B is for.... Buttons ...n... Bijoux ...

It doesn't matter if you follow the lyrics or not, you'll understand the title once you listen. :) Here's Breathless from singer composer Shankar Mahadevan -

And this is a track called Bawra by Naalayak. I suppose I should have given some space to Bollywood here, but I am not so fond of the current filmy music...sorry!  Besides which, Indian music or even films do not equal only Bollywood, as the bigwigs of Bombay film industry would lead you to believe. India has 22 official languages in which songs have been sung for centuries...

And this one is oldies goldies Barandaye Roddur by Bhoomi...an indie band from Bengal.

  

Buttons, buttons...

Buttons in plastic, wood and metal from the stash.

The oldest  button in the world  is from the Indus Valley Civilisation, the foremother of modern India. It is made out of curved shell, made to fit into a loop, dated at 5000 years old and has been located in Mohenjodaro in modern day Pakistan. Early buttons were more a decoration than a fastening though. Made from horn, bone, shell and later metal, they were meant as accents and flourishes rather than the functional use we know them for today. Buttons are pretty much useless unless there is something with which to fix them onto garments. So - at an IVC site in modern day Gujarat called Pabumath, needles have been discovered. Stands to reason, right?

Garment samples from IVC have not been found, but there is ample evidence to show that the ancient Indians were nifty dressers. Figurines show that they used locally grown cotton to weave fabric and wore it in a variety of ways. Woollen textiles were probably obtained through trade with Mesopotamia. 

Men wore a long piece of cloth wrapped around the waist covering up to the ankle, while women wore a shorter skirt length garment above the knees. Turbans were also commonly worn among affluent men.  The richie rich wore long robes covering their shoulders.

Credit

Have a peek at this figurine of a 'priest-king' dated to about 2200-1900 BCE. He is wearing a robe over his left shoulder with a fairly elaborate printed pattern, evidence that the ancient Indians dyed and printed their textiles in a range of colours/patterns. Remnants of madder dyed textile also reinforce this further.

Similarly, a figurine of the mother-goddess shows that feminine apparel consisted of tops and trousers, with accessories like waistbands and scarves/shawls.  Women also wore long skirt like garments, and short stitched tunics on the upper body to go with them, an ancient version of the kurti-lahanga or ghagra-choli worn in parts of Northern India today. 

Both men and women wore a tonne of jewellery. Women's earrings were heavy, bangles were worn both on the upper arm as well as forearm, anklets, rings, necklaces recovered show openings where gemstones might have been set. Elaborate pectorals and hair ornaments were also worn. Both men and women wore their hair long, in various styles of buns and braids. Men trimmed their beards.  Jewellery consisted of not just precious metals - gold and silver, but also of copper. Beads were in common use for ornamentation. 


The clothing and jewellery worn in ancient India were as diverse as the population, which was thought to be multi-ethnic. Although there are theories that the ancient Indians wore only unstitched garments and stitched clothing was unknown in the subcontinent till the first Muslim invasion in the 10-11th centuries. This has however, proven to be false and a combination of both stitched and unstitched apparel were more likely. In any case, the needle and the scissors would have been brought to the extreme north-west of the subcontinent with the coming of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE, nearly a thousand years before the Muslims landed up.  

In short folks, fashion was as important to the ancient peoples as it is today!


What is the oldest garment style/item where you come from? How has it changed in modern times?


And among all the blogs I visited yesterday, these two here just blew me away - Quilting Patchwork Applique, The Old Shelter. Brava! 

A-Z Challenge 2020