Indo-Western clothing

Indo-Western clothing is the fusion of Western and South Asian fashion.

In the 1960s and 1970s, at the same time as Western fashion was appropriating elements of Indian dress, Indian fashion also absorbed elements of Western dress. This practice of mutual appropriation continued throughout the 1980s and 1990s, as multiculturalism in fashion design took hold, with Western designers incorporating traditional Indian crafts, textiles and techniques at the same time as Indian designers allowed the West to influence their work. While middle-class Indian women in migrant communities originally tended to favour Western styles for all occasions in the 1960s and 1970s, they gradually began to wear stylish Indian dress for special occasions as a status symbol equivalent to chic Western fashion. One example of a traditionally Indian garment that has been heavily influenced by Western fashion is the kurta suit, a reversal of the established tradition of Western fashion being influenced by Asian design. Geczy noted that, ironically, an Indian woman wearing traditional clothing might find herself said to be "imitating" Western fashion, and that the boundaries between East and West in fashion were becoming increasingly blurred.

By the first decade of the 21st century, Western styles were well established as part of Indian fashion, with some professional Indian women favouring Western-style dresses over saris for office wear. Fashionable Indian women might take the traditional shalwar kameez and wear the kameez (tunic) with jeans, or the pants with a Western blouse.

Among the youth, there appears to be an enthusiastic approach to combining traditional clothes with a western touch. With increasing exposure of the Indian subcontinent to the Western world, the merging of women's clothing styles is inevitable. Many Indian and Pakistani women residing in the West still prefer to wear traditional salwar kameez and sarees; however, some women, particularly those of the younger generation, choose Indo-Western clothing.

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