could tell he's quite upset at not just the physical invaders but at those who've culturally colonized India, or rather those that have mined the resources and then sold it back to them, to the world, in an inferior product.
You may not see so much blatant copying now, but I'm kinda old & I remember wearing a madras jumpsuit as a child, seeing women wearing turbans as an accessory, & adorning their faces with Bindi...so it wasn't long ago that their culture was being copied, without care for the purpose or intention assigned to such garments, fabric, headwear or jewelry.
And tho not explicitly stated (and again, not so often seen recently) it must have been frustrating to see designers in the limelight that copy Indian styles or embellishments - who aren't Indian, don't use Indian-made materials nor do they hire the highly talented people that inspire those designs in the first place.
And yet through it all, you can also hear how he's so very proud of his people, as well as the clothing & textile industry; that this opportunity to share meant a lot to him.
Thank you. 💜
This was very interesting. I have ALWAYS found the fashions of India to be beautiful & graceful. They look like they are worn to be not only beautiful but comfortable vs ours & others that somehow beauty is painful (uncomfortable) to wear so much of it.
Loved this. Never knew this. Knew some but not in historical context.
Thank you for this informative video! I love Indian garments and would like to wear them myself.
It was great to see this. I think a great follow up could be the ways that Indian fabrics and styles influenced European, especially English fashion. The Regency era’s muslin dresses were made possible by Indian weavers.
I do want to make a comment about contemporary Indian politics and culture and while I don’t know this particular scholar, there has been growing anti-Muslim discrimination and bias to the extent where ordinary (Hindu majority) notice or believe it (the Modi govt strictly censors journalists who are critical.) One minor clarification where the scholar says Muslims are not allowed to wear silk, that prohibition is only for men, and there are no restrictions on women.
Please do one on Chinese historical fashion, it’s so beautiful
I was expecting more about handloom and its origins from this video, nonetheless, this was fun to watch too.
I would love if you did Japan and china separately i find it difficult to find such information in English
Very interesting. Thank you for your sharing all this information with us 💜
It was a very interesting exchange! Thank you ☺️⭐
Wish there were more pictures. It was very hard to understand him between the accent and echo sound quality. Very hard. Missed most of it.
There are fully edited subtitles that can be turned on.